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8:00 A. M.--Pontifical High Mass, St. Mary's Cathedral; Celebrant.
Rt. Rev. Bishop; Sermon, Father Galvin.
9:30 A. M.--Liederkranz--
State Council Meeting.
State Secretaries Meeting.
12:00 M. --Lunch.
1:15 P. M.--Council Meeting.
4:30 P. M.--Automobile Tour of City.
6:30 P. M.--State Officers and Delegates--Banquet.
7:30 P. M.--Musical and Speaking Program--Mayor J. L. Cleary presiding.
Liederkranz Quartette.
Address--Frank M. Colfer, McCook.
Solo--Willis Lyman.
Address--John Bennewitz, Omaha.*
Solo--Clara Moody.
Address--Rt. Rev. Bishop Duffy.
Liederkranz Quartette.
9:30 P. M.--General Social Time.
(*Mr. Bennewitz was unfortunately prevented by business engagement from being present.)

     Convention called to order in due form by State Deputy, George F. Corcoran of York. Password taken up by Warden W. H. Bueschenstein of Alliance. Opening prayer offered by Worthy State Chaplain, Rev. L. A. Dunphy of Sutton.

     Thereupon the State Deputy announced the apointment (sic) of the convention committees as follows:
     Credentials--L. G. Brian, Lincoln, Chairman; H. E. Coyne, O'Neill; Frank J. Kain, Creighton; M. T. Foley, Kearney, and M. E. Helms, Columbus.
     Audit--P. A. Tomek, David City, Chairman; James F. Burke, Sutton, and John W. Guthrie, Alliance.
     Resolutions--William C. Fraser, Omaha, Chairman; John C. Mullen, Falls City; Rev. Robert F. Moran, Denton; John C. Morrow, Alliance, and P. P. White, Wahoo.
     Mileage and Per Diem--John H. Barry, Wahoo, Chairman; Anthony Hirschman, Hartington, and John F. McDermott, Greeley

     At this juncture while awaiting the report of the Committee on Credentials, the State Council had the pleasure of hearing from William J. Moriarty, Organizer for the Surpeme (sic) Council, and one of the National Directors of War Work for the Order. Mr. Moriarty was called on the floor by our Worthy State Deputy and spoke most eloquently and pertinently as to the aims and works of the Knights of Columbus in War Work. His address was greatly appreciated and the State Council went on record in attesting its gratitude for his presence at the state convention. Mr. Moriarty was invited to speak at the banquet in the evening and again informed the membership and visitors on the great work which the Order is doing in caring for the needs of the soldiers both in a spiritual and material sense.

To the Worthy State Deputy and Members of the State Council:
     We, your Committee on Credentials, beg to report the following delegates entitled to seats and votes at this convention:

     We, your Committee on Credentials, beg to report that all of the above named officers and delegates are entitled to seats in the State Council and that all of said officers and delegates are entitled to vote in said Council with the exception of the State Chaplain and all District Deputies, who are entitled to voice only.

L. G. BRIAN, Chairman, Lincoln, H. E. COYNE, O'Neill, FRANK J. KAIN, Creighton, M. T. FOLEY, Kearney, M. B. HELMS, Columbus, Committee on Credentials.

     Our beloved State Chaplain, Rev. L. A. Dunphy of Sutton, after a protracted illness, appeared at the State Council to greet his numerous brothers and friends. Father Dunphy was warmly greeted and felicitated on his recovery from his illness and addressed the State Council. The text of his address is given herewith.

Worthy State Deputy and Brother Knights:
     Three years ago it was voted that a tax of twenty-five cents be levied on the members of the Knights of Columbus in the state for a term of three years to create a fund to be used as a Knights of Columbus Missionary Fund to be used by the Bishop having jurisdiction in the western portion of our state. Your fund, which was voted unanimously at O'Neill, has done incalculable service in the dioceses which have to look after the spiritual interests of the western part of the state. The congregations (if we can call them such) were few and scattered in fact we might rather say in the majority of cases where this fund was used there were Catholic families scattered all over the western country with no one to look after them.
     A report was read for you last year at Alliance as to the distribution of the fund. Now as to the year closing the last year of the fund as voted. Rt. Rev. James A. Duffy, D. D., Bishop of Grand Island, managed the oprtion (sic) allotted to Grand Island diocese--a little here, a larger amount where needed--helped this priest struggling to eke out a subsistence--made it possible for a priest to attend this or that isolated settlement. To question the Rt. Rev. Bishop's prudence would be presumptuous. He works for the interest of the Church in the portion of the state committed to his charge. He has made the wilderness in matters of religion bloom into a beautiful garden, and he is truly grateful for the assistance your fund for the western missions has given him and he blesses your endeavors.
      In regard to the share received by the Diocese of Lincoln, the Rt. Rev. J. Henry Tihen, D. D., then Bishop of Lincoln, turned it largely to a priest whose parish is 250 miles long--good Father Blacha, who works on the "High Line" extending from Holdrege on the east to Venango on the Colorado line on the west.
     Father Blacha received $600.00 used as follows: Elsie Mission (Perkins county), $86.74; Smithfield (Gosper county), $25.04; Farnam (Dawson county), $75.00; Wallace (Lincoln county), $43.37; To Father Blacha's salary, $250.00; Elsie building fund, $113.95. Father Blacha supplied statements of his scattered missions and says: "As you see from the statements, the Wallace and Elsie Missions will almost support themselves from now on, thanks to the chance that was given by the mission fund, to visit and see, and encourage and collect these scattered families." The balance of the fund given to the Lincoln Diocese was placed where it did the most good--where it made it possible for a priest to go where he could devote his time to the good work of saving the souls of our scattered co-religionists and make the work of the Church felt.
     As I said in the beginning, this fund was established for three years--the term is now complete. I come before you again in the interest of the western missions--I come before you in this, the cathedral city of Bishop Duffy--to ask of you for the good of religion to extend your charity for a further period of five years, and to Increase

your donation to 50 cents per capita. You won't feel it--your home councils won't feel it, but the work of God's Church will feel the weight of your generosity--you will make it possible to spread the light of the Gospel where it gets very slim chances to shine. You can mae (sic) a very small sacrifice--50 cents per annum and our order can do a great work. You will make it possible to have the ministrations of the Church felt where the settlers are shoved out into the western part of the state.
      Father Blacha writes me: "We intend to build a little chapel at Wellfleet (Lincoln county)--there are three Catholic families, three mixed families, with a prospect of more to come." Missionary zeal where your fund has been spent has made the Catholic faith take a deeper hold."
     Be generous, for you are aware of the fact that even a cup of cold water given in the name of Christ brings a reward from God. Help Western Nebraska and you will add more laurels to the crown that is now on the brow of the K. of C. Your donations will be scrupulously administered and children yet unborn will bless you because you brought to them the light of faith by establishing missions and enabling priests to devote all their time to scattered children of the faith. God will bless you and your councils if you give a little for His sake.

     Moved, that the thanks of the State Council be extended to our Worthy State Chaplain for the excellence of his annual report and that the same he printed in the minutes of the convention Carried.

     Greetings, extending the compliments of the various State and Territorial Councils, now in session and addressed to the Worthy State Deputy, were acknowledged by the State Council in session the communications having been previously answered and greetings extended by the Worthy State Deputy.

     Moved that whereas, the minutes of the previous meeting of State Council have been printed that the reading of the same be dispensed with. Carried.

     The place of meeting for the 1919 convention not having yet been determined, moved that report of Mileage and Per Diem Committee be deferred until requested by the convention. Carried.

     The report of the State Deputy, being the next regular order of business, Worthy State Deputy George F. Corcoran rendered his report, which is printed below.

     To the officers and Members of the Nebraska State Council, Knights of Columbus:

     Gentlemen--We meet this year under conditions of our country's affairs which many of us have never before known. We are deeply involved in a world war, more stupendous and extraordinary than any conflict ever before known in the world's history--a war so far reaching, with interests and forces involved so great, that the mind of man is entirely inadequate to grasp its real extent and magnitude.
     While ordinarily we have many matters which press upon us for attention, in this crisis Americans can have but one matter in hand--but one overshadowing duty which must be performed--and that is the work of bringing this terrible conflict to a successful issue. We can give neither time nor thought to any interest which does not center itself in winning this war. That it must and shall be ultimately won, no sane man, I believe, doubts for a moment; but in order that the struggle might not he prolonged and an unnecessary number of human lives be sacrificed, it is our bounden duty to put forth every ounce of strength we have to not only bring the war to a successful issue, but to bring it quickly.
     This war has brought terrible and far-reaching changes to all phases of human endeavor; it has brought almost a transformation to our beloved order. A year ago the Knights of Columbus was known as a very respectable society, composed of Catholic gentlemen largely within the United States and having a footing also in Canada and a small following in a few other countries. It was known as and quite generally considered to be probably the most important single organization composed of the men of our faith in this country. It was credited with doing some considerable good work by the maintenance of a sound insurance feature which protected the families of about one-third of its members. It was given credit also for the doing of some very good work by its teachings and the making of its members better and more practical Catholics and therefore better citizens of the country. And through its splendid organization it has been of service In the performance of some commendable charities and benevolences. But this was about all. Note the change that one short year has brought about. Instead of occupying the humble position just described, our beloved order is now in the proud position of one of the well recognized and very important arms of the very government it self in the prosecution of our country's cause in this terrible war. By the express direction of the President of the United States, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, and of the commission in charge of all these activities, our order is now performing a service to the soldier and sailor in camp and field which can never be adequately measured by any human agency.
      This service is not to the officers of high or low degree; the men in high positions are in situations to care for themselves. Our administrations are to the enlisted man, the soldier in the ranks. The private soldier is the one we have attempted to reach in a humane way and to render to him a service that is essential to his well being both In a material and moral sense.
     Less than a year ago--in fact in the month of June, 1917, our Supreme Board of Directors appreciated the necessity of going into the camps then forming for the reception of the new national army and providing for the material comforts and moral and religious well being of the young men being called from their homes and into the public service, we had little r no experience in this character of

work except that which the order had performed in the year previous on the Mexican border. It appeared necessary that if we were to provide for the Catholic boy leaving his home for the first time and becoming part of the great national army, that it would be necessary to provide funds and proceed in some measure at least upon the plan adopted by the Young Men's Christian Association. As matters have since developed, it would appear that our Board of Directors were very modest in their estimates of what would be required. A call was made upon the members of the order to pay through their individual councils an assessment of two dollars each; and it was asked that a small sum be added to this in order that one million dollars might be thus raised to finance this new movement. The fund of one million dollars was collected during the month of July last and the work of starting the erection of recreation buildings in the different camps was begun; and when the committee appointed by the Board on war Activities made its report to the Supreme Council at Chicago last August, it appeared that a much larger sum of money would be necessary; and after a very short discussion in the Supreme Council, it was voted that three million dollars be raised instead of the one million provided for in the call made by the Board in June.
      It now appears conclusively that this action was a serious mistake. The call should have been made for at least ten million dollars When we appealed to the country for three million dollars, we suffered in comparison with other organizations which were collecting larger sums and in many cases it very materially reduced the subscriptions made to our fund in many localities.
     However the country has responded nobly to our appeal for help, as is shown by the actual cash receipts at the national office in New Haven where instead of receiving three million dollars, the total cash receipts on last Monday reached the very respectable total of six and a quarter millions. It is known that quite large sums have not yet been remitted by the different states to the national office; and it is very safe to predict that the total of this fund will ultimately reach the sum of eleven million dollars.
     Our members may be at a loss to know what is being done with this vast sum of money. We have reached the stage in our organization when we are not easily alarmed by large figures; we habitually speak every day now in large and startling amounts; that is, the figures would have been startling a year or so ago. With this money, our national organization has erected in the different camps of this country alone, one hundred recreation buildings for the use of the soldiers in the camps, and this use is extended to all soldiers alike, regardless of creed. In these one hundred buildings we have employed 250 secretaries who are rendering every service possible to the men who frequent the buildings. We have engaged for work in these buildings 100 chaplains to care for the religious needs of the men requiring their services. Many more buildings are still to be erected in the camps of the national army, those of the national guard and the different training camps and stations.
     In addition to this the order has constructed overseas in the different countries to which our men have been sent by our government, for their comfort and accommodation there, forty buildings. These buildings are being supervised by fifty secretaries, which number will he increased as soon as the men can be secured, to four or five hun-

dred. We have sent across the water twenty chaplains and more are being provided for and sent abroad every week.
     The work is growing and must grow. Our great work in this respect from this time forward must be in the lands across the seas, and everywhere that Uncle Sam's army is assisting to hold the line and defending the great cause of civilization. We are forming a perfect organization in France, where two members of our Board of Directors are now in charge; and as the movement of troops has become very rapid, we must keep pace with the spirit of the times and get into this work over there with the same vim and vigor which characterized its inception in this country the past year. If the Knights of Columbus are to maintain their record for usefulness, we cannot afford to falter now. To do the great work required in Europe must of necessity demand an immense sum of money. It is estimated by our national officers in the budget they are now preparing that it will be necessary to raise by voluntary subscription from the people of this country for the year July 1, 1918, to July 1, 1919, the sum of $25,000,000,000. We believe that as our work becomes more fully understood by the good people of the United States, that no difficulty whatever will be experienced in raising this sum of money. In many places the drives to raise the fund will be in connection with other war activities where funds are being raised for the American Red Cross and the Y. M. C. A. Many places are arranging for what is locally known as a "War Chest" or "Local Community Fund for those patriotic purposes; and in such localities our organization will receive its just share. It follows that where we are to participate in these community funds we should do our full share with other citizens of the community in raising the necessary amount of money.
      Let us turn for a moment to the part taken by the Order in Nebraska in this line of activity. On the first call for funds in June, Nebraska was asked to contribute something more than $12,000.00 as its quota of the call; and in response to this appeal the idfferent (sic) councils in our state remitted to the national office the sum of $16,160.00. No further call having been received from the national office, in the latter part of October the State Deputy wired the national office for instructions as to raising further funds. The National Secretary replied that the order would be glad to receive any assistance which our people in Nebraska could render. After consultation with a number of gentlemen interested in our order in the state, it was thought best to call a meeting representing the different councils, and such a meeting was called at Omaha on November 5 and the Grand Knight of each council asked to be present and represent his council. The notice given was short, but a majority of the councils in the state were represented at this meeting by their Grand Knights. The matter was fully canvassed and it was decided that our state should do its share to swell the national fund, and in addition thereto to provide for the care and comfort of the soldiers within the borders of our state in camps like Fort Crook, Fort Omaha and Fort Robinson.
     As a result of this conference an appeal was made to the people of Nebraska for the sum of $75,000.00 to cover both purposes. The Archbishop of Omaha and the other two Bishops of the state very kindly lent their aid to advance the good work; and at our request the Archbishop and each Bishop addressed a letter to the clergymen under their charge, and asked that the letter be read on the following Sun-

day in all the churches in the state. This was done and the drive organized to commence on November 19, the date of the close of the Y. M. C. A. drive in Nebraska. At this meeting an organization was formed to conduct the campaign in Nebraska. Upon vote it was ordered that an executive committee be created to take charge of the work and conduct the campaign. Of this committee the State Deputy was made chairman; Mr. W. C. Fraser, Grand Knight of Omaha Council, secretary; F. P. Matthews of the same council, assistant secretary, and Mr. W. J. Coad, treasurer. The additional members on the committee were Mr. T. P. Redmond of Omaha, Rev. Robert F. Moran, Grand Knight of the council at Lincoln, Dennis Radford, Jr,, of Fremont, Dr. Leo Phalen of Grand Island, and T. J. Brennen of Hastings. I will not attempt to give in detail here the work of this committee, which will simply state that our campaign proved a very gratifying success.
     In response to our appeal for the $75,000.00, at the end of the two weeks' drive the total pledges amounted to about the sum of $225,000.00. Of this sum, $170,000.00 in round numbers has been received by our treasurer. We have remitted to the national organization the sum of $75,000.00. In addition thereto we have constructed and paid for a splendid building at Fort Crook, which building is 50x112 1/2 feet in size, and is considered by those in a position to judge to be one of the very best structures of its kind in any camp in the United States.
     It is well finished and fully equipped, and is, I am sure, the pride of every member of our order who has had the opportunity to inspect it.
     This building cost, in round numbers, $15,466.00. Of course, considerable in addition to this sum will be required and in fact has been expended for equipment for the building, which is not included in this sum.
     Another building of exactly the same size and very similar has been constructed at Fort Omaha.
     The Fort Crook building was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies and turned over to the soldiers on April 28. The building at Fort Omaha was also dedicated and turned over to the use of the men for whom it was intended on May 12.
     It has not been found necessary up to this time to do any work of this kind at Fort Robinson, as that post is not being extensively used for the assembling of the army. An additional building, however, much smaller than these two, will be required at Florence Field, a short distance from Fort Omaha, and the contract therefor has been awarded to the same contractor of the other two buildings.
     On May 8 the executive committee met at Omaha with Mr. W. J. McGinley, the Supreme Secretary of the order, and had a conference with respect to the work performed by our men in Nebraska as above outlined. The Supreme Secretary visited each of the buildings and praised very highly the work accomplished. He suggested, however, that it was the sense of the Board of Directors that the management of these buildings should be turned over to the National Committee on War Activities, and that they would supervise them in common with all the other buildings constructed by the order in the other camps, and bear the expense thereof; and suggested that the funds collected in Nebraska be remitted to the national fund. After a conference lasting several hours, the matter was left in the hands of the executive committee to be turned over to the national organization

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