Part 23 (1/2)
Lest insincerity be charged let it be said here that there _was_ some unfavorable comment. One New England paper was surprised that soldiers, sailors and marines were not clever enough to know that the American people would perceive their attempt, through this organization, to ”drive a six mule team through the Treasury” and get pension and pay grabs. One Southern paper pictured Colonel Roosevelt returning from the St. Louis caucus, a defeated candidate for the chairmans.h.i.+p, with all hope of the future blasted, while one in Ohio said with equal accuracy and solemnity that ”there is no need of such an organization at this time, now that the country is entering the era of peace.”
But here is the comment. It comes from north, east, south, and west, and it is typical:
_New York Times_, April 10, 1919.--... It is a pleasure to know that Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, the worthy inheritor of a beloved American name, has called a meeting of soldiers and sailors at St. Louis. Lieutenant Colonel Bennett Clark, son of Mr. Champ Clark, is an a.s.sociate of Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt, in the plan for an organization of all our soldiers and sailors as the American Legion. These two gentlemen, a.s.sociated in a patriotic movement, indicate by their names its common national purpose, apart from politics and partisans.h.i.+p.
”A nonpartisan and non-political a.s.sociation is to be formed,”
says Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt, ”an a.s.sociation which will keep alive the principles of justice, freedom, and democracy for which these veterans fought.” Justice, freedom, and democracy, without partisans.h.i.+p! The idea is n.o.ble. It should prevail.
_Leavenworth_ (Kansas) _Post_, April 30, 1919.--... The character of the men of the American Army who are promoting it [the Legion] and the high ideals which it professes and proposes to maintain are a guaranty that it will be a power for helpful service in the common family of the nation.
The plan of organization sprang from the desire of serious and able men in the American Army to maintain the high ideals for which all of them have fought, to preserve the soldier comrades.h.i.+p and carry it over into civilian life as an element of broad helpfulness while keeping the record of the army free from the taint of selfish aims. It was also wisely intended to forestall by the creation of one big genuinely representative, nonpartisan and democratic body, the formation of numerous smaller organizations in various places by men intent on exploiting the soldier sentiment and the soldier vote for other than patriotic purposes.
_New York Sun_, April 11, 1919.--... The American Legion will do an indispensable service. We, who have lived up to the past few years in an agitation of protest against the pension grab must now make our minds over sufficiently to realize that in the new situation we run immediately into danger not of over-pensioning the veterans of to-day but of neglecting them.
The new organization must of course be nonpartisan and non-political. Precedent enough exists in the career of the Grand Army to make that clear. It should include and enjoy the guidance of the most influential military men. Politicians it will have at its service so long as it is well run and organized from within. Despite its proper political limitations, it should serve as the most salutary means to influence returned soldiers to cling to plain old Americanism, shed their martial acquirements and return to plain, praiseworthy citizens.h.i.+p.
_Was.h.i.+ngton Star_, April 10, 1919.--... The American Legion is to be welcomed as an agency for the promotion of the best in our national life. It will represent, with other things, the majesty of numbers. A great many men will be eligible to members.h.i.+p; and they will be young, and full of hope and purpose. And when they act together in matters within the scope of their organization they will represent a force to be reckoned with in the formulating of public policies.
_Brooklyn Eagle_, April 11, 1919.--Organization of ”The American Legion” is going on rapidily in every State in the Union. Vast as was the ma.s.s of eligibles on which the Grand Army of the Republic could draw after the Civil War, it did not compare with the Legion's bulk of raw material. There will be a formal caucus on May 8th, at St. Louis, of a real representative character, in which it is said the enlisted men of the army and navy will have a majority. Lieutenant Colonel Henry L. Stimson, once Secretary of War, outlines the plan. He believes that this country's future hereafter is in the hands of the men below thirty years of age who fought this war. He trusts that the lesson in practical democracy afforded by military experience and the ideals of democracy emphasized by military enthusiasm may be kept permanently alive.
That this is the main hope of the more active organizers we have no doubt. Men like Major General O'Ryan, General Charles I.
Debevoise, and Colonel Theodore Roosevelt and Colonel Robert Bacon would never think of making such a body a lever for pension legislation or an agency of politics. Yet the temptation to a divergence from the higher ideals is strong, and the rank and file may not be inclined to resist it.
_St. Louis Globe-Democrat,_ April II, 1919.--... Such societies, it has been proved, are never partisan. They are invariably exponents of broad-gauge patriotism. That they have great political influence in a high national sense is true, but they have never misused it nor ever viewed their mission in a narrow spirit. They preserve the touch of the elbow throughout life, but only as thorough Americans, devoted first, last, and always to our common country.
St. Louis is proud to be selected as the place for the inauguration of this admirable and undoubtedly perpetual society. All wars are represented by societies formed by their veterans, and all alike have been truly and broadly patriotic.
It will be the same with the new order, whose members.h.i.+p will, on the strength of numbers called to the colors, far exceed any former parallel. This event will be a datemark in our patriotic annals and in the progress of the nation.
_Syracuse_ (N.Y.) _Herald_, April 13, 1919.--It has been earnestly stated, as might have been expected, that the American Legion will be strictly nonpartisan. That much might be inferred from the circ.u.mstance that one of the leading a.s.sociates of Roosevelt in organizing the Legion is Lieutenant Colonel Bennett Clark, son of the late Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives. Colonel Roosevelt is sufficient authority for the a.s.surance that the movement is neither partisan nor political. He calls it ”an a.s.sociation which will keep alive the principles of justice, freedom and democracy for which these veterans fought.” Viewed in that sentimental, ethical and patriotic light, it is a commendable undertaking. The American people will wish it well, and be glad to see it flourish....
_Norfolk_ (Va.) _Dispatch_, April 9, 1919.--If the American Legion now in process of organization by young Colonel Roosevelt and his a.s.sociates, clings to the principles of foundation and holds by the purposes proclaimed by its founders, it may become a mighty force for good in the land. It will be composed of several millions of comparatively youthful Americans, a large percentage of whom will be voters, while virtually all will have demonstrated their readiness to fight their country's battles with weapons far deadlier than bullets.... This a.s.sumes the legion will fulfill the part it has undertaken to play in the country's life. If it should degenerate into a selfish protective body, it will be worse than useless. But there is little reason to fear it will fall so far below its ideals while there is every reason to hope it will be a powerful factor in helping the country to find itself again.
_New Orleans Item_, April 14, 1919.--The American Legion through the tremendous influence and mighty power of 3,000,000 organized fighting men, is certain to shape and control the destinies of the nation in years to come to an extent of which the wise will refrain from even suggesting a limit. With the announcement by Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt that the ”Legion will be interested in policies, but not in politics,” the opinion may safely be hazarded that the great political parties of the country are due to have new mentors, from whom they may be forced to look anxiously for their cues.
Primarily among the announced purposes of the Legion is the perpetuating of those principles of justice, freedom and democracy for which its members either fought or stood ready to fight. On the field in France or in the training camps at home, the millions of America's best manhood have learned intimately and well a new lesson of individual and national responsibility.
Such lessons, at the cost they were obtained, are not to be forgotten or lost. The ideals of the fighting men of the states, producing the valor and the power which made the American Army irresistible, and the revelations by fire of new realizations and brotherhood and of world and national citizens.h.i.+p are surely to be felt in the calm, happier times of peace.
_Philadelphia Record_, April 10, 1919.--... If, as Colonel Roosevelt predicts, the members.h.i.+p shall eventually comprise 4,000,000 men who were in the military and naval service of the United States in the late war, it will have possibilities of power that must be reckoned with. But if, in the long life before it, the American Legion shall have no more to its discredit than is summed up in the history of the G.A.R. whose ranks are now so pathetically thin, it will have been a worthy follower of its fathers.
_Paterson_ (N.J.) _Evening News_, May 7, 1919.--... The new organization starts its career deserving and receiving the good wishes of the entire country. The character of the men of the American army who are promoting it and the high ideals which it professes and proposes to maintain are a guaranty that it will be a power for helpful service in the common family of the nation.