Page 326 - Cornelius Hedges Story

313 The Cornelius Hedges Story

by the happy settlement of the ritual question that all other business
was facilitated. The Grand Master’s decisions and actions were all
unanimously approved.
There were fine opportunities for bitter and prolonged controversies
with the Grand Lodges of Oregon and Scotland, but it was found
just as easy to settle them amicably and honorably, and, we may add,
more Masonically. To fill the cup of rejoicing the treasury balance
increased over $1,000, the expenses of the session were less, and
$250 was voted for a monument for Past Grand Master Duncan.
Brother Moses Morris, who had received the degrees of Masonry at
the hands of the Grand Secretary in 1866, was elected Grand Master,
and it was voted to hold the Twenty-ninth Annual Communication
in Helena on the second Wednesday in October, 1893.
It was not for a month after adjournment that the Grand Master
announced the appointment of delegates to the World’s Masonic
Congress, which was to be held in Chicago during the great
World’s Fair in June of the following year. Although the utmost
care was taken to select those who would attend, of the five Past
Grand Masters appointed, Grand Secretary Hedges was the only
one in attendance and he gave quite a full account of it in the
conclusion of his Foreign Correspondence report for 1893. Those
who attended found much to enjoy in the entertainments provided
by their brethren of Chicago and Illinois, but so far as settling any
of the controverted questions agitating the Masonic world, there
was hardly an attempt made and the series of conclusions adopted
are as ambiguous as the responses of the Delphian Oracle. The
attendance was not large enough to justify the members in feeling
themselves a representative body authorized to speak for the whole
craft, besides; most of the members were limited by instructions.
While for the larger purposes contemplated by the proposers and
promoters of the congress, it was a confessed failure, the personal
and incidental benefits were numerous and invaluable. About the
only response made by our Grand Lodge to any of the adopted
conclusions, was increasing the number of our published Proceedings
from 750 to 1,000.
When the Twenty-ninth Annual Communication opened at Helena,
October 11th, 1893, there were only thirty-one Lodges out of thirty-
five represented, and several of these only by a single representative.
Though including the membership of three Lodges U. D., the
entire gain was a short 100. It was a time of general business and