Part 8 (2/2)

At this juncture Mr. Simon, of the Was.h.i.+ngton delegation, said that in all fairness to Sergeant Curtin he wanted to say that during the recent demonstration of Bolshevism in Seattle, Curtin commanded a machine gun company on the side of right and law and order.

”I do not speak for his organization,” Simon said, ”but I speak for a clique in it, headed by Sergeant Curtin, who went into that organization to clean it up, to make it a fair and square one hundred per cent. American organization.” The applause of Simon's remarks had scarcely died down when General Moss succeeded in gaining the floor.

”I want to say to the members of this delegation,” he said, ”that I led the fight against the soldiers' and sailors' organization before the Credential Committee, and I want to say to you gentlemen that we didn't lead a fight personally against this man, but against his organization.' We know the outfit in our country and we do not want that organization in unless the Americans in it come in as individuals. I want to say that we are to be organized here on a basis of one hundred per cent, true Americanism.

”I asked Curtin in the presence of the committee if he represented a minority or a majority in his outfit and he admitted that he represented the minority.”

”But we can lick a majority,” Curtin shouted back. ”I want Captain McDonald who had charge of the Intelligence Department at Camp Lewis to say a word on this subject. He knows the history of my organization and I would like to have him give it to you.” But if Curtin counted on McDonald to help him he reckoned without his host.

Captain McDonald rose and speaking with great deliberation said:

”I have been an American soldier for thirty years. I was a regular telegraph officer at the time of the Bolshevik trouble. I established stations at Seattle and Camp Lewis and this man represents the real element that we are all working against. Personally he is all right but he is backing that organization because he wants to represent it.

If he desires to be admitted into the Legion let him get loose from that outfit and come in by himself.”

Captain McDonald's statement was greeted with enthusiasm.

”Are you ready for the question?” demanded the chairman.

The caucus certainly was.

”Those favoring the adoption of the credentials report vote aye,” he cried.

That aye could almost have been heard in Seattle itself.

That aye answered the question of what the American soldier thinks of Bolshevism or anything tainted with it. That aye answered the lying statement that our troops abroad had been inoculated with the germ of the world's greatest mental madness.

That aye marked the distinction between a grouch caused by a cootie-lined bunk and a desire to place a bomb under the Capitol at Was.h.i.+ngton.

I have intimated that the chief aim of each delegate was to see that no one ”put anything over” at this caucus. I think that the only other determination which might rival that in intensity was most apparent at the mention of anything that pertained to or bordered on Bolshevism.

This incident of ousting Curtin's organization was not the only manifestation of it by any means, although it was perhaps the most striking on the floor of the caucus. But, outside the caucus, in the hotel lobbies, and in the various committee rooms, whenever the subject came up these soldier and sailor men, in almost every instance, got mad--d.a.m.n mad.

”The trouble with these people who talk Bolshevism is that they don't know anything about our country,” I heard one of them say.

Another quickly interrupted him with, ”The big thing the Legion's got to teach is Americanism and let those crack-brained fools know just what this country stands for.” While still another injected, ”The average 'long-beard' has been so crazed by persecution in Russia that he would mistake Peac.o.c.k Alley in the Waldorf-Astoria in New York for a Siberian coal mine.”

This last remark brought forth a laugh, and though it was whimsically made it illuminated the matter under discussion very well, I thought.

In fact, the whole conversation made clear to me one of the fundamental missions the Legion must perform.

The seeds of Americanism which Legion members sow to-day will be reaped, not only to-day but in the generations of to-morrow. The Soldiers and Sailors Council, Seattle, was thrown out and its representative knew why. But, if Jack Sullivan and his red, white, and blue colleagues in the State of Was.h.i.+ngton preach in the future what they did at this caucus, the children of those northwestern Bolsheviki will not only salute the Stars and Stripes, but will know _why_ they do so. They will know what their fathers don't--that the const.i.tution means Americanism and that Americanism means ”life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.”

In most conventions the reports of committees are invariably adopted.

There are many reasons for this, the particular one being the theory that when a set of men are placed on a task they will study the situation in all its angles, in all its ramifications, in all its different phases and that its report should therefore be adopted because of this expert thought and study on the matters under consideration. I say that most conventions do this. Once as a newspaper man, I attended an undertakers' convention. It always did so. And at another time I attended a manufacturers' gathering where this procedure was invariably followed out. But how about at St.

Louis? Not on your life! The delegates of the American Legion were neither like undertakers nor manufacturers nor like any-other business men that I ever saw during ten years on a Metropolitan newspaper. The new American doesn't do business that way.

Witness the report of the Committee on Name. This report read: ”We, your Committee on Name, unanimously make the following recommendation--that the name of this organization be the American Legion of World War Veterans.” The chairman had scarcely finished asking: ”What is your pleasure gentlemen” when Major Wickersham got the floor and moved an amendment that the name be ”The American Legion.” This was seconded by Mr. Cochrane of Ohio and then came the argument about it.

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