of the Hall and Asylum Fund. This examination shows careful attention on the part of the Trustees and their auditing committees, and admirable clearness and fidelity on the part of the clerical force under their direction, whose duty it is to classify the sources of income and the items of expenditure, and which has been done so as to enable an examiner to find the condition of any department of the Fund with but little labor.

Second. Although the transactions are large-covering the interest of 748 lodges comprising more than 100,000 Master Masons, every one of whom is personally interested in the care and employment of this Fund--your Committee take pleasure in stating that the employment of this Fund by the Trustees has been with an intelligent and business-like economy, careful attention to details of expenditure, and careful scrutiny of the several accounts.

Third. In regard to the Fund in connection with the Masonic Home at Utica, your Committee desires to call especial attention of the Craft. It is desirable that at least once a year that institution should be visited by a representative of every lodge in the State. At any rate, a large and representative Committee from each Masonic District should make at least one visit annually to the Masonic Home. In the opinion of your Committee it would inspire the Masonic Fraternity with a new zeal and a new appreciation of the wisdom that contrived, the strength that completed, and the beauty that adorns this magnificent monument of the sagacity, foresight, and noble benevolence of the distinguished brethren who projected it.

Should such a yearly visitation be made, your Committee feel assured that the most liberal appropriations for maintenance would not only be authorized but promptly raised with ever-increasing interest and zeal.

Fourth. The expense of the maintenance of the Home has been a matter of solicitude on the part of your Committee, and an examination of the system of accounts and the actual expenditures show that the system as kept by M.. W.. BRO. JESSE B. ANTHONY is accurate, the classification correct, and his methods admirable. As to the actual cost of maintenance, we find that for the last four years, viz., 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898, the average cost per capita was $196.87 per annum, and for 1899, the report of which is now rendered-estimating for one month on the basis of the eleven, as the Grand Lodge meets one month earlier than heretofore-the cost is $185.11 for the entire year. In order to ascertain whether or not this expenditure was economical, your Committee caused to be obtained the official reports of the different benevolent institutions of the State of New York as reported to the Legislature; and knowing that the Comptroller of the State had insisted upon economy in all the State institutions, and had disallowed and stricken from their estimates many items which were considered by the managers of those institutions as necessary for the comfort and well-being of their inmates, those institutions were considered to be as economically conducted as it was possible for the State to make them. There are twelve of these State institutions, and the average per capita cost of their maintenance for 1899 was $211.05, while that for the Masonic Home for the four years preceding was $196.87, and for the year 1899 was $185.11. When we consider that the inmates of the Masonic Home are our brethren, members of our own household, and not to be classed as paupers or criminals, and yet show that they are well fed, well cared for, well clothed, and happy, at considerably less expense than the pauper

institutions of the State, your Committee feel that the Fraternity is to be congratulated, and that the money it has raised for this noble institution has been carefully, judiciously, and economically administered.

But it is not to show at how small a cost the institution at Utica can be maintained that these comparisons are made, but rather to show to our brethren that those placed by them in charge of this great responsibility have not only done their work well, but by comparison with the State institutions have done it with an economy that is eminently satisfactory.

We believe it is the desire and the purpose of the Masons of the State of New York-in accordance with the great fundamental principles of the Fraternity to which we have all subscribed, and which we all believe in and enjoy-that their aged brethren, and those less fortunate in the struggles with the world than themselves, shall have their declining and closing years of life at least made comfortable and happy; that they shall be warmed and fed, not by saying to them "Be ye warmed and fed," but by furnishing the means by which this desire shall be accomplished, whether the cost shall be little or much.

Fifth. In regard to the question of the building set apart for the accommodation of the children, your Committee urgently recommend that an addition shall be made at once for the further accommodation of the children and for such addition to their numbers as may be received from time to time, and hereby recommend the adoption of the following resolution :

Resolved, That the Trustees be empowered and requested to immediately make such additions to the Memorial building, or the apartment for children, as shall carry out the purposes of the above recommendation.

Sixth. In regard to the general administration of the Home your Committee cannot do better than to quote verbatim the excellent remarks of M.. W.. GRAND MASTER POWNALL in his eloquent address to the Grand Lodge at the commencement of the present communication as follows:

"Whatever may be the character and measure of our future solicitude for the Home at Utica, whether relating to the comfort and happiness of its inmates or to our ability to enlarge and maintain the scope of its beneficence, the present happily contains for us the gratifying assurance that "all is well."

The conduct of such an institution imposes upon its management duties which are not only most exacting, but which are ofttimes of a delicate nature, and yet in their discharge the M.. W... JESSE B. ANTHONY and his estimable wife have continued to surpass our fondest expectations. The material and financial interests of the Home have never in its history been more wisely administered than by the present Board of Trustees. The financial exhibit submitted by the Board reveals that the annual income for the support of the Home with its 247 inmates is greater than is required by many thousands of dollars.

The many vexatious problems which confronted the Craft of this State at the inception of the Home have each, in turn, been happily solved; and, guided by the unerring wisdom of the Most High, we have come upon that day when we may contemplate the successful outcome of our labors and enjoy present immunity from the pressing anxieties which so long beset us."

Seventh. With reference to the suggestion of the Trustees of the Masonic Hall and Asylum Fund that the capacity of the Home be limited to three hun

dred (300) inmates, your Committee, in view of the increased accommodation, heartily concur, and recommend the adoption of the following resolution :

Resolved, That the Trustees of the Masonic Hall and Asylum Fund be and are hereby directed to limit the present capacity of the Home to three hundred (300) inmates.

Eighth. Your Committee note with especial pleasure the continued zeal displayed by the brethren of the German, or Ninth, Masonic District in the splendid charity that District maintains. The report presented at this Annual Communication by the President of the German Masonic Temple Association evidences a spirit of Masonic usefulness worthy of emulation.

In conclusion, your Standing Committee on Hall and Asylum Fund congratulate the Fraternity of the State of New York on its general prosperity and its generous provision of funds to sustain its benevolences. Its financial reports are exceedingly encouraging, and, in the happy words of the Grand Master, "ALL IS WELL."

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON CHARITY.

R.. W.. GEORGE W. WHITE, from the Committee on Charity, presented the report of said Committee, which was received and its recommendations adopted.

To the Grand Lodge:

Your Committee on Charity recommends that the sum of two hundred dollars ($200) be placed in the hands of R.. W... WILLIAM F. HUYCK, Leroy, N. Y., to be distributed in equal monthly installments to a certain Past Grand Lodge officer, who is in needy circumstances; and that the sum of two hundred dollars ($200) be placed in the hands of R.. W.. FRANK W. WEEKS, Master of Union Lodge, No. 95, Elmira, N. Y., to relieve the necessities of a certain Past Grand Lodge officer, to be distributed as the judgment of said R.. W... BRO. WEEKS may deem wise and beneficial; and that the sum of two hundred dollars be placed in the hands of R.. W.. CLAYTON S. SCOTT, Owego, N. Y., to relieve the necessities of the widow of a Past Master prior to 1849, who was a permanent member of the Grand Lodge, and whose widow is in destitute circumstances.

Fraternally submitted,

GEORGE W. WHITE,

FREDERICK S. PARKHURST,
REUBEN L. MAYNARD,

Committee.

SPECIAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE.

M.. W.. JESSE B. ANTHONY, from the Committee on Foreign Correspondence, presented the following report, which was received and its recommendation adopted.

To the Grand Lodge:

The position assumed by the Grand Lodge of Washington in the reaffirmation of the vital principle upon which was based the original action of that Grand Lodge in 1898-in its recognition of a certain class of so-called negro Masons, Lodges, and Grand Lodges-has had the consideration of your Committee in the report on correspondence submitted at this session of the Grand Lodge, and there does not appear to be a necessity for entering fully thereon, under the head of the reference of that portion of the Grand Master's address delegated to your Committee.

It is very generally held that the declaration of 1899, while claiming to rescind the resolutions of 1898, is made the medium wherein is plainly and most emphatically enunciated the identical principle upon which the action of 1898 was predicated.

It is therein claimed by the Grand Lodge of Washington that its constituent Lodges "possess the plenary right to determine for themselves-but for no one else subject to review by nobody but herself, the status of all persons claiming to be Masons, who knock at their doors, either for the purpose of visiting, or as applicants for affiliation."

Should this principle be made effective, and under it Masonic recognition be extended to any persons declared by other Grand Lodges to be clandestine, it would most assuredly be an attack upon the sovereignty of other Grand Lodges and a violation of the well-established doctrine of exclusive Grand Lodge territorial jurisdiction.

We

We dispute the right of the Grand Lodge of Washington to concede to its constituent Lodges, alone and without restriction, authority of this nature. hold that the Grand Lodge of Washington is bound to respect the Masonic status given by sister Grand Lodges to individuals and Lodges within their several Grand Jurisdictions, that the competency of such action cannot be questioned, and that no other course can be tolerated.

It would appear to your Committee that under and by its adherence to the doctrine of exclusive Grand Lodge jurisdiction (affirmed in the declaration of 1899), the Grand Lodge of Washington cannot, without a violation thereof, make operative the principle enunciated.

The practical effect of this declaration has been most fully and ably presented in the address of the Grand Master, and your Committee do not consider that a multiplicity of words on their part would add any force.

We commend the good judgment used by the Grand Master in the exercise of the discretionary power given him by this Grand Lodge at its session of 1899, and we have confidence to believe that the Grand Lodge of Washington will, at an early date, fully recede from the position assumed, and thereby avoid the

severance of Masonic relations between the Grand Lodges of New York and Washington. It is earnestly to be hoped that our brethren of that jurisdiction will take the necessary steps to place the Grand Lodge of Washington in line with all sister Grand Lodges.

With special reference to the repeal of the edict of non-intercourse with the Grand Lodge of Hamburg in 1898, we desire to state that while it is to be regretted that the Grand Lodge of Washington did not promptly rectify in 1899 that which is now claimed to have been an unintentional error, still we have the assurance, given with reference thereto, that the edict of non-intercourse with the Grand Lodge of Hamburg will be reëstablished by the Grand Lodge of Washington at its session, June, 1900, in accordance with the terms of the resolu tion quoted in the address of the Grand Master.

In conclusion, fully concurring in the views of the Grand Master, your Committee recommend that full authority be given to the Grand Master elect to take any steps (hereafter) necessary to maintain the dignity of the Grand Lodge of New York.

Fraternally submitted,

JESSE B. ANTHONY,

WILLIAM J. DUNCAN, Committee.
EMIL FRENKEL,

M.. W.. JOHN STEWART submitted the following proposed amendment to the Code of Procedure, which was referred to the Committee on Constitution, with instructions to report at this session of the Grand Lodge:

Strike out Section 61, and substitute the following:

61. The suspension of a brother by a Grand Lodge commission may be terminated at any time by the Grand Lodge or by the Grand Master.

The Grand Master addressed the Grand Lodge in reference to his action concerning the centennial observance of the death of George Washington on December 14th last under the auspices of the Grand Lodge of Virginia.

R.. W... EDWARD M. L. EHLERS, Grand Secretary, in the Chair.

On motion of M.. W.. JOHN W. VROOMAN, Past Grand Master, the action of the Grand Master was unanimously approved.