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TWENTY-SIX THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA AUGUST 25, 1945 John W. Gleason, K.S.G. Retiring From Cotton Business in Savannah (Special to Yhe Bulletin) SAVANNAH, Ga. — John W. Gleason, K. S, G., pioneer Savan nah cottofi man, will close his of fice on September 1, after over sixty years in the cotton factorage business. Mr. Gleason rounded out his sixty-third season as a cotton factor on July 31. Mr. Gleason is a past president of the Savannah Cotton and Na val Stores Exchange and has served as a director for many years. He is vice-president of the Female Orphan Benevolent Soci ety, which operates St. Mary’s Home here, and is one of the city’s outstanding Catholic lay leaders. He was Jionored by His Holiness Pope Pius XI with knighthood in the Order of St. Gregory the Great. During his long career on cot ton row. Mr. Gleason has witness ed the rise and decline of King Cotton as Savannah’s No. 1 com modity. When he chose the cot ton business as his life work, sailing vessels choked the harbor, and what few streets of the city * were paved, were paved in cob blestones. Kerosene was the popular source of illumination and elec tricity and the telephone were “modern wonders’’ back when Mr. Gleason, as a young man, entered the cotton business. He vividly recalls the 20's when cotton re ceipts at Savannah rose {o well over a million bales, whereas the annual receipts now will average only 10,000 bales annually. Looking back over six decades, Mr. Gleason recalled how Bay street a half century ago was the focal point of Savannah’s business district. The life of the city re volved around cotton and the tramp of mule-drawn drays was a continuous sound all day as they moved cotton to the ware houses and docks. “Many a fortune was made and lost,’’ Mr. Gleason observed. Back in the “old days’’ Savan nah boasted at least fifteeen cotton factorage firms, in addition to other dealers in the fleecy staple. For some years Mr. Gleason was the sole surviving cotton factor in the city. He began his career in the cot ton business as office boy with the John Flannery company, and sub sequently worked in many posi tions with that firm. He estab lished his own business in 1918, and in 1924 took over the John Flannery company. Commenting on Mr. Gleason’s retirement. The Savannah Evening Press declared in an editorial: “The type of man with whom it is a pleasure to do business, Mr. Gleason has had a long and hon orable career. He has sustained the best traditions of Savannah as a trading center and his company will long be remembered for its fairness and probity, a business whose word was its bond. “Mr. Gleason retires to take a well deserved rest with the most pleasant recollections held by a long line of satisfied customer. Hus many friends wish him many, many more years to enjoy his leisure.” CHAPLAINS RECEIVE BRONZE STAR AWARDS WITH THE U. S. ARMY ON LUZON — (Delayed) — The Rev. Daniel F. X. Shannon, Army chaplain and priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn, has been awarded the Bronze Star for his service during the Leyte and Luzon cam paigns. In addition to the Bronze Star, he has received four battle stars, the Philippine liberation medal and the Asiatic Pacific ribbon. He has been overseas two years and has participated in the New Britain, New Guinea, Leyte and Luzon campaigns. HONOLULU. — (N. C.) Lieut. Col. Leonard A. LeClair, priest of the Diocese of Portland, Maine, and head chaplain of the 96th Di vision on Okinawa, has been dec orated with the Bronze Star for bravery during the Leyte cam paign. When Father LeClair, who is a veteran of twenty-two assault landings in the Pacific, received his decoration, one of the first to congratulate him was Col. Philip 4. Newman, priest of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, who holds the same decoration. Father Newman was a sergeant in the A. K F. during World War I and now fc head chaplain of the XXIV .Army Corps, which participated in the Leyte and Okinawa cam paigns. “Leper Priest" Joins Army Chaplain Corps AUGUSTAN AWARDED BRONZE STAR—Major Angelo J. Punaro, son of Mr. and Mrs, Anthony Punaro, of Augusta, is pictured as he received the Bronze S tar Medal, for heroic achievement in action against the enemy, from Brigadier General Andrew C. Tyscn, assistant commander of the 100th Infantry Division in Germany. He is attached to the 399th Infantry Regiment. Major Punaro’s wife is the former Miss Anina Benedetto, daughter of Mrs. Aristide A. Benedetto, of Macon, and the late Mr. Bendetto. They have a young son, Anthony Joseph Punaro, who has not yet had the opportunity to become ac quainted with his soldier father.—(Signal Corps Photo—Courtesy of The Augusta Chronicle), Distinguished Speakers Have Addressed Conventions of Laymens Association Annually since its first conven tion in Macon the members of the Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia have met in convention to enable the members to learn of the work accomplished during the year just closing and to make plans and elect officers for the coming year. These annual conventions were unique gatherings, that brought together Catholics from every part of the sixty thousand square miles of Georgia territory. They pro vide opportunity to make ac quaintances that ripened into friendships. At each convention a brilliant feature was the address delivered by a guest speaker, and some of the leading Catholic laymen of the United States have honored the Laymen’s Association, with their presence on these occasions, some of them appearing before its ses sions several times. Among those who addressed the Laymen’s Association were Mi chael Williams, noted author and editor of the Commonweal; John Moody, distinguished convert and one of the world’s leading eco nomists, internationally known in the field of commerce and finance; the late Admiral William S. Benson, a former Georgian, chief of the United States naval operations during the first World War, and Victor Ridder, New York publisher. On several occasions the Lay mens’ Association heard Honor able David I. Walsh, United States Senator from Massachusetts. It was also addressed by Col. P. H. Callahan, of Louisville, Ky„, who as chairman of the Religious Pre judice Committee of the Knights of Columbus, rendered great serv ice to the Laymen’s Association in its early years, and through whom the Association came in contact with Benedict Elder, editor of the Record, and a leading attorney of Louisville. Mr. Elder has been prominently identified with the work of the Laymen's Association from the beginning, has attended practically ail of its conventions, spoken at many of them, and still continues to serve the Laymen’s Association in an advisory capaci ty- The Laymen’s Association also had among its convention speakers Dr. John G. Coyle, physician, edu cator, lecturer and writer, of New York, and head of the Knights of Columbus lecture bureau. Mem bers of the Association' were also privileged to hear a stirring ad dress by Maj. Gen. Paul B. Malone, of the United States Army, and other addresses by Dr. Clarence E. Manion, professor of law at the University of Notre Dame; Hon. Jack J. Spalding, K.S.G., leading attorney and prominent Catholic laymen of Atlanta, who was an officer of the Association until his death several years ago. They were also addressed by Bartley J. Doyle, distinguished Catholic lay man of Philadelphia. At the convention in 1936, at which time the University of Notre Dame conferred its Laetare Medal upon Richard Reid, then serving as executive secretary of the Lay men's Association, the convention speakers included the Most Rev. John F. O'Hara C.S.C., Bishop of Buffalo, who at that time was the president of the University of Notre Dame; Rev. Michael Earls, S. J., faculty moderator of alumni, Holy Cross College; the Rev. Law rence A. Walsh, S. J., Dean of the Graduate School of Fordham Uni versity; Vincent de-^Paul Fitzpat rick, editor of The Baltimore Cath olic Review, and Thomas J. Hamil ton, • publisher of the Augusta Chronicle. At its Silver Jubilee convention held in Savannah in 1940, the Lay men’s Association was honored by the participation of His’ Excellency the Most Rev. Amleto Giovanni Cicognani, Apostolic Delegate to the United States, who addressed the afternoon session held at the Savannah Municipal Auditorium. Other speakers on the program of the Silver Jubilee convention were Honorable Clare Gerald Fenerty, Judge of the Court of 1 Common Pleas, Philadelphia; Frank J. Sheed, noted author, lec turer and publisher, of New York and London; Richard Reid, former executive secretary of the Asso ciation, and the late Mayor Thomas Gamble, of Savannah. The following year, at the con vention in Rome, Mrs. Frank Sheed, who under her maiden name, Maisie Ward, has gained re nown as a writer, was the guest speaker. At the convention held in Macon in 1942, the Hon. Charles Fahy, Solicitor General of the United States, a brother of Bernard S. Fahy, of Rome, present president of the Laymen’s Association, was the guest speaker. Speakers at the 1943 convention held in Augusta were Bishop O’Hara and Richard Reid, and F. Frederick Kennedy, acting mayor of Augusta, who extended a wel come to the delegates. At the twenty-ninth annual con vention of the Laymen’s Associa tion, held in Atlanta last October, the Hon. James F. McGranery, the Assistant Attorney General of the United States, was the guest speak er. Others on the program were the Hon. Ellis Arnall, Governor of Georgia, and Mayor William B. Hartsfield, of Atlanta. Until the nature of this year’s session has been definitely decid ed upon, it will not be known whether or not a speaker will be invited to address the gathering. HIS HOLINESS Pope Pius XII received a carved ivory miniature of the statue of Christ the King, a symbol of peace, which dominates King Island, between Asia and North America, when he received the Rev. Bernard R. Hubbard, S. J., the American “Glacier Priest" in audience. The miniature, pre sented by Father Hubbard, was a gift of Alaskan Eskimos to the Holy Father. Father Hubbard is in Europe photographing Jesuit houses destroyed in the war. He is also giving lectures to American soldiers on the post-war possibili ties of Alaska. FOUR YEARS SERVICE as a Navy Chaplain has convinced Lt. Comdr. John F. Woloch, priest of the Dloeese of Rochester, that “the men in service have not lost their reunion,” bat on the contrary, "many have found their religion.” CAPT. HAVERTY, ATLANTA, JUST MISSED V-2 BOMB ATLANTA, Ga.—A well-known Atlantan can lay claim to have been as close to one of the Ger man terror bombs as any other man, a picture in a recent issue of The Saturday Evening Post reveal ed! He is Capt. James Rawson Hav- erty, son of Clarence Haverty, one of the leading Catholic laymen of Atlanta. The picture in The Post was one of the illustrations of an article entitled “How Antwerp Was Sav ed,” and shows Capt. Haverty with his foot resting on the nearly whole wreckage of a Nazi V-2 fly ing bomb. NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — The Rev. Joseph P, Sweeney, widely known as New Britain’s “leper priest”, has been commissioned in the Army Chaplains Corps. After a six-week training course at Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., he will be assign ed to a foreign post. Father Sweeney has expressed the hope that his foreign assign ment will take him back to China, where he conducted a mission un til his labors were interrupted by the war. FORT OGLETHORPE, Ga. — Father Joseph P. Sweeney, who is the hero of the first chapter of “Men of Maryknoll”, a colleition of true stories of young Ameri cans from Maryknoll-on-the-Hud- son working for their fellow men in troubled corners’ of the earth, was among the guests at a dinner given at the Reed House in Chat tanooga for the Catholic chaplains at the Army Chaplain Corps school here. Father Sweeney spent twenty- two years as a Maryknoll Mission- er in Asia, ten if which were lived in a leper colony in South China. The Most Rev. Francis J. Spell man, Archbishop of New York, and Military Vicar, who was host at the dinner, was represented by the Most Rev. William T. McCar ty, C. SS. R., Military Delegate. The Most Rev. William L. Adrian, D. D., Bishop of Nashville, was represented by the Right Rev. Msgr. Albert A. Siener, Vicar Gen eral of the Diocese of Nashville. A special, guest was the Most Rev. Gerald P. O’Hara, D. D., J. U. D., Bishop of Savannah-Atlanta, and Military Vicar, who was ac companied by the Rev. James Mc Cann, C. SS. R., of Dalton. Twenty-one Catholic chaplains, three of them members of the iac- ulty, and the others students at the school for chaplains, attended the dinner. ’ Dining and Dancing Nightly AT THE CARMICHAEL CLUB South of Augusta on Old Savannah Road •GOOD FOOD »GOOD MUSIC COMFORTABLE, BECAUSE IT’S AIR COOLED Special Attention Given Parties DIAL 2-2683 or 2-2877 Best Wishes ~7tie Jones fURniTURc company inc Augusta, Georgia