ORGANIZATIONS: Apathy on Lodge Night
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Deciding that gimmicks are not enough, white-thatched, big-time Mason Frank S. Land, 67, of Kansas City, Mo., former Imperial Potentate of the Shrine for North America, who founded Masonry's Order of DeMolay, last week announced a new experimental drive to restore the prestige of the nation's biggest fraternal order. Next month Land will launch a new bellwether Masonic echelon: the Ancient and Honorable Guild of the Leather Apron, with faithful attendance at Masonic affairs a prime membership qualification. First among his prospective apron wearers: Missouri's U.S. Senator Stuart Symington, Kansas Tycoon Harry Darby, ex-President Harry Truman. Such VIPs, duly enlisted, hopes Booster Land, will constitute "a band of leaders, men with Stardust on them, who will bring back the rank and file to the lodges."
But in Grand Junction, Colo., the newsletter of the Mason's Local Mesa Lodge No. 55 dealt with the problem head-on in a poignant little verse:
Say, son, let's go to lodge tonight. We
haven't been for years. Let's don our little aprons white and
sit among the peers. I want to hear the gavel ring, to hear
the organ play . . . Pass up bridge or picture show, your
wrestling bout or fight Switch off that darned old radio; let's
go to lodge tonight.
† Examples: the Shriners maintain 17 hospitals for crippled children; the Knights of Columbus donate $1,000,000 a year to charities; the Loyal Order of Moose operates a campus-style home for 800 needy offspring of deceased members.
*While the night-meeting fraternal orders languish, the civic-minded lunching clubs, e.g., Kiwanis (membership: 250,000), Rotary (450,000) and Lions (564,000) are booming. Explains one Kansas City Kiwanian: "It's the new release valve. At a Kiwanis lunch, a man can find relief from business thinking for an hour or two during a hectic day."
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