Fraternalism in America Book Review Essay by William Weisberger •

Constructing Brotherhood: fascinating chapters on the ritual eighteenth century ethical teachings. Class, Gender, and and ceremonial activities of major As an example, Clawson uses the Fraternalism secret societies in Victorian Ameri- Modern Grand Lodge of London, ca, shows how these orders func- which,created in1717, had capable Mary by Ann Clawson tioned during the past two centu- administrators, recruited aristocrat- Princeton: Princeton University Press, ries. icand middle -class members intoits 1989. Pp. ix,270. Introduction, locallodges, and became wellknown notes, index. $27.50 Clawson begins her workbyview- ing fraternalism as a social form; she for promoting sociability through Secret Ritual and Manhood argues that the Masons, the Odd these lodges, which were closely as- in Victorian America Fellows, and the Knights effectively sociated with London coffeehouses by Mark C. Carnes used ritual and ceremony as a "social and tavern life. New Haven: YaleUniversity Press, metaphor" of brotherhood. Each Like Professor Margaret Jacob 1989. Pp. x, 226. Preface, notes, order's doctrine emphasized capi- and this writer, Clawson in several $27.50 index. talism, competition and individual- ways accentuates the intimate con- ism,and Clawson demonstrates that nections between Speculative Free- lodge activities were geared to pro- masonry, or the Modern Grand and female or- moting patriarchal values and mas- Lodge, and the Enlightenment. To ders and voluntary associa- culine cultural tenets. this end, there are impressive ac- FRATERNALtions have had a significant In the "European Definitions" counts ofthe contributions by John place inAmerican life.Scholars, un- section early in the book, Clawson T.Desaguliers, a Huguenot minis- fortunately, have devoted minimal claims that familyand fraternal lifein ter, a disciple ofSir Isaac Newton, attention to their functions, activi- medieval and early modern Europe and an active member of the Royal ties, and histories. The studies by revolved around concepts of "kin- Society ofLondon. Clawson shows Clawson and Carnes, despite the ship." This model applied not only the role ofDesaguliers, whose influ- passage of nearly four years since to the patriarchal family unit, in- ence on the rites of this new order their release, are pioneering and com- cluding servants, but also to volun- show up inmechanistic and materi- parative works of great importance. taryassociations. To acquire the skills alistic doctrines from Newtonian Clawson advances the theses that of their craft, journeymen were ex- science, tenets and symbols from fraternal organizations in America posed toritual practiced by specific classical architecture, and concepts are indebted inmany respects to the crafts and their associations. Claw- associated with deism and republi- ritualistic and institutional opera- son claims that fraternalism became canism. Under Desaguliers, grand tions ofSpeculative Freemasonry and especially prevalent among trade master ofthe London Grand Lodge, that women's and some religious guilds, whose leaders were.involved Speculative Freemasonry during the groups arose during the nineteenth withgovernance, taught production first half of the eighteenth century and twentieth centuries to protest techniques, and used ritual to ex- became well established and identi- against their private operations. In plain the craft's central doctrines fied with important Enlightenment seven insightful, topically arranged and customs to promote a sense of institutions and elites in England, chapters, Clawson examines the solidarity among members. Europe, and America. Masons, the Odd Fellows, and Speculative Freemasonry, which Inthe second part of the book, Knights of Pythias; she also assesses used some teachings, doctrines, and "American Transformations," Claw- the place oftheir related female aux- symbols of the operative lodges, son attempts to illustrate how Free- iliaries. Carnes, meanwhile, in five emerged during the eighteenth cen- masonry served as a paradigm for William Weisberger, a professor ofhis- tury as a dynamic neworganization. other secret orders in this country. as tory at Butler County Community Col- This form of Masonry, Clawson Such organizations the Knights of lege and an adjunct professor at the maintains inchapter two,succeeded Pythias, Odd Fellows, and Modern University ofPittsburgh, is a frequent by using its rites to promote major Woodmen of America seemed to contributor to Pittsburgh History. scientific and political doctrines and copy the institutional development

39 Pittsburgh History Spring 1993

model of many Masonic lodges, ic sentiment, which began with the and activities not female indepen- which were governed by a constitu- alleged murder of WilliamMorgan dence but rather the importance of tion and elected officers, recruited in 1826 by Masons for divulging familylifeand traditional female roles members, and promoted collectiv- secrets of the order. Such sentiment init. ism and individualism by conferring blossomed into a powerful anti-elit- Chapter seven explores brother- degrees. (The degrees or rites of ist and socio-political reform move- hood as big business. Printers, sell- these organizations convey major ers offraternal attire, and even indi- doctrines and symbols of the order Fraternals viduals selling memberships stood and are staged inlocal lodges. These to gain. Many physicians, lawyers, bodies, in turn, operate under the excluded minority merchants, and insurance salesmen jurisdictions of the respective frater- groups from used their fraternal ties to recruit nal order.) clients and customers. Even ritual Clawson also examines the class membership, yet became a marketable commodity, composition ofmajor American fra- since many orders invented degrees ternal orders. Analyzing the rosters promoted in the last years of the nineteenth ofnineteenth century Pythian lodg- century to enlist new members. As es in Belleville, 111., and Buffalo in integrity, honesty, Clawson explains, fraternalism waned light ofcertain categories and net- and pride in craft. inthe first two decades ofthe twen- works, and by developing a socio- tieth century, due to lost interest in logical concept of"catnets," she finds ment in most states, fostering cam- ritualism,and the appearance ofother that both lodges had working- and paigns against the Masons' secretive institutions for socializing and kin- middle-class members. Her split find- and ritualistic activities and their ship relations. Later in the century, ings emphasize the need for exten- purported domination of political therise ofmass media and new forms sive research along these lines. and economic institutions. Many ofentertainment became reasons for Chapter four examines activities lodges were forced to close their decline as well. and patterns of fraternal orders in doors through the mid- 1840s, al- Inher conclusion, Clawson claims nineteenth century America. There though Masonry did enjoy a revival that Masonic ritual and lodge orga- were twoprevalent kinds offraternal before the CivilWar. Other fraternal nization served as the basis offrater- organizations: the mutual benefit or societies (the Elks, the Ancient Or- nalism inAmerica. Fraternal organi- benevolent society and the Mason- der ofUnited Workmen, the Mod- zations arising in this country dur- ic-styled order which stressed the ern Woodmen of America, and the ing the nineteenth century, she finds, place of ritualism and cross-class Shriners) grew in importance with promoted interaction among classes membership. The Independent Or- the rise of industrialism, helping to and between genders, to a certain der ofOddFellows, which started in shape craft unionism in America. extent, as well as republican, capital- England during the late eighteenth Fraternal orders, Clawson posits, istic, and middle-class values. century and appeared in Baltimore improved the social environment of Through ritual and lodge activities, in 1819, was a ritual order closely industrialism by advocating a work- these orders tried to bond middle- associated with tavern life in both place morality ofintegrity, honesty, and working-class members into a British and American cities and and sobriety. Clawson also address- solidified community. towns. Under the leadership ofJames es these groups' tendencies to ex- This work has much to recom- Ridgeley and George Norris, Odd clude blacks, Catholics, and non- mend it,offering a fine macro-view Fellowship in America during the native whites from membership. of fraternalism and a closely rea- 1830s and 1840s changed greatly. Inchapter six, Clawson devotes soned comparative sociological anal- Clawson notes that American ad- attention to women's organizations ysis ofa subject greatly neglected in herents promoted temperance, de- inAmerican life.She states that Free- scholarship. While Clawson draws veloped new degrees, and established masonry, the Odd Fellows, and oth- extensively on primary materials, it a middle -class base. er orders, indenying membership to suffers from repetition and inade- Comparing American Odd Fel- women, promoted masculine supe- quate explanation ofritualand lodge lowship to Masonry during the first riority and cultural values. One re- activities. halfofthe nineteenth century, Claw- sult of the anti-Masonic movement, In those realms where Clawson's son finds both were constrained to however, was the establishment of book is weak, Carnes's workis strong. change. Masonry sought newmem- female auxiliaries by notable frater- Inmany ways, analysis ofritualis at bers by associating' withthe "repub- nals: the Odd Fellows created the the heart of the Carnes study. Fasci- lican cult7 ofWashington and Fran- Degree ofRebekah and Freemason- nating vignettes describing major klinand by offering the higher de- ry formed the Eastern Star. Their doctrines and symbols helphim dem- grees of the Scottish Rite and the status as pioneers was mainly con- onstrate the immense psychological American Rite. But Masonry was- fined to their mere existence, how- significance of the orders' degrees. seriously threatened byanti-Mason ever, as both stressed intheir rituals Dramatically staged ceremonies and

40 Reviews rites created a quasi-religious atmo- rebuilding of this great edifice illus- attracted to fraternalism, for these sphere in a "male" environment. trates how Masons used knowledge orders offered them a mimic journey Thelast quarter ofthe nineteenth to improve society and its institu- of life.Carnes argues that ritual en- century marked the "golden age" of tions. Carnes also maintains that the abled young men to escape their fraternalism, and Carnes devotes his Odd Fellows's White Degree and mothers' influence and tobe bond- prologue to explaining whyMason- the Knights ofPythias's Chancellor edinto a newpatriarchy. Carnes also ry,the Odd Fellows, the Knights of Commander Degree resemble the explains how Masonry and other Pythias, and the Red Men reached Masons' Royal ArchDegree in that fraternal organizations developed pinnacles during the period. "Fra- allrevolve around efforts of the fra- rites and ceremonies for theburial of ternal joiners," Carnes maintains, ternalists to divest themselves ofsin their members and provided assis- were either Protestant or Jewish, and to perform virtuous acts. tance to families who lost their fa- and they spent considerable money The third chapter squarely ad- thers. on dues and initiations. Merchants dresses the basis of the anti-Ma- "Secrets" is the title of chapter and professionals, especially, enjoyed— sonist claims of the nineteenth cen- five, in which Carnes presents an the "ritual oasis" ofMasonry the tury that fraternal organizations cor- interesting section on Albert Pike, ceremonies, rites and symbolism rupted society. Carnes makes astrong who revised specific rituals of the connected with —the masculine cul- case for Charles Grandison Finney, higher Scottish degrees. The author ture of the era while the Odd demonstrating that this former Ma- claims that Pike's 32nd Degree, with Fellows attracted men fromthe mid- son, who repudiated the principles itsmilitarysetting and skulland cross- dle and working classes. of the order, worked to discredit it. bones, is quite confusing. This di- The first chapter, entitled As president of Oberlin College in gression presents incoherent views "Masks," tracks the evolution ofthe Ohio and then as the ranking leader and bisexual interpretations about two orders inEngland and America. of the National Christian Founda- the geometric figures and symbols The author, however, believes that tion, Finney denounced Masonic init.Thus, the unclear message con- the three degrees of Modern Ma- leaders in the 1870s, perceiving the veyed by the doctrines and symbols sonry, emphasizing teachings and Craft as a satanic secular monster of this degree and others well sug- symbols concerning Solomon's that was highly destructive to reli- gest whyMasonry and other signif- Temple, Newtonian science, deism, gious institutions. Masonic leaders icant male orders inlate nineteenth and ancient and Enlightenment denounced Finney and the associa- century America would begin to morality, provided this new move- tion he headed, and encouraged decline. ment withenormous impetus. While women, whom Finney said were The epilogue suggests explana- minimizing anti-Masonic pressure, demeaned by the Craft, to become tions for the dramatic demise of Carnes claims that Masonry innine- fraternal orders during the twenti- teenth century America reflected Fraternals started eth century. Carnes believes they regional patterns and variations but couldn't compete with service and developed a middle-class base; Ma- female auxiliaries in recreational clubs, inpart because of sonry prospered because itoffered, pressure from secular and scientific through its degrees of the Scottish response to criticism values associated withrelativism. He and York Rites, visual explanations of their male-only also calls for further studies offrater- of capitalistic and republican doc- nal orders that would assess major trines. Similarly, Odd Fellowship membership rolls. ideologies and values prevalent in spread in America because itadded America since the colonial period. new degrees, while also becoming a active in the Eastern Star. The chief strength of Carnes's town movement. Carnes also sug- In chapter four, entitled "Fa- work, with its use ofpreviously ne- gests that by cloaking themselves— in thers," Carnes develops an historical glected primary sources on fraternal secrets and private ritual hiding paradigm regarding masculine de- doctrine and ceremonies, is its doc- behind masks —American fraternal velopment and fraternalism. Inco- umentation ofthe psychological and members could assume new and lonial and revolutionary America, he emotional appeal offraternal ritual- exciting roles in their communities. maintains, fathers taught their sons ism. Itmakes littleprogress, howev- Carnes next discusses the evolu- through the apprentice system, di- er, inconnecting the major tenets of tion of fraternal degrees: the Royal recting them about farming and fraternal societies to attitudes and Arch Mason Degree and the White business. After the Revolution, fa- values of nineteenth and twentieth Degree ofthe Odd Fellows. The first thers and sons less often worked century America. Italso says little concerns the efforts of Masons to together. Because ofthis fundamen- about the middle- and working-class rebuild the destroyed temple inJeru- tal change in the patriarchal family, elites recruited to these orders or salem and it reveals the symbolic middle-class males often took alter- about the specific operations ofboth richness of the Masonic Deity, the native paths of masculine develop- grand and local lodges. Aconvinc- triangle, and the number three. The ment toadulthood. Youngmen were ingconclusion, comparing and con-

41 Pittsburgh History Spring 1993 trasting rituals and structures among The New Crowd: The ch and Rehfeld show that Weill was the Masons, the Odd Fellows, the Changing Face oftheJewish a man driven by success, later head- Knights, and other orders exam- Guard on Wall Street ing American Express and Primeri- ined,would have enhanced the work. ca. The book also contains a fine The place offraternal orders and by Judith R. Erlich and Barry J. sketch ofSidney Weinberg, known related organizations in the Pitts- Rehfeld for breaking through religious and burgh vicinity has yet to be deter- Boston: Little,Brown, 1989. Pp. 444. class barriers on Wall Street; Wein- mined. What is known is that Ma- Illustrations, notes, bibliography, berg directed the trading depart- $19.95 sonry served as a paragon during the index. ment at Goldman Sachs, sat on late eighteenth and early nineteenth boards of numerous corporations, century, recruiting men from vari- thelate nineteenth was even offered diplomatic posts, ous strata ofthe middle- and upper- century, an elite group of and was perceived by executives of classes. Similar to Joseph RishePs DURINGJews ofGerman extraction both Protestant and Jewish invest- conclusions in his Founding Fami- played a prominent role inthe world ment firms as being "Mr. Wall lies ofPittsburgh: The Evolution ofa ofAmerican investment banking. As Street." Regional Elite (Univ. of Pittsburgh Stephen Birmingham demonstrates The authors as well make a case Press, 1990, 59-61, 181), my find- (The Great Jewish Families ofNew for other financiers connected with ings about Masons inearly Steuben- Tor*[NewYork,1967]), the Schiffs, the newcrowd. The son ofa Russian ville,Ohio, in Enlightened Men: A Kuhns, Goldmans, and Lehmans immigrant who did well inOklaho- History ofSteubenville Lodge #45 F. constituted the basis of this crowd ma in the clothing business, "Ace" and A.M. (Standard Press, 1967, and were intimately involved in the Greenberg joined Bear, Stearns in 15-42), suggest that between 1818 financing of both American and 1949. Known as a gambler, he made and the CivilWar, members for the European industries; these and oth- considerable profits for his firmfrom most part consisted ofmilitary and er members of that crowd became his trading, and later became itshead. political leaders, lawyers, physicians, the great Jewish families of New The book also contains an interest- merchants, bankers, and a few me- York and, more importantly, took ing profile of Lewis Glucksman; a chanics and farmers. Such men evi- pride in their reputations as major man with the unyielding stare of a dently were attracted to Masonry contributors to cultural and philan- bulldog, Glucksman gave capable because ofits ritualistic appeal and thropic causes. Incontrast, Erhlich direction to the commercial paper social opportunities. During the late and Rehfeld show that by the 1980s, division of Lehman Brothers and nineteenth century and well into a new crowd of Jewish investment was named to the firm's board of this one, members ofmylodge were bankers emerged on Wall Street directors. The authors explain, how- middle- and working-class men. which was ofEastern European her- ever, how Glucksman was socially However, since the early 1960s, de- itage. rejected and how old crowd aristo- monstrative of the national pattern The authors believe that mem- crats Frederick Ehrman and Pete inMasonry, membership inmylodge bers ofthe newcrowd were compet- Peterson thwarted his rise to the top as wellas inothers inthis region has itive,mobile, innovative, and chari- position within the firm.Incontrast, greatly declined. table. Gutfreund, Milken, Wasser- the experiences of John Gutfreund Studies ofother male and female stein, and many other investment at Salomon Brothers were some- fraternal orders inthe Western Penn- barons of the new crowd were in- what different than those ofGlucks- sylvania region are greatly needed. volved withmergers, leveraged buy- man. Gutfreund developed an ame- Neither are there many works about outs, and arbitrage, and ultimately nable relationship with Billy women's societies orreligious/eth- helped to promote a new financial Salomon, helped to revitalize nic organizations. Ritualistic lan- environment inAmerica during the Salomon Brothers, and ultimately guage and doctrines, philanthropi- '80s. became its president. Combative and cal activities, and gender and ethnic The book is a collective biogra- tough, Gutfreund developed vast bonding probably were among the phy and abounds withvividprofiles contacts withinstitutional investors, major reasons that residents in the of executives from the new crowd. enabling him to sell withease large Pittsburgh vicinity once gravitated The son ofPolish Jews, Sandy Weill, amounts of underwritings and to to these organizations ingreat num- who exuded aggressiveness, climbed transform Salomon Brothers into bers. \u25a0 the ladder at Shearson Hayden and the largest firm on Wall Street. eventually bought controlling inter- Ehrlich and Rehfeld examine oth- est in the firm. Moreover, Weillin er major investment roles ofpromi- 1979 fused his firm with Loeb nent members of the new crowd. Rhoades and thus absorbed the last Felix Rohatyn, who escaped the per- of the Wall Street firms which had secution of the Nazis, is depicted as been owned and directed by Amer- adeal-maker; Rohatyn became asso- ican Jews ofGerman descent. Ehrli- ciated with Lazard Freres and re-

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