III
The State Officers

The state officers are the executives of the State Council.  The State Deputy, Secretary, Advocate, Treasurer, and Warden are elected annually but the tradition of granting them the courtesy of two consecutive terms in office was established many years ago.  J. D. Hurley of happy memory was elected State Warden in 1906 and every year thereafter until his death in 1948.  The State Chaplain is appointed by the bishop of the diocese from which he is selected by the state officers.  The immediate past State Deputy is also one of the state officers with a vote in the State Council.  All other past State Deputies and the District Deputies are members of the State Council but without the right to vote.  The District Deputies are appointed by the State Deputy as his special representatives and hold positions of considerable authority and responsibility.

The State Council in the first few years lacked the neat division of duties and responsibilities found in later years.  For example, for the first two years after the Proceedings were first published the Chaplain's report was not only more lengthy than that of any other officer, but included data and recommendations now found in the reports of the State Deputy and the various committees.  During these early years, especially, one of the problems of the Order was the opposition of some pastors who felt that the institution of a council would tend to destroy their parish societies.  The State Chaplain was sometimes called upon to clear up misunderstandings of this nature.  The position of the Chaplain as a purely spiritual advisor was emphasized in 1908 by the decision of the bishops of the state to reserve the appointment of local chaplains to themselves.

The first State Deputies were also the Territorial Deputies in charge of organizing the Knights of Columbus in Oklahoma Territory and the Indian Territory until 1906 when Oklahoma organized its own State Council.

At the fourth annual meeting of the State Council, State Deputy T. J. Coughlin of Topeka urged that the state officers be authorized to secure rooms and furniture to care for the business of the State Council.  As Knighthood in Kansas grew its demands on the state officers became ever greater.  Finally, in 1915, State Deputy W. D. Jochems of Wichita recommended that the State Deputy be granted an allowance of ten dollars a month, and the State Secretary five dollars, for their time and labor devoted to the business of the Order.  The State Council approved a resolution to that effect.  These allowances for stenographic hire were later raised to twenty-five and ten dollars in 1930, and to seventy-five and twenty-five dollars in 1947.

Certain of the State Deputy's expenses are paid by the Supreme Council but to save him any inconvenience while waiting for it to honor his vouchers the State Council in 1922 provided a revolving fund of five hundred dollars to take up this slack.  This was provided by a special resolution each year until it was incorporated in the by-laws in 1929.  During the depression the Supreme Council decreased the allowance to state officers for organizational work, and in order to prevent a severe curtailment of this work the State Council amended the by-laws to permit the State Deputy with the unanimous concurrence of the state officers certain emergency spending powers.

When the membership in Kansas had reached its first peak in the twenties the state officers had so much work that a resolution was introduced authorizing the employment of a field secretary or similar aide.  The convention of 1924, however, rejected the proposal.

To provide closer contact between the State Deputy, his District Deputies, and the Grand Knights, various means have been employed, usually taking the form of a more or less regular letter.  State Deputy C. A. Beeby of Hays, for example, began the publication of weekly newsletters for District Deputies and Grand Knights in 1926.  The "State Council News Sheet" published by Ernest Tajchman, chairman of the Publicity Committee in 1946, had broader aims.

However, as the years passed there were more frequent conferences between the State Deputy or all the state officers and the District Deputies, and regional meetings of the District Deputy with the Grand Knights and Financial Secretaries of his district.  These meetings first reached prominence in the annual Proceedings during the administration of State Deputy Thomas P. Downs of Beloit.  This policy continued during the administration of State Deputy James Malone, and a resolution adopted in 1923 provided that District Deputies should attend State Conventions.  The practice of publishing the summarized reports of the District Deputies in the annual Proceedings began in 1929 when the special preliminary meeting of the state officers with the District Deputies and committee chairmen became customary.

These policies were continued and in 1930 when M. J. Healy of Topeka was State Deputy the district meetings were held quarterly, the District Deputies met twice a year, and in order to build up good degree teams the State Deputy met with these teams twice each year.  By 1941 the Committee on the Good of the Order noted that the number of major degree teams was inadequate for the growing membership and recommended that more should be trained, and if necessary compensated for their work.  The war broke into the smoothness of this organization as key men left to defend their country, but substitutes were always at hand and the affairs of the Order in Kansas continued to prosper.  The rationing of gasoline caused State Deputy Emmet A. Blaes to increase the number of districts from twenty to twenty-four to make it possible for the District Deputies to fulfill their duties.

One of the. most interesting features of the annual convention is the election of officers, with the genial campaigning that precedes it.  Apparently the whole matter was rather cut and dried before 1904 because in that year the State Council adopted a resolution abolishing the nominating committee with the explanation that it was undemocratic.  Two years later a resolution was offered that elections should be conducted by an informal, secret ballot, without oral nominations.  After the second ballot the three men with the highest number of votes were to be considered the only candidates and voting on them was to continue until one gained a majority.  This resolution was referred to the Committee on Laws.  In the following year W. E. Miller of St. Marys proposed an amendment to the by-laws which provided for formal, written nominations to be submitted several weeks before the convention.  The suggestion was studied for a year and then recommended by the Committee on Resolutions and adopted by the convention.  However, it was declared unconstitutional by the National Council.  The purpose of these proposed changes was to prevent campaigning.  A resolution adopted by the convention of 1928 deplored the inefficiency of the present method of electing state officers and directed the Committee on Law to prepare an amendment to the by-laws to conform to the practice of the Supreme Council.  Any change this may have effected is difficult to detect, though the law became longer and more specific thereafter.  As the Knights of Columbus in Kansas reach their fiftieth birthday this feature of the annual convention still retains superficial similarities to national political conventions.