REPORT OF SENIOR VICE COMMANDER IN CHIEF.

Comrade GEORGE A. NEWMAN,

DALLAS TEX., August 9, 1915.

Adjutant General, Des Moines, Iowa.

COMRADE: In obedience to orders and following the customs of my predecessors, I have the honor to submit my report for the short time I have held the office of senior vice commander in chief.

I would be remiss in my appreciation of the great honor that was unanimously conferred upon me at the Forty-eighth National Encampment last year by electing me junior vice commander in chief if I failed to thank the comrades for their generosity. I can find no Words that will adequately express my thanks for the great honor. On March 9 the death of our beloved friend and comrade, Joseph B. Griswold, senior vice commander in chief, occurred at his home in Grand Rapids, Mich. By the rules and regulations of the Grand Army I was called upon to fill that office. I have endeavored to discharge the duties of both offices to the best interests of the Grand Army of the Republic. Our commander in chief has been so energetic in attending to the duties of his office that he has had no special or important duties to assign me. I therefore proceeded in my own way to do what seemed necessary for the order. I have visited posts in seven departments. I have attended three department encampments, installing the officers, and in company with Commander in Chief Palmer I visited the department encampment at Little Rock, Ark., and at Tulsa, Okla. At the latter place I witnessed the best demonstration of patriotism that I have ever seen in any Southern State that was the marching of 7,000 school children, each carrying a small United States flag, singing patriotic songs and cheering the commander in chief as they passed by in review. I have made many visitations to other posts throughout the departments of Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Oklahoma; besides I have never missed attending a meeting of my own post.

Two years ago the post I belong to, Post No. 6, Dallas, Tex., reported 82 members in good standing. This year we report 84 in good standing, notwithstanding the fact that we have lost in those two years 14 by death.

For the past 20 years the Texas State Fair Association, located at Dallas, Tex., has given the Grand Army "a day" at the fair and we have always made a success of it. This is perhaps the biggest annual fair in the United States; it usually runs 15 or 16 days and during that time the attendance is over 900,000. Comrades, come to Texas in October and see for yourselves.

Comrade Newman, I want to thank you and your able assistant, Miss Flood, for the uniform courtesies shown me during our terms

of office.

Respectfully submitted in F., C. and L.,

W. F. CONNER, Senior Vice Commander in Chief.

REPORT OF JUNIOR VICE COMMANDER IN CHIEF.

GEORGE A. NEWMAN,

DETROIT, MICH., August 12, 1915.

Adjutant General, Grand Army of the Republic,

Des Moines, Iowa.

DEAR COMRADE: I respectfully submit to you, and through you to the Forty-ninth National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, my report as junior vice commander in chief.

Elected to the office by the national council of administration to fill the vacancy caused by the promotion of Junior Vice Commander in Chief W. F. Conner to senior vice commander in chief occasioned by the death of Comrade Joseph B. Griswold, the senior vice commander in chief, but limited time has been accorded me in the performance of the duties of the office.

I wish to express to the comrades of the national council of administration my grateful appreciation for the honor conferred in choosing me from so many comrades eminently qualified for the position. In compliance with general orders from national headquarters, the several posts of Detroit, Mich., observed the fiftieth anniversary of the surrender of Gen. Lee and army with a public meeting, which was largely attended by the allied organizations and the public. I delivered an address on the occasion, and among other addresses was one by an ex-Confederate soldier, who voiced his loyalty to the flag and country and spoke feelingly of Gen. Grant's magnanimity and kindness in his terms of surrender to a defeated foe.

On May 31 I delivered the Memorial Day address to a large and appreciative audience at Bronson, Mich.

I attended, with the commander in chief, the encampment of the Department of Michigan, held June 17 and 18 at Kalamazoo. By invitation I addressed the encampment and in the evening spoke to a very large assemblage at a camp fire.

Owing to a conflict in the dates for holding the encampments of the Departments of Ohio and New York, the commander in chief requested me to represent him at the New York encampment held at Albany, June 22–24. I attended the same and received a most hospitable and soldierly welcome from the comrades of that department and its allied organizations. I was privileged to address the encampment as well as the various allied organizations in convention assembled. The encampment was considered a great success in its manifestations of harmony and good comradeship.

In my visitations to the encampments and meetings of the patriotic orders, I was impressed with the loyalty and zeal displayed by the Sons and Daughters of Veterans organizations in their work and