VI
Fraternal Activities

Perhaps the most attractive advantage offered by membership in the Knights of Columbus is its social and fraternal activity - the chance to make new friends, the occasion and the place to meet old friends.  The innumerable happy hours each Knight has experienced in the company of his brothers unfortunately leave little for history to commemorate.  But as State Deputy McCarthy pointed out in 1911, the Knights of Columbus is a marvelous instrument to aid Catholic men to get to know not only the members of their own parishes, but fellow-Catholics throughout the state and particularly in their own districts.

In most councils this social life centers around the council's own clubrooms.  In 1904 Salina, Topeka, and Wichita were making "strong efforts" to acquire rooms.  Chaplain J. A. Kealy of Augusta pointed out the importance of this, even to a chaplain: "In the clubrooms he can meet the brothers in a social way, and use his influence where needed, without preaching, which men do not like." In 1907 the Committee for the Good of the Order recommended that councils establish building funds as rapidly as possible.  As the years passed more and more Councils owned their own clubrooms.  Today thirty councils have clubrooms.

One problem that periodically bothers every Grand Knight is how to get the men out for the meetings.  The early Proceedings are full of this question and the Knights of the early nineteen-hundreds, like the Knights of today, generally stressed the importance of having at least one social meeting each month.  There has been steady development along this line.

In the first years of Columbianism in Kansas it was proposed that Columbus Day would be appropriate for a statewide gathering or picnic of Kansas Knights.  State Chaplain B. J. McKernan of Fort Scott felt that such an affair was certain to be a success, for "we have orators in abundance."  The matter was discussed until 1906, but even at that early date Knights in Kansas were so numerous that aside from the annual conventions, gatherings were generally local or district affairs.  There was a notable increase in district social gatherings -- picnics, card parties, and dances -- around 1932.  Since the war district activities are again being stressed.

Initiations always bring out the members in large numbers, but at one time even this was hampered by a shortage of degree material, and in 1911 the State Deputy suggested that councils either omit the banquet with the third degree or charge for it, since small councils had a tendency to postpone initiations because they felt they could not afford "the feed".  Tastes in entertainment have changed a bit even if the degree work has not.  At the institution of Parsons Council in 1902 "the Washburn mandolin club discoursed delightful music during the banquet", and besides there were four addresses, a number of recitations, solos, etc.  Since 1943 responsibility for training degree teams and keeping degree work on a high plane of efficiency has been entrusted to the Ceremonials Committee.  J. J. Sullivan was its first chairman; he was succeeded by C. F. Simmons who served in 1945 and 1946.  Since that time Dr. Harry M. Klenda has been chairman of the committee.

Councils of Knights of Columbus presumably always had baseball teams or other groups organized for sports, but little appears in the Proceedings about this form of activity until after 1934.  In that year a resolution offered by District Three suggested that what the Knights needed was more activity for its members and recommended full athletic programs with district and state contests.  Unfortunately, measured by the yardstick of membership, the Knights of Kansas had reached a new low and the convention rejected the resolution as inopportune.  Activity along these lines was finally developed through the initiative of individual councils.  In 1941 Hutchinson Council promoted and held the First Annual Bowling Congress for the Knights of Columbus of Kansas.  The second was held at the same place in the following year.  The war interrupted this temporarily, but in 1946 State Deputy Dr. Harry M. Klenda announced that the state officers, the administrative committee chairmen, and the District Deputies in meeting had agreed to revive the bowling congress and that a successful tournament had been held at Wichita that year.  Meanwhile an Athletic Committee had been appointed with Forest D. Jensen of Wichita as chairman.  He was succeeded in 1949 by Peter A. Gottschalk.  The committee reported to the convention of 1947 that the Annual State Knights of Columbus Bowling Tournament had been held in Kansas City.  It had been sponsored by Lafayette Council 826 and seven councils had participated.  The bowlers met at El Dorado in 1948, and at Topeka in 1949.  The State Council provides trophies for the winners and these are presented at the annual convention.  The Kansas Knights of Columbus Bowling Association elected Robert E. Bess of Topeka its president in 1948 and P. A. Gottschalk of Hutchinson first vice-president.  In 1949 Brother Gottschalk of Hutchinson was elected president and Lee Hensler of Emporia first vice-president.

The First Annual Knights of Columbus Golf Tournament was held in 1947, in connection with the convention at Hays.  Jim Ludes of Salina won it and was presented with a trophy provided by the State Council.  The Second Annual tournament at Manhattan in 1948 was won by Elmer Lutz of that city.  The weather prevented the holding of the tournament at Great Bend in 1949.

The fraternal insurance plan offered by the Order is one of its greatest attractions.  The Order's founders incorporated the insurance feature for the protection of the Catholic home at the lowest cost consonant with unquestionable solvency.  In 1902 Knights of Columbus insurance was placed on a sound actuarial basis with the adoption of what came to be known as the five year step-rate plan.

As has been noted in the first chapter, associate members outnumbered insurance members in Kansas until the mid-thirties.  For one thing the majority of Kansas Knights were from rural areas and the desirability of life insurance was not so readily accepted by farmers in those days.  The idea of life insurance as a sound investment undoubtedly received impetus during the first World War.  In urban areas, on the other hand, restrictions in coverage on account of occupation made it difficult to enroll some men as insurance members.  For example railroadmen were numerous in early Kansas councils.  Newspapers commented on the number of engineers and firemen in the second class at Topeka in 1901 and the number of railroaders present at the institution of Parsons Council in 1902.  Resolutions were regularly passed in the State Convention to have the rules amended so that these men could be eligible for insurance.

Another repeated resolution asked for the reduction of the assessment for members over sixty years of age (over fifty-five in 1932).  Supreme Director Healy said in 1932 that this was being considered by the Supreme Directors.

The depression put a strain on many insurance members.  The Supreme Council authorized the automatic assessment loan which went into effect on January 1, 1930.  This in effect permitted the insurance member to borrow his assessments from the loan value of his insurance.  This feature proved to be a boon to many insurance members otherwise faced with the impossibility of continuing payments on their insurance, but it was not an unmixed blessing.  One thousand and thirteen members in Kansas were using AAL in 1937 and the State Deputy attributed the loss of over five hundred members to exhausted equity.  Loss of members from this source tapered down to seventy-one in 1947.  At that time four hundred and fifty-two were still using the automatic assessment loan.  Most of this loss through the exhaustion of equity in policies is supposed to have been of young members whose certificates had run only a few years.  Older policies in nearly every instance had accumulated sufficient equity to carry the insurance through the entire period of the depression.

At the Supreme Convention in 1940 the Order authorized the writing of new forms of insurance on limited payment and endowment plans corresponding in many respects with similar forms of insurance written by commercial companies.  At the same time an insurance department was set up with a fulltime agency force in every jurisdiction.  M. J. Dorzweiler was named agent for Kansas and when the State Council set up an Insurance Committee in 1943 he was named its chairman.  He had been joined in 1942 by Leo J. Wagner as field agent.  They were succeeded in 1948 by Gus Ley who supervises the eastern part of the state and Walter Clemmens in the west.

Insurance for juveniles, which had been proposed by resolutions of the Kansas State Council since 1921, was introduced in Kansas in 1948.

Even in 1929 Kansas ranked second in the ratio of insurance to total membership.  Only Illinois had a higher percentage of insurance members.  After the rapid decline in the late twenties associate membership numbered less than half the number of insurance members by 1933.  The growth of the forties closed this gap somewhat, but insurance members still outnumber associate members by almost three thousand and since about 1942 Kansas has held first place in the ratio of insurance to associate members.

The State Council in 1913 experimented with a bit of social service by designating the State Secretary the State Employment Agent of the Knights of Columbus of Kansas, with the idea of furnishing a clearing house for job hunters and employers.  After a year's trial the State Secretary reported that the Employment Bureau had assisted several men, but that he was sure "that the expectation of the originators of this plan was not realized." In the following year there were only four inquiries and the experiment was discontinued with general agreement that it had not been a success.

In recent years the Supreme Council has been more active in promoting healthy activity in local councils, particularly through its Five Point Program, although this is still largely concerned with recruiting members.  The system of committees set up in 1943 included a Program Committee to help guide activity in the councils.  The chairmen of this committee have been: John L. Hogan, 1943-44; Ed.  L. Dunbar, 1945-46; L. D. McKinney, 1947; L. G. McGlinchy, 1948; W. J. Burns, 1949.

Erected at the same time and closely related in activity is the Membership Committee.  Its chairmen have been: L. J. McGlinchy, 1943-46; Leo Brinkman, 1947-48; Grant Lane, 1949.

A recent form of fraternal charity is the Knights of Columbus Blood Donors Plan, whereby Knights enroll themselves with their officers as being willing to donate their blood, primarily for the benefit of their fellow Knights and their families, but not refusing cases of indigence.  This plan was initiated in Kansas in 1938.  In 1940 it was announced that eighteen councils were participating in the plan.  As the idea spread a committee was appointed with Frank A. Dlabal of Wilson as chairman.  He was succeeded in 1945 by Alexander Phannestiel.  Since 1946 R. E. Lamb has been chairman of the committee.  By 1941 the committee could report that thirteen councils had 311 members enrolled and typed and that 132 transfusions had been given in the past year.  The movement continued to spread and to grow, but during the war general blood donor drives were confused in the minds of some members with the Knights of Columbus plan which had originated before the war.  Once more operating independently after the war, 1946 saw twenty-five councils enrolled, eight of which reported 143 transfusions.  The plan is growing rapidly now as can be seen from the fact that in 1949 fifty-four groups gave a total of 1,609 transfusions.  Now that hospitals have exhausted the war-time bank of plasma there will undoubtedly be greater demands on the services of these Knights.

The Knights of Columbus, particularly since the first World War, have interested themselves in providing programs of organized activity for boys.  The degree of interest in this work has fluctuated rather widely from year to year among the Knights in Kansas and never reached a high pitch of enthusiasm.  A resolution offered to the convention of 1922, proposing to endorse a new Catholic order known as the Junior Knights of America, was finally referred to the bishops of the state for their opinion.  This seems to have been an unofficial move by some group within the Knights to provide an organization for boys not yet old enough to become Knights.  Shortly after this the Supreme Officers evidently decided to provide an official organization leading into the Knights of Columbus.  In October, 1923, they created the Columbian Squires and established a two year post-graduate course in youth activity at Notre Dame to prepare leaders.  Brother Barnabas, C. S. C. appeared before the convention the following year to explain the Columbian Squires movement.  Following this Hays Council sponsored a class in Boyology given under the auspices of the Knights of Columbus Boy Life Bureau.  This class was attended by about four hundred.  Topeka sponsored a similar class in 1929 and then instituted the first Circle of Columbian Squires in Kansas.  At the convention of 1929 Wichita Circle 47 was instituted.  However, State Deputy M. J. Healy of Topeka reported in 1930 that the ardor of the membership toward the Squire movement had somewhat cooled.  In 1934 there was another brief flurry of activity when Wichita and Atchison held Boyology Institutes, but by the following year only the Atchison Circle of Columbian Squires survived in Kansas.

In that same year it was suggested that if the councils were reluctant to assume the responsibility of sponsoring Squires, that they foster troops of Boy Scouts for the Catholic boys of their communities.  The bishops at this time had determined to encourage the formation of troops of Boy Scouts for Catholic groups, and the convention put itself on record as pledging its cooperation in this work and a committee was appointed for this purpose.  For the next three years (1936-38) the conventions were given rather elaborate demonstrations of the Scouting program and the Columbian Squire movement was overshadowed.  State Deputy E. D. Sheehan announced in 1936 that the aim of the Knights was to have a Boy Scout Troop in every parish.

A new swing back to the Columbian Squires was marked with the appointment in 1939 of a Committee for Columbian Squire Activity.  Its chairman was Dr. Harry M. Klenda.  An Adult Leadership School sponsored by the Knights of Columbus was held at St. Benedict's College that summer.  Pittsburg added a Circle in 1939, but by 1946 apparently only the Wichita Circle was active.  C. W. Regan was chairman of the committee in 1943 and 1944.  E. A. Grollmes, chairman in 1946, reported that many councils unfortunately misunderstood the work of the Squires but that nevertheless interest in the movement was growing.

Bernard Farrell has been chairman of the committee since 1947.  A Circle was instituted in Manhattan in 1948.  Another in Concordia had to be postponed until 1949 on account of the disastrous fire suffered by that council.  With the institution of that Circle and additional members enrolled at Wichita and Manhattan, 1949 proved the most encouraging year thus far.  At present the Boy Life Committee is encouraging each council to sponsor some sort of youth program.  If the Columbian Squires are not suited to the circumstances of every council, it is urged that Boy Scouts, 4-H, CYO affiliates, or plain sand-lot clubs be supported.

The Knights in Kansas lent a hand with other youth activities, as well, back in the twenties.  At one time the Fourth Degree awarded a gold medal to the winner of a quiz contest in American History.

Starting in 1923 various Catholic High Schools in Kansas met at Manhattan for a statewide basketball tournament.  The State Council of 1925 voted a hundred and fifty dollars to help send the winning team to the national Catholic High School tournament at Chicago.  In the following years the appropriation was increased to two hundred and fifty dollars and was continued until 1928 when a ruling by the state athletic commission prevented any participant from taking part in the national tournament.

Knights in Kansas have concerned themselves with the history of Catholicism in Kansas as well as with their own history.  About the tenth anniversary of the organization of the State Council State Secretary J. M. Steffen began to compile a history of the Knights of Columbus in Kansas.  This project was carried on by his successor Secretary L. J. Degarmo of Great Bend and in 1915 a committee was appointed to prepare the work for publication.  Members of the committee were P. J. Monaghan, J. W. Gibbons, and B. J. Long, all of Topeka.  In 1916 one hundred and fifty dollars was appropriated "to have the material put in substantial form."  But after that no more was heard of it.

By 1929 several Knights began to interest themselves in the preservation of historical documents and data relating to the history of the Church in Kansas.  A resolution adopted by the convention that year favored the organization of a Kansas Catholic Historical Society and directed the State Deputy to appoint a committee to promote its organization.  A year later State Deputy M. J. Healy announced that he had appointed George Bordenkircher, W. W. Graves, and the Reverend Leonard Schwinn, O.S.B. to the committee and that the historical society had been formed.  He pointed out that the State Council did not undertake to carry out the work of the society but was merely interested in its organization.  He urged members and councils to join the society and support it.  In the years following the Knights were asked to collect material for the archives of the new society, and in 1936 State Deputy E. D. Sheehan of Goodland announced that it had been decided to deposit the records of the State Council there.  For four years after 1939 the State Council appropriated twenty-five dollars annually to help provide for the expense of collecting and storing these materials.

In spite of this the society did not succeed in assembling a complete file even of the annual Proceedings of the State Council until, on recommendation of the Committee on Laws in 1945, State Deputy Dr. Harry M. Klenda of Wichita appointed a committee of three to compile and preserve the records of the State Council.  At the same time he recommended that they make preparations for a history celebrating the Golden Jubilee of Knighthood in Kansas in 1950.  The committee, first composed of Dr. A. M. Murphy, Herman J. Tholen (now chairman), and A. J. Roberts, immediately began work on this project and by 1947 had begun to receive reports from individual councils.  The present volume is the result of their labors.