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meetings. The interest previously taken by some individuals, Sunday Schools and Churches was thus enlarged and unified, and the districts proceeded as in other war work to surpass their quotas by remittances through the Nebraska treasury as follows: Craig ........................................ $ 535.50
Decatur ...................................... 501.00
Lyons ........................................ 837.00
Oakland ...................................... 1,335.81
Tekamah ...................................... 1,286.58
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$4,495.89
Direct remittances to New York office also reported 314.01
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Total for 1918 campaign ...................... $4,809.90
or fifty-two per cent in excess of the 1918 quota, every district in the county having shared in the excess and the school district officers having handled the work in most of their districts. By May 1, 1918 each of the five districts had raised and remitted more than its 1918 quota. Before the armistice, however, death had taken terrible toll among the aged men, women and orphans deported to the Arabian Desert, Mesopotamia, Egypt and Russian Caucasus and suffering became very acute. The Red Cross War Council began a monthly appropriation of $300,000, to this work, and otherwise loaned its moral support to the movement, stating, however, that "substantial and important as this appropriation is, it is wholly inadequate to meet the full need, and that to provide for the entire number of people dependent upon you for aid would practically exhaust the entire fund of the American Red Cross, which, of course, is contributed largely for the relief and comfort of our own soldiers and sailors and those of our allies." As the American public received reports from their distributing committee in the Near East as to what suffering their gifts were alleviating, and as information concerning the needs became more general, the State Councils of Defense of Nebraska and other states endorsed the Armenian-Syrian Relief work. Congress finally passed Senate Bill No. 4785, incorporating forty-eight of the most prominent citizens of the United States as a body corporate of the District of Columbia by the name of the "American Committee for Relief in the Near East," "to provide relief and to assist in the repatriation, rehabilitation and re-establishment of suffering and dependent people of the Near East and adjacent areas; to provide for the care of orphans and widows, and to conduct any industrial enterprises or operations of a philanthropic character," etc. On November 29, 1918, President Wilson issued his third proclamation to Americans urging them to help complete the subscription of the $30,000,000 to be subscribed January 12-19, 1919. A Nebraska conference of county chairmen was held in Lincoln to arrange details for the various county drives, and one per cent of county quotas for the Third Liberty Loan was agreed upon as a basis for the second county quota for each county. After slight re-organizations in two districts, the work of the second county drive was undertaken with officers and quotas as follows: SECOND DRIVE - Craig - $750 - Wm. T. Minier, chairman, A. A. Danielson,
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EARLY
in the World War the Turks realized that the Armenians,
Syrians and Greeks resented political and religious
oppression and persecution by former Turkish governments.
They therefore feared the sympathies of these people would
be with the French and English and thus the Turkish
government gladly assented to the policy of extermination
and expatriation of these peoples as suggested by the German
government. Turkish army officers and soldiers then began
driving from their homes, and killing this most intelligent
and Christian element of the Near East to such an extent as
to annihilate their local governments, arouses all America
and to bring into existence the American Committee for
Armenian and Syrian Relief.
PERHAPS
the least thanked of all the war activities was the
conscientious efforts of W. M. Hopewell, food administrator
for Burt county. The absence of his report is caused by it
being sent to headquarters before we began to assemble data
for this war history.
ON
November 18, 1917, the Honorable John L. Kennedy of Omaha,
Fuel Administrator for Nebraska, sent the following telegram
to Tekamah: "To B. C. Enyart: You are hereby appointed
chairman of the fuel administration committee for Burt
county. Name not less than five nor more than nine other
members to act with you. Have a member from each town if
possible." The appointment was accepted, and pursuant
thereto, the chairman named fuel committeemen as follows:
Charles B. Clark, Craig, Neb.; Gus Busse, Decatur, Neb.;
Nels Benson, Oakland, Neb.; Howard Hopewell, Tekamah, Neb.;
John F. Piper, Lyons, Neb. Mr. Piper later moved to Sioux
City, and his place was filled by D. L. Crellin of Lyons,
Neb.
