_Of the Petition of Candidates for Admission, and the Action thereon_.
The application of a candidate to a lodge, for initiation, is called a
"petition." This petition should always be in writing, and generally
contains a statement of the petitioner's age, occupation, and place of
residence, and a declaration of the motives which have prompted the
application, which ought to be "a favorable opinion conceived of the
institution and a desire of knowledge."[67] This petition must be
recommended by at least two members of the lodge.
The petition must be read at a stated or regular communication of the
lodge, and referred to a committee of three members for an investigation
of the qualifications and character of the candidate. The committee having
made the necessary inquiries, will report the result at the next regular
communication and not sooner.
The authority for this deliberate mode of proceeding is to be found in the
fifth of the 39 General Regulations, which is in these words:
"No man can be made or admitted a member of a particular lodge, without
previous notice one month before given to the said lodge, in order to make
due inquiry into the reputation and capacity of the candidate; unless by
dispensation aforesaid."
The last clause in this article provides for the only way in which this
probation of a month can be avoided, and that is when the Grand Master,
for reasons satisfactory to himself, being such as will constitute what is
called (sometimes improperly) a case of emergency, shall issue a
dispensation permitting the lodge to proceed forthwith to the election.
But where this dispensation has not been issued, the committee should
proceed diligently and faithfully to the discharge of their responsible
duty. They must inquire into the moral, physical, intellectual and
political qualifications of the candidate, and make their report in
accordance with the result of their investigations.
The report cannot be made at a special communication, but must always be
presented at a regular one. The necessity of such a rule is obvious. As
the Master can at any time within his discretion convene a special meeting
of his lodge, it is evident that a presiding officer, if actuated by an
improper desire to intrude an unworthy and unpopular applicant upon the
craft, might easily avail himself for that purpose of an occasion when the
lodge being called for some other purpose, the attendance of the members
was small, and causing a ballot to be taken, succeed in electing a
candidate, who would, at a regular meeting, have been blackballed by some
of those who were absent from the special communication.
This regulation is promulgated by the Grand Lodge of England, in the
following words: "No person shall be made a Mason without a regular
proposition at one lodge and a ballot at the next regular stated lodge;"
it appears to have been almost universally adopted in similar language by
the Grand Lodges of this country; and, if the exact words of the law are
wanting in any of the Constitutions, the general usage of the craft has
furnished an equivalent authority for the regulation.
If the report of the committee is unfavorable, the candidate should be
considered as rejected, without any reference to a ballot. This rule is
also founded in reason. If the committee, after a due inquiry into the
character of the applicant, find the result so disadvantageous to him as
to induce them to make an unfavorable report on his application, it is to
be presumed that on a ballot they would vote against his admission, and as
their votes alone would be sufficient to reject him, it is held
unnecessary to resort in such a case to the supererogatory ordeal of the
ballot. It would, indeed, be an anomalous proceeding, and one which would
reflect great discredit on the motives and conduct of a committee of
inquiry, were its members first to report against the reception of a
candidate, and then, immediately afterwards, to vote in favor of his
petition. The lodges will not suppose, for the honor of their committees,
that such a proceeding will take place, and accordingly the unfavorable
report of the committee is always to be considered as a rejection.
Another reason for this regulation seems to be this. The fifth General
Regulation declares that no Lodge should ever make a Mason without "due
inquiry" into his character, and as the duty of making this inquiry is
entrusted to a competent committee, when that committee has reported that
the applicant is unworthy to be made a Mason, it would certainly appear to
militate against the spirit, if not the letter, of the regulation, for the
lodge, notwithstanding this report, to enter into a ballot on the
petition.
But should the committee of investigation report favorably, the lodge will
then proceed to a ballot for the candidate; but, as this forms a separate
and important step in the process of "making Masons," I shall make it the
subject of a distinct section.