"Caseys"

"Caseys"

Solemn high mass in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Manhattan, formally opened the 42nd Annual Convention of the Knights of Columbus. Bishop William Turner of Buffalo keynoted with a sermon on that popular subject, Atnericanism--aiming veiled thrusts at the K. K. K. The 356 delegates arose from their knees, paraded down Fifth Ave. to the Waldorf-Astoria.

After a prima donna had carolled the National Anthem, John F. Hylan, Mayor of New York, gave the "Caseys" the freedom of the City in one of his famed welcome-speeches. Said he: "If any of you get in any mix-up with the 'cops' while you are here, just give them the high sign; if that does not work, call me up at City Hall. . . . One of your faith has been permitted to direct this city. . . . The work of this Order is well known. . . . Its championship* of American principles and ideals. . . ."

Forthwith, John Barton Payne, on behalf of his American Red Cross, presented the Knights with a portrait of Pope Pius X (1835-1914), purchased in Mexico. Supreme Knight Flaherty of Philadelphia reviewed the "Casey" year. Pope Pius XI let fall his apostolic benediction through the writing of Cardinal Gasparri and the lips of Edward L. Hearn, K. C, Commissioner at Rome.

Next day, a South Dakota Bishop, Bernard J. Mahoney, performed a paradox. He condemned the Ku Klux Klan without naming it and at the same time scored the two larger political Conventions for having failed to name it in their condemnations.

Among other greetings, this was read: "The Independent Order of B'rith Abraham, the largest Jewish fraternity in the world, sends fraternal greetings and best wishes."

(Signed) ADOLPH STERN,

Grand Master.

Daniel A. Tobin, of Brooklyn, was elected Supreme Director to succeed William P. Larkin, Manhattanite.

Before dispersing, the "Caseys" voted to become book and magazine censors, "to organize and finance a movement for fighting the dissemination of immoral and harmful literature." Further, they voted $38,000 to restore the statue of their patron, Christopher, which was destroyed some years gone by earthquakes where it stood on his second landing spot at Aguadilla, Porto Rico.

*The Mayor of the biggest city in the world is a partial illiterate. What he must have meant here was "championing."