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Marion E. Hay who then became Governor was raised in Acacia and behave as Masons. All Masonic business can be, and in many
Lodge No. 58 in Davenport, later demitted to Tuscan Lodge #81 in places still is, transacted on the First Degree. Now Masonic lessons
th
Wilbur. He officially assumed the Governor’s Office on March 28 . are practical lessons. They have a dollar and cents value. The
However he had been acting Governor since January because of Senior Warden tells us that he became a mason in order to receive
Cosgrove’s absence from the State.
Master’s wages. There can be no misunderstanding about this
because he goes on to say that these wages are necessary for him
RWB Coe Tug Morgan to better support himself and his family and contribute to the relief of
Sources: Washington.historylink.org others not so fortunate as he. Later he states that his position in the
GL of Washington files craft is to pay the craft their wages if any be due and see that none
Washington Secretary of State Archives go away dissatisfied. We will immediately discern that although we
Seattle Public Library files paid a price for the Masonic degrees in order to work here, we
Governors of Washington by Wor. Bro. Edmond expect to receive something of equal or greater value in return. Just
S. Meany as in the workplace world we must contribute our labor in order to get
Meet the Governors by Louis A. Magrini paid. That labor in the Masonic world is committing ourselves to the
Proceedings of the GL of Washington study of Freemasonry with diligence and determination in order to
Wikipedia better understand ourselves and the world in which we live.

But the worker must be trained in the work of the Lodge just as
training occurs in the work world of today and as occurred in the
VWB Richard M. Kovak – Symbolism in EA times of operative Freemasonry. Few come to this venue with a
Degree dispositive knowledge of what Freemasonry is all about and what is
required of the mason. So, we must be taught just as the
Most of you have heard of the book by Robert Fulghum, kindergartner is taught to how to cooperatively play with others in his
―Everything I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten‖ – or her world. So also, the operative apprentice mason was taught
play fair, share your toys, obey the rules and clean up after yourself how to properly work and use the tools of his trade. And how did this
when you are done. Well the same holds true in Freemasonry. In teaching and learning occur? Why it occurred through the use of
fact, the very rules you learned in kindergarten are just as applicable symbols.
to your Masonic life as well as to life in general. However, in Masonry
we take things a bit further. Just as we take good men and try to Consider the kindergarten child. He or she receives the use of blocks
make them better, so we come to my theme here, everything I really with letters or pictures on them and miniature toys which resembled
need to know about the essence of Freemasonry I learned in the real world items and machines together with oral instruction. The
First Degree. operative entered apprentice was shown pictures on a trestle board
and taught how to use his working tools by gesture and picture as
For you see, an Entered Apprentice is a Mason. The second, third well as by words. But do not dismiss the value of symbols as simply
and so-called higher degrees are but elaborations on the way we act
agents of learning for schoolchildren and blue collar workers. Higher

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