Ou,r Catlzolic Heritage in T ezas
would throw glamor on the development of this Empire State, events which today are passed over light considered. Under contemplated plans the major study would take a period of some years, but it was felt that the benefits derived would more than compensate for the energy and funds expended, especially since the immediate work of available suitable material for public addresses would be a concrete contribution to Catholic organizations, as the Catholic Knights of America, the Knights of Columbus, the Catholic Daughters of America, and other Catholic organizations. The Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus having amended its Charter enabling the society to engage in various activities of a general educational and welfare character; and about the same time established a Historical Commission, the way was opened to interest the Texas State Council of the Knights of Columbus in the great undertaking of a Catholic History of Texas. The Meeting of the State Council in Austin in May, 1923, seemed a propitious time for the initiation of this great work, and with the moral support of Capital City Council and as one of its delegates, who had been appointed by State Deputy F. W. Hustmyre as chairman of the Committee on the Good of the Order, the subject of the State Coun- cil creating an Historical Commission was submitted and the suggestion was formulated into a resolution which was unanimously approved by the committee and submitted to the State Council which adopted the committee report with enthusaism. The State Deputy, elected at this meeting of the Council, Brother Joseph I. Driscoll, gave great encouragement and impetus to the move- ment, giving his best thought to the preliminaries and to the selecting and appointing eminently qualified members of the Order to lay the foundation for the great undertaking. This beginning has been fostered by our worthy State Deputy Dr. J. I. Driscoll during the four years of his administration and has been loyally supported by each recurring State Council until a complete working organization has been per- fected, with the endorsement of the Hierarchy of Texas, and the actual work of assembling facts for accurate and true history is in earnest progress. May God be praised! Yours truly and fraternally. WM. BLAKESLEE At the time of the Austin Convention in 1923 the delegates were given a report of Anti-Catholic literature being distributed in many parts of Texas, and perhaps this situation all the more impressed the Knights of Columbus with a serious necessity to present the true fact of the Church to the fair-minded citizens of Texas. It is understandable then that the recommendation of Brother Blakeslee was promptly acted upon. At the end of the first day's session, May 15, the following resolution was adopted:
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