Part 23 (2/2)

_Duluth_ (Minn.) _Herald_, May 24, 1919.--There is a great field for the American Legion, the organization of American veterans of the World War, and judging by the spirit of the recent convention and by the expressions of the returning delegates as reported in the press of the country, it is going to fill that field.

And the field that awaits it, and that it seems to intend to fill, is a field of a vigorous and aggressive effort to demand and enforce a strong and coherent and consistent Americanism.

Not the swashbuckling kind of Americanism--the chip-on-the-shoulder kind--the we-can-lick-the-world kind. These lads of ours are the last in the world to preach that fool kind of Americanism. For they--or at least those of them who crossed the seas and fought for liberty and peace on the other side--have seen in the case of Germany what that kind of nationalism comes to, and they are against it.

But there is a type of Americanism which is utterly free from the taint of militarism and jingoism, but that yet is even more dangerous to anybody at home or abroad who flaunts the spirit of America and defies its power. And unless the signs fail, the American Legion is going to express and embody and inculcate that type of Americanism.

_Anaconda_ (Mont.) _Standard_, May 24, 1919.--... At St. Louis the members voted down all proposals for obtaining from Congress increases of pay for the soldiers and rejected all efforts to obtain canva.s.ses of the members to ascertain their preference as to parties and as to presidential candidates. Everything was excluded which would tend to committ the organization to any particular party or any particular candidate. Young Colonel Roosevelt, son of the former republican president, and Colonel Bennett Clark, son of Champ Clark, former democratic speaker of the house, joined hands in the endeavor to keep partisans.h.i.+p and politics out of the organization.

_Collier's Weekly_, May 31, 1919.--A national convention of American soldiers and sailors in which no grievances were aired, no political axes ground, no special privileges or preferments demanded; where oratorical ”bunk” was hooted down; where social discrimination was taboo and military rank counted not at all; where the past glories of war were subordinated to the future glories of peace and where the national interest was placed above all partisans.h.i.+p--that is something new under the sun. It was in such a convention held in St. Louis during the second week in May, that the new spirit of the American army and navy expressed itself articulately for the first time since the armistice was signed. The birth of the American Legion was attended by circ.u.mstances having a significance comparable with those surrounding the signing of a certain doc.u.ment in Philadelphia one hundred and forty-three years ago, come July 4th.

A brigadier general arises to ”place in nomination the name of a man who--” and is cried down by doughboys with calls of ”Name him! Who is he?” A proposal to give extra pay to enlisted men is unanimously defeated because, as Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt put it, ”we are not here to sandbag something out of the Government, but to put something into it.” The invitation to make Chicago the next meeting place of the Legion is refused because ”American soldiers and sailors don't want to go to a city whose mayor would be ashamed to welcome such a convention.”

A progressive Republican, son of a famous father, refuses the chairmans.h.i.+p to quiet suspicion of personal ambition, and the office goes to a Southern Democrat of whose party the gathering is in complete ignorance.

One of the convention stenographers said: ”This is the funniest convention I have ever attended.” We have an idea that there was an element of prophecy in her homely remark--a body representing more than four million American soldiers and sailors that makes so little political noise is likely to be about as funny to the conventionally minded politician as a bombardment of gas sh.e.l.ls.

This language of restraint in the mouths of organized civilian youth may prove to be a natural companion to the famous battle slogan of the A.E.F.: ”Let's go!”

_New York Evening Post_, May 3, 1919.--... The true usefulness of a veterans' organization is not far to seek. Like the G.A.R., the Legion should maintain and develop the comrades.h.i.+p bred by the war. It can a.s.sist the unfortunate in its ranks; it can take care of the widows and orphans of soldiers, in so far as any inadequacy of public provision seems to make care necessary. The Legion can preserve the fame of soldiers and commanders, by erecting monuments, by seeing that histories are written, and by proceedings of its regular reunions. It can foster such a public recollection of the great deeds of the war as well as broaden and deepen American patriotism. Sherman remarked in 1888 that there was some danger that a peace-loving generation in time of crises ”would conclude that the wise man stays at home, and leaves the fools to take the buffets and kick of war.” This danger can best be met by just such an organization as the G.A.R., with its campfires of song and story. Comrades.h.i.+p, charity and patriotism--these should be the Legion's watchwords.

_New Haven_ (Conn.) _Union_, April 16, 1919.--... Its more immediate task, as its promoters see it, is to help the members and the families of members who maybe in need of a.s.sistance. No comrade of the great struggle is to feel that he is forgotten and forsaken by the comrades who served the same great cause.

Its large and more permanent duty is to spread the sentiment of patriotism, to set an example of love of country, and unselfish service, to keep blooming always in the soldiers' bosom the flower of sacrifice that springs from every soldier's grave in France.

_Philadelphia Press_, April 10, 1919.--The organization of the soldiers of the late war into a permanent body is inevitable and entirely proper.

_Capper's Weekly_, May 24, 1919.--The American Legion organized at St. Louis is the new G.A.R. and through its platforms the views of the soldiers who fought in France will be heard. It is already apparent what the trend of that sentiment is. Whatever military system this nation sets up, if it meets the approval of the two million men who served the nation in the Great War, it will be democratic in spirit and as far as possible in form. It will be an army in which the self-respect of the common soldier will be recognized. The returning soldier has no use for anyone living here who is not wholly American, and is for expelling the unnaturalized alien wherever found. Loyalty to the Nation is fundamental in the soldiers' view.

The Nation must safeguard itself and make a distinction between citizens who offer themselves and their all, and citizens who, for whatever reason, withhold some part of their allegiance.

Brutal treatment of conscientious objectors is neither civilized nor necessary, but a differentiation is created by such residents themselves, and there should be corresponding differentiation in rights and protection. This is one of the subjects that the returned soldiers have at heart.

_Post Intelligencer_, Seattle, Was.h.i.+ngton, May 21, 1919.--...

The American Legion will be a political force in the nation as it has a perfect right to be. No organization of its character is to be held together by the cohesive power of reminiscence.

Something more binding is required, and that something will be forthcoming whether anyone outside the Legion likes it or not....

The American Legion will be made up of intelligent young men who will have a community interest and whose interest can only be furthered by united action. They will know that nothing is more transient than public grat.i.tude, and they will a.s.suredly not rely on it.

_Rochester_ (N.Y.) _Times_, May 23, 1919.--At its first convention held recently in St. Louis, the American Legion unanimously voted down a proposal to seek increased bonus money for the soldiers.

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