THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

The system of payment of lodge-dues does not by any means belong to the
ancient usages of the fraternity. It is a modern custom, established
for
purposes of convenience, and arising out of other modifications, in the
organization of the Order. It is not an obligation on the part of a
Mason,
to the institution at large, but is in reality a special contract, in
which the only parties are a particular lodge and its members, of which
the fraternity, as a mass, are to know nothing. It is not presented by
any
general masonic law, nor any universal masonic precept. No Grand Lodge
has
ever yet attempted to control or regulate it, and it is thus tacitly
admitted to form no part of the general regulations of the Order. Even
in
that Old Charge in which a lodge is described, and the necessity of
membership in is enforced, not a word is said of the payment of arrears
to
it, or of the duty of contributing to its support. Hence the nonpayment
of arrears is a violation of a special and voluntary contract with a
lodge, and not of any general duty to the craft at large. The corollary
from all this is, evidently, that the punishment inflicted in such a
case
should be one affecting the relations of the delinquent with the
particular lodge whose bye-laws he has infringed, and not a general
one,
affecting his relations with the whole Order. After a consideration of
all these circumstances, I am constrained to think that suspension from
alodge, for non-payment of arrears, should only suspend the rights of
the
member as to his own lodge, but should not affect his right of visiting
other lodges, nor any of the other privileges inherent in him as a
Mason.
Such is not, I confess, the general opinion, or usage of the craft in
this
country, but yet I cannot but believe that it is the doctrine most
consonant with the true spirit of the institution. It is the practice
pursued by the Grand Lodge of England, from which most of our Grand
Lodges
derive, directly or indirectly, their existence. It is also the
regulation
of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. The Grand Lodge of South Carolina
expressly forbids suspension from the rights and benefits of Masonry
for
non-payment of dues, and the Grand Lodge of New York has a similar
provision in its Constitution.
Of the two modes of exclusion from a lodge for non-payment of dues,
namely, suspension and erasure, the effects are very different.
Suspension
does not abrogate the connection between the member and his lodge, and
places his rights in abeyance only. Upon the payment of the debt, he is
at once restored without other action of the lodge. But erasure from
the
roll terminates all connection between the delinquent and the lodge,
and