The Story of the American Legion: The Birth of the Legion
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Title: The Story of the American Legion: The Birth of the Legion
Author: George Seay Wheat
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE AMERICAN LEGION: THE BIRTH OF THE LEGION ***
The Story of The American Legion
By
George Seay Wheat
The Birth of the Legion
The first of a series to be issued after each
Annual National Convention
_Illustrated_
[Illustration: The St. Louis Caucus]
G.P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
1919
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
FOREWORD
The American Legion was conceived by practically the entire personnel
of the army, navy, and marine corps! Every man in the military and
naval establishment did not think of it in just such terms, but most
of them knew that there would be a veterans' organization of some
tremendous import, and here it is!
"A veterans' organization of some kind will be formed." I heard that
identical remark not once, but a dozen times on board a transport en
route to France as early as September, 1918. In fact, one night in the
war zone a group of officers were huddled around a small piano trying
to make the best of a lightless evening, and, having sung every song
from _Keep the Home Fires Burning_ to _You're in the Army Now_,
paused, longingly toyed cigarettes which were taboo by ship's order,
and then began to spin yarns.
"Reminds me of a G.A.R. reunion," one second lieutenant from Maine
remarked, after a particularly daring training camp adventure had been
recounted.
"Just think of the lying we'll all do at our reunions when this war is
over," chirped a youngster from South Carolina. And then spoke a tall
major from Illinois:
"The organization which you young fellows will join won't be any
_liefest_--at least not for forty years. Don't forget there's some
saving to do for the United States when this European mess is over. Us
fellows won't ever get out of Uncle Sam's service."
How well the Illinois major hit the nail on the head! The incident on
the transport seems worth recording not only because of the major but
because it shows the general anticipation of what is now the American
Legion. Perhaps it was this general anticipation which is responsible
for the cordial reception that the Legion has had ever since its very
inception in Paris.
No one can lay claim to originating the idea of a veterans'
association, because it was a consensus among the men of the armed
forces of our nation. A certain group of men can take unto themselves
the credit for starting it, for getting the ball rolling, aiding its
momentum, and, what is more important, for guiding it in the right
direction, but no one man or group of men "thought up" the American
Legion. It was the result of what might be called the "spontaneous
opinion" of the army, navy, and marine corps caused by a fusing
together in a common bond of the various elements of the service, just
as spontaneous combustion is brought about by the joint action of
certain chemical elements.
Spontaneous opinion, like spontaneous combustion, is dangerous when
improperly handled and beneficient when rightly directed. That's what
the organizers of the Legion have been and will be mostly concerned
with. They have their elements--these men of the army, navy, and
marine corps, and the organizers mean to direct this united and
organized patriotism into such channels as will make for the welfare
of the United States of America primarily, and, secondarily, for the
welfare of the service men themselves.
Just how much attention this Legion with four million potential
members intends to pay to the United States of America, and just how
much to themselves _per se_, is basicly important and pertinent as a
question, nowadays when the Legion is being tried and is on the
witness stand before public opinion. The answer is most clearly
indicated by the preamble to the proposed constitution printed
elsewhere.
This preamble stresses _Americanism, individual obligation_ to the
_community, state_, and _nation; battling with autocracy_ both of the
_classes_ and _masses; right_ the _master_ of _might; peace_ and
_good will_ on _earth; justice, freedom_, and _democracy_! Only in the
last two words of the preamble is mention made of the welfare of the
men themselves. These two words are _mutual helpfulness_. But be sure
and understand the connection in which they are used.
"... _we associate ourselves together ... to consecrate and sanctify
our comradeship by our devotion to mutual helpfulness_."
This is the way the last purpose of the preamble reads.
The men who framed this constitution certainly did not believe that
comradeship would be consecrated and sanctified by anything of a
selfish character under the guise of mutual helpfulness. Certainly not
the _comradeship_ that made bearable the zero hour in the trenches or
the watch in a submarine infested sea.
To go a little in advance of the story and speak practically, mutual
helpfulness has meant so far voting down a pay grab from Congress; a
get-together spirit to foster the growth of the Legion; a purpose to
aid in the work of getting jobs for returning soldiers, and the
establishment of legal departments throughout the country to help
service men get back pay and allotments. Mutual helpfulness in this
case would seem to make Uncle Sam as much a partner in it as are the
Legion members. Because, for every job the Legion gets an unemployed
man, and for every dollar Legion lawyers help collect for back pay and
allotments, a better citizen is made. And better citizenship is what
the Legion most wants.
So here seems to be the place to make the patent observation that
_mutual helpfulness_ will in future years mean just what it means
to-day--doing something for the United States of America.
At the present time the Legion might be compared to a two-headed
American eagle--one looking towards France and the A.E.F., and the
other homewards to the service men here. The two are a single body
borne on the same wings and nourished of the same strength. They are
the same in ideal and purpose but directed for the moment by two
different committees working together. One committee is the result of
the caucus at Paris in March, when the A.E.F. started the
organization, while the other was born this month in St. Louis, Mo.,
for the men here.
GEORGE S. WHEAT.
NEW YORK May, 1919.
CONTENTS
I.--LATTER WAR DAYS IN FRANCE
II.--THE PARIS CAUCUS, MARCH 15-17, 1919
III.--PRE-CAUCUS DAYS IN AMERICA
IV.--THE ADVANCE COMMITTEE
V.--THE ST. Louis CAUCUS, MAY 8, 9, and 10
VI.--THE LEGION AND THE BOLSHEVIKI
VII.--THE LEGION WON'T MEET AT CHICAGO
VIII.--THE SILVER LINING
IX.--OBJECTORS--CONSCIENTIOUS AND OTHERWISE
X.--THE REËMPLOYMENT PROBLEM
XI.--THE DISREGARD OF SELF
XII.--THE CLOSING HOURS
XIII.--WHY THE AMERICAN LEGION?
THE AMERICAN LEGION
CONSTITUTION OF THE AMERICAN LEGION
RESOLUTIONS
LEGION FACTS
WHAT THE PUBLIC PRESS THINKS
COMMITTEES
ROSTER
ILLUSTRATIONS
THE ST. LOUIS CAUCUS
HENRY D. LINDSLEY
THE PARIS CAUCUS
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, JR.
GROUP AT ST. LOUIS CAUCUS
BENNETT C. CLARK
ERIC FISHER WOOD
CASPAR BACON
STATE CHAIRMEN HERBERT, MATHEWSON, AND WICKERSHAM
"JACK" SULLIVAN
CHAPLAIN J.W. INZER
FRED HUMPHREY
P.C. CALHOUN
THE STORY OF THE AMERICAN LEGION
CHAPTER I
LATTER WAR DAYS IN FRANCE
I believe that the army of to-day, when it goes back to citizen
thinking and citizen acting, will be capable of so contributing
to the commonwealth of the United States as to change the
character of the whole country and lift it up to a higher plane.
BISHOP BRENT, _Senior Chaplain, A.E.F_.
Paris, March, 1919.
On a midsummer morning in 1918, ambulance after ambulance unloaded its
cargo of wounded humanity at a base hospital in Paris. The wounded
were being conveyed rapidly from the front and the entire hospital was
astir with nurses, surgeons, and orderlies. A major, surgeon, almost
staggered out of an operating room where he had been on duty for
twenty-two hours and started for his quarters when a colonel arrived
on an inspection trip.
"Pretty busy," remarked the colonel as he acknowledged the major's
salute.
"Busy? Busy!" replied the major. "Good Lord, the only people about
here that aren't busy are the dead ones. Even the wounded are busy
planning to hobble around at conventions when the Big Show is over.
Already they are talking about how they intend to take a hand in
things after the war when they get home."
Over across the street a sergeant, limping slightly, stopped under a
shade tree and leaned against it to rest. He was almost well of his
wound and eagerly awaited the word that would send him to join his
regiment, the Twenty-sixth United States Infantry. As he paused under
the tree another soldier with a mending wound in the knee and just
able to be about stopped to speak to him. The sergeant's hand rose in
quick salute for the newcomer was an officer.
"Expect to get back soon, sergeant?" said the officer.
"Yes sir," he replied. "Anxious to go back and get the whole job over,
sir."
"So am I," responded the officer. "But what will we all do when the
Germans really are licked?"
"Go home and start a veterans' association for the good of the
country, sir," the sergeant answered.
Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, then major, was the officer,
and Sergeant William Patterson, later killed in action, was the
enlisted man, and the institution was Base Hospital No. 2.
Colonel Roosevelt, who was in the hospital convalescing from a wound
in his knee caused by a machine gun bullet, told me the story and said
it was the first time that he had heard the subject of a veterans'
association mentioned, although he had thought of it frequently
himself as an organization with boundless possibilities for good. He
found later that it was being very generally discussed by men in Base
Hospital No. 2, particularly those who were so badly wounded that they
could not be sent to the front again and who knew they must further
serve their country along peaceful lines at home.
This was during war time, remember!
Then came the armistice!
When our victorious armies were wending their way towards the Rhine,
when men of the navy and the marine corps realized that peace had come
and that home was again within reach, this thought of a veterans'
band, which had slumbered far back in the subconscious thoughts of all
of them, burst into objectivity. An association of some sort was
widely discussed not only by the men but by the officers as well. But
how could even the start of it be begun? Those who considered the
project most seriously were confronted with a difficulty which seemed
at first to be almost insurmountable: that was the difficulty of
assembling at one time and in one place a gathering which might at
least approximately represent the whole army, navy, marine corps, or
even the A.E.F.
This difficulty tended to narrow what is believed to have been the
wish of everyone when he first thought of the matter, that is the hope
that it would be another Grand Army of the Republic, another United
Confederate Veterans, but greater than either because representative
of a United Country. Talk started then about all sorts of imagined and
fancied veteran organizations. Some advocated an officers'
association. This was believed to be possible because officers had
more freedom and more financial ability to attend a convention. Others
thought the enlisted men should perfect organizations by regiments
first, then divisions, and finally form one great united body.
The present leaders in the movement have since said that they realized
that all of these schemes must come to naught because no organization
except one on the broadest possible lines could be effective. They
believed that all officers and men of the three branches of the
service and all enlisted women, whether they served at home or abroad,
should be eligible and urged to join one thoroughly democratic and
comprehensive organization. They knew that any organization leaving
out one or more elements composing the military service of the United
States would be forced to compete constantly with the organization or
association so discarded. In short, they knew that in union there is
strength. And they believed, and still believe, that the problems of
peace after a catastrophe such as was never before witnessed in
history are so grave that they can be met with safety only by a
national bulwark composed of the men who won the war, so closely knit,
so tightly welded together in a common organization for the common
good of all that no power of external or internal evil or aggression,
no matter how allied or augmented, could hope even so much as to
threaten our national existence, ambitions, aspirations, and pursuit
of happiness, much less aim to destroy them.
Don't forget that the leaders of the movement realized all this, and
also remember that they include among their number the enlisted man of
the A.E.F. and home army and the sailor in a shore station and on
board a destroyer. The realization may not have been in so many words,
but each knew he wanted to "make the world safe for democracy"--he had
fought to do that and had thought out carefully what it meant, that
is, that it didn't mean anything selfish--and each knew enough of the
principle of union and strength to embrace the idea when "organize"
first began to be mentioned.
But how to do it, that was the problem.
Then kind Fate in the shape of G.H.Q. came to the rescue with what
proved to be the solution.
G.H.Q. didn't mean to find the solution. There had been a deal of
dissatisfaction with the way certain things were going in the A.E.F.
and on February 15, 1919, twenty National Guard and Reserve officers
serving in the A.E.F., representing the S.O.S., ten infantry
divisions, and several other organizations, were ordered to report in
Paris. The purpose of this gathering was to have these officers confer
with certain others of the Regular Army, including the heads of train
supply and Intelligence Sections of the General Staff of G.H.Q., in
regard to the betterment of conditions and development of contentment
in the army in France.
Included in this number were Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt,
Jr., of the First Division, Lieutenant Colonel Franklin D'Olier of the
S.O.S., and Lieutenant Colonel Eric Fisher Wood of the 88th Division.
All of these officers have since told me that when they left their
divisions they were distinctively permeated with the desire to form a
veterans' organization of some comprehensive kind. When they got to
Paris they immediately went into conference with the other officers
on the questions involved in their official trip, details of which do
not concern this story.
What is important is the fact that Colonel Roosevelt, Colonel D'Olier,
and Colonel Wood each discovered that all of the officers in this
representative gathering shared with the thousands of other soldiers
of the American forces the hope and desire that the officers and men
who were about to return to civilian life, after serving in the great
war, whether at home or with the combat units or in the S.O.S., might
sooner or later be united into one permanent national organization,
similar in certain respects to the Grand Army of the Republic or the
United Confederate Veterans and composed of all parties, all creeds,
and all ranks, who wished to perpetuate American ideals and the
relationship formed while in the military and national service.
When these officers realized what each was thinking they promptly set
about with the "let's go" spirit of the A.E.F. to avail themselves of
a God-given opportunity. A dinner was spread in the Allied Officers'
Club, Rue Faubourg St. Honoré, on the night of February 16th and
covers were laid for the following:
Lt. Col. Francis R. Appleton, Jr., 2d Army.
Lt. Col. G. Edward Buxton, 82d Div.
Lt. Col. Bennett C. Clark, ex 35th Div., now with 88th Div.
Lt. Col. Ralph D. Cole, 37th Div.
Lt. Col. D.J. Davis, ex 28th Div., now att. G.H.Q.
Lt. Col. Franklin D'Olier, Q.M., S.O.S.
Col. W.J. Donovan, Rainbow Div.
Lt. Col. David M. Goodrich, G.H.Q.
Maj. T.E. Gowenlock, ex 1st Div., now with 1st A.C.
Col. Thorndike Howe, A.P.O. Dept.
Lt. Col. John Price Jackson, Peace Commission
Maj. DeLancey Kountze, G.H.Q.
Lt. Col. R.W. Llewellen, 28th Div.
Capt. Ogden Mills, ex 6th Div., now att. G.-2, S.O.S.
Lt. Col. Benjamin Moore, 82d Div.
Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., 1st Div.
Lt. Col. R.C. Stebbins, 3d A.C.
Maj. R.C. Stewart, 1st Div.
Lt. Col. George A. White, ex 41st Div., now att. G.H.Q.
Lt. Col. Eric Fisher Wood, ex 83d Div., now with 88th Div.
At that dinner the American Legion was born.
Why not let this gathering--the most representative in the history of
the A.E.F.--consider itself as a temporary committee to launch the
movement? Why not? everyone asked himself and his neighbor over the
coffee. All felt that their presence in Paris presented an unusual
opportunity to initiate the first steps of such a movement, an
opportunity unlikely to be repeated and one they ought not to let
slip. Another meeting was suggested to consider the matter. It was
held. The result was that there were several more conferences and
every such gathering was more enthusiastic than its predecessor. At
each of these informal conferences, some one was careful to emphasize
that these self-appointed committeemen were by no means
representative enough of the army or navy, nor sufficiently numerous
to warrant their actually effecting an organization of any character
whatsoever. Yet it was believed that, nevertheless, the gathering was
representative enough to act as a temporary committee so functioning
as to get together from the whole army and navy two caucuses--one to
represent the troops in France, and the other those who had remained
in America and who, through no fault of their own, had been denied the
privilege of making history on a European battlefield. The temporary
committee realized that due care must be exercised in getting these
caucuses started. Every unit in the A.E.F. should be represented, if
possible, at the Paris caucus, while to the one in the States,
preferably to be held at St. Louis because of its central location,
delegates must come from every Congressional District in the Union.
Thereby would be avoided, it was urged, the mistake of giving the
impression that it was a small gathering of men, unrepresentative or
serving some special and selfish end.
This was unanimously agreed upon and the temporary committee elected
Lt. Col. Roosevelt, temporary chairman, Lt. Col. Bennett C. Clark,
temporary vice-chairman, Lt. Col. Wood, temporary secretary.
A sub-committee was appointed to receive from all the members of the
temporary committee the names of such individuals of combat divisions
and each section of the S.O.S. of the A.E.F., who were eligible and
suitable to be delegates to a caucus scheduled for March
15th-16th-17th in Paris. A similar sub-committee was appointed to
ascertain the names of men of the home forces in order that they might
be urged to attend a caucus in America on or about May 8th-9th-10th.
The work of the sub-committee of the A.E.F. was much more difficult
than would appear at first glance. It was easy enough to get the names
of leaders in the various outfits, both of officers and men, but to
get them to Paris! That was the job. Of course it was the ardent
desire of everyone that the new organization should eventually become
a society principally devoted to the interests of those who served as
enlisted men, for they bore the brunt of the fighting and the work and
were fundamentally responsible for the splendid victory.
But once the names of such men were in the committee's hands the real
work had not begun. There were mechanical difficulties in securing for
enlisted men in active duty leave to attend a caucus in Paris. In the
first place the enlisted men themselves, as indicated by several who
were consulted, were very diffident about accepting an invitation to
attend a caucus where they would be required to sit beside and debate
with and against generals and field officers to whom they owed
military obedience. Then again, there was the expense of travel in
France, as well as the high cost of living in Paris. At the outset
this raised the expense of a trip to the French capital to a sum
amounting to many months of an enlisted man's pay. Furthermore, the
sub-committee was face to face with the A.E.F. regulations providing
that except in the most unusual circumstances an enlisted man would
not be granted leave except in company with a trainload of his
fellows, and to a certain specified leave area.
But as has been said before the conclusion had been reached that if
the organization was really to become preëminently an enlisted man's
outfit, it would be absolutely necessary to overcome these
difficulties and by hook or crook to obtain the attendance of as many
privates and noncommissioned officers as possible who were leaders.
So, scarcely had seventeen of the twenty officers returned to their
commands before they received an urgent appeal to help out the
sub-committee of three. They were told to get enlisted delegates to
Paris, never mind how, the method being of small importance provided
the men were there.
CHAPTER II
THE PARIS CAUCUS, MARCH 15-17, 1919
The first delegates began to arrive for the caucus on March 14th.
After-the-war good fellowship between those who had been commissioned
officers on the one hand, and enlisted men on the other, was
foreshadowed in a most interesting and striking manner when they began
to come into the hotels. A dozen or more officer delegates brought
with them as orderlies an equal number of delegates from the ranks.
Thus enlisted personnel, by devious means, were ordered to Paris under
one guise or another. One sergeant came under orders which stated that
he was the bearer of important documents. He carried a despatch case
wadded with waste paper. Another non-com., from a distant S.O.S.
sector, had orders to report to Paris and obtain a supply of rat
poison. Several wagoners, farriers, and buck privates acquired
diseases of so peculiar a character that only Parisian physicians
could treat them. As one of them said, he hadn't had so much fun since
his office-boy days when a grandmother made a convenient demise every
time Mathewson pitched. The expense of the trip was gathered in
diverse ways. In some divisions the officer delegates took up
collections to defray the expense of enlisted delegates.
In numerous instances, enlisted men refused such assistance and took
up their own collections. One amusing story was told by an enlisted
man. He said that the "buddies" in his regiment had deliberately lost
money to him in gambling games when he refused to be a delegate
because he couldn't pay his own expenses. So by various means nearly
two hundred enlisted delegates were in Paris by late afternoon on
March 14th. It must not be imagined from the foregoing that all the
officers arrived on special trains and were themselves in the lap of
luxury. One second lieutenant who attended has since confided that he
sold his safety razor and two five-pound boxes of fudge sent from home
in order to get carfare to Paris.
Practically all of the self-appointed, temporary committee, with the
exception of Colonel Roosevelt, was present. He was Chairman of the
American Committee and had left France for the purpose of organizing
that part of the army and navy which did not get abroad or which had
returned home.
The Paris caucus convened at the American Club near the Place de la
Concorde on the afternoon of March 15th, Colonel Wood presiding.
Lieutenant Colonel Bennett C. Clark of the 88th Division was selected
Chairman of the caucus and Lt. Col. T.W. Miller of Pennsylvania, and
serving in the 79th Division, was elected Vice-Chairman. When Colonel
Wood called the meeting to order nearly one thousand delegates
answered the roll-call and these were of all ranks from private to
brigadier general; and every combat division and all sections of the
S.O.S., were represented. Colonel Wood briefly reviewed the
self-appointment of the temporary committee during the previous month
and outlined the purposes of the caucus.
A few minutes after Colonel Clark had taken the chair an officer of
high rank, a colonel to be exact, moved that while in the convention
hall, the after-war status as fellow civilians be forecast and that
the stations of rank would there cease to exist. It was agreed that
they would be resumed with full force and full discipline as soon as
the delegates crossed the threshold of the convention hall and
regained the street.
It was the ability of the American officer to do this--to be friendly
to a certain extent with his men and yet at the same time to keep them
perfectly disciplined--which amazed the officers of the armies of our
Allies. No more striking example of this was ever given than within
the confines of the American Club on that 15th day of March. The
Colonel's motion was unanimously carried and the work of the
organization began. Then generals forgot their rank, corporals engaged
in hot debates with colonels, sergeants argued with majors and
everybody talked with everybody else in a most boylike spirit of
fraternity and equality.
Captain Ogden Mills of G.H.Q. moved that four caucus committees be
appointed to draft suggestions and submit them to the caucus, one
committee to design machinery for convening the winter convention; one
committee to submit suggestions as to a permanent organization; one
committee on tentative constitution; and one committee on name. Each
committee consisted of fifteen members, and was appointed by the
Chairman.
Here are the committees, appointed by the chair:
COMMITTEE ON CONVENTION
Brig. Gen. Sherburne, 26th Div., Chairman
Wagoner Shaw, 88th Div., Vice-Chairman
Capt. Ogden Mills, G.H.Q.
Colonel Graham, S.O.S.
Prvt. C.W. Ney, 1st Army Troops
Captain Mahon, 77th Div.
Sgt. Obrecht, 1st Army
Capt. Kipling, Troops serving with French
Sgt. J.C. Hendler, Paris Command
Lt. Col. Appleton, 2d Army Hq.
Major Gordon, 36th Div.
Field Clerk Sowers, Press Section G.H.Q.
Major Hungerford, 3rd Army Hq.
Cpl. J.H. Anderson, Paris Command
Lt. Col. Wren, 36th Division
COMMITTEE OF PERMANENT ORGANIZATION
Colonel Donovan, 42d Div., Chairman
Lt. Col. Graham, 88th Div., Vice-Chairman
Capt. Boyd, 29th Division
Sgt. Tip Bliss, _Stars and Stripes_
Lt. Col. Fitzpatrick, 35th Division
Sgt. Rollo S. Thorpe, 88th Div.
Lt. Col. Crosby, S.O.S.
Pvt. W.L. Thompson, 11th R.R. Engineers
Major Graff, 28th Division
Major Barry Wright, 79th Division
Sgt. Rommel, Paris Command
Sgt. V.V. Trout, Paris Command
Capt. Carlstrom, S.O.S.
Major R.C. Patterson, Peace Commission
Lt. Col. Smith, 89th Division
COMMITTEE ON NAME
Lt. Col. Robbins, 2d Army Hq. Chairman
Lt. Col. Goodrich, G.H.Q., Vice-Chairman
Sgt. Dolan, 89th Division
Lt. Col. Stebbins, 3rd Army Corps
Sgt. H.E. Fleming, 35th Division
Major E.S. Haile, 77th Div.
Colonel Gibbs, S.O.S.
Sgt. McElow, Paris Command
Major Horace Rumsey, 35th Division
Sgt. C.E. Sommers, Paris Command
Major D.D. Drain, 3d Army
Sgt. G.F. Fleming, Paris Command
Lt. Markoe, 2d Army
Major Dwight, S.O.S.
Sgt. Barnard, Paris Command
The names of these committees are given because they are more than
just names. They show the first bubbles of the melting pot into which
all rank and titles in the American Army have been cast and out of
which comes the one word "Comrade."
There were three outstanding features of the Paris caucus which were
evident by midnight of March 15th. The first was the desire to get
together and form an organization quickly and a willingness to forego
personal prejudice and opinion to arrive at that end. The second was
the determination to make the man who didn't get across as much a
component part of the legion as his more fortunate brother-in-arms;
while the third was the avowed intention to take no action at the
caucus which could be deferred until the winter convention in America,
when the home brother and the navy could be jointly represented and a
permanent organization could be effected. I say that these things were
evident by midnight of March 15th for those who have attended many
conventions know that from the casual word heard here and there, the
whispered conference of a few leaders, and from the general tenor of
discussions carried on by delegates gathered together in little
groups, the spirit of the body politic is most perceptible.
After the adjournment of the afternoon session on that day, members
of the committees closeted themselves and started work on their
special functions, while those who were to pass on the committee's
actions, the "hoi polloi" were here and there in groups, in the "Y"
huts or in boulevard cafes discussing the real meaning of the
gathering. A colonel in the Officers' Club said there must be no
disagreement on this or that question; a private in the Bal Tabarin
told his buddies the same thing.
And so it came to pass that on the following day in the Cirque de
Paris, where the final meetings were held, the delegates formally
gathered, sensed the gossip of the clubs and boulevards, and acted
accordingly. One of the things done was to endorse the action of the
temporary committee in appointing itself and in calling the caucus.
Another was to adopt a tentative constitution. It is in reality little
more than a preamble, but it gave a working basis, expressing enough
and yet not too much.
Newspaper men have told me that the Sermon on the Mount is the finest
bit of reporting in the history of writing because it tells a long
story succinctly. Lieutenant Colonel Buxton and his committee on
constitutions are certainly entitled to credit of the same type--for
they tell a great deal in a few lines.
[Illustration: Henry D. Lindsley
Temporary Chairman, who presided at St. Louis]
[Illustration: The Paris Caucus
This gathering had no time for official photographers. A half hour
before a session began one slipped in and took this picture with more
than half the caucus delegates absent]
Here's the tentative constitution under which the Legion worked--it
was read by Lieutenant Colonel Bolles:
"We, the members of the Military and Naval Service of the United
States of America in the great war, desiring to perpetuate the
principles of Justice, Freedom, and Democracy for which we have
fought, to inculcate the duty and obligation of the citizen to the
State; to preserve the history and incidents of our participation in
the war; and to cement the ties of comradeship formed in service, do
propose to found and establish an association for the furtherance of
the foregoing purposes:
"Those eligible to membership shall be: All officers and enlisted
personnel in the Military and Naval Services of the United States of
America at any time during the period from April 6, 1917, to November
11, 1918, inclusive; excepting however, persons leaving the service
without an honorable discharge or persons who having been called into
the service refused, failed, or attempted to evade the full
performance of such service.
"The society shall consist of a national organization with subsidiary
branches; one for each State, territory, and foreign possession of the
United States as well as one in each foreign country where members of
the national society may be resident and who desire to associate
themselves together.
"The officers of the society shall be a President, one or more
Vice-Presidents, a Secretary, a Treasurer and a Board of Directors,
which shall consist of the President, the Vice-Presidents, together
with the chief executive of each subsidiary branch.
"The subsidiary branches shall organize and govern themselves in such
manner as the membership of such subsidiary organizations shall
determine upon except that the requirements and purposes of the
permanent national constitution as adopted shall be complied with.
"The representation shall be on the basis of the actual enrollment in
the subsidiary branches at all conventions after the adoption of a
permanent constitution.
"Members present at the meeting of this committee as follows:
"Lt. Col. G. Edward Buxton, Jr., Chairman
"Lt. Col. T.W. Miller, Secretary
"Major Redmond C. Stewart
"Col. E.A. Gibbs
"Lt. Col. W.H. Curtiss
"Major J. Hall
"Col. C.L. Ristine."
There were many, many men in the A.E.F. respected and beloved, but
none perhaps more than he who seconded a motion made by a private from
S.O.S. base section, No. 4, that the constitution be adopted. The
seconder asked to speak on the question. When he began he got the rapt
attention which Bishop Brent, Senior Chaplain of the A.E.F., always
won whether he talked to buck privates knee deep in trench water or
the King in Buckingham Palace.
"It was a great soldier who said that the army has not merely a body
but a soul and a conscience as well," he began. "I believe the
conscience of the army is speaking in this committee's report. I
believe the army's soul is speaking in it. I was present on Saturday,
at the beginning of this caucus and I will tell you frankly that I was
fearful at that moment lest you should create a great mechanism
without adequate purposes. My fears have been wholly allayed and I see
in the report of your committee the ideals not only of the army but of
the nation adequately expressed and I wish to tell you gentlemen that
so far as I have any ability to promote this great movement I give you
my most hearty support. I believe that the army of to-day, when it
goes back to citizen thinking and citizen acting, will be capable of
contributing to the commonwealth of the United States so as to change
the character of the whole country and lift it up to a higher plane
of political, industrial, and religious life. I happen to be at this
moment leading in a movement in the army to promote the various ends
that are so well expressed in the committee's report, in what is known
as the 'Comrades in Service.' There are two ways of creating an
organization; one is by forming the principles and leaving the body to
take its own shape; the other by creating a machinery without stating
your end and reach that end through the machinery. According to our
democratic conception we have adopted the former or idealistic method.
We are prepared to contribute to this army wide organization which is
now brought into existence, all that we have to contribute. We are
entirely loyal to your principles and methods of approach and we are
quite willing to forego any attempt to make an organization which
might become a rival to you. Between now and the time of
demobilization there is a great opportunity for us to promote the
principles which actuate you. We have already a temporary and
provisional organization for the promotion of such principles; the
creation of better citizenship along the lines so well expressed. We
would like everyone who can to give support to that which we are
endeavoring to do, while we ask all who come in with us to be prepared
to throw in their lot with this organization when it is perfected in
the United States."
"The creation of better citizenship," Bishop Brent says. He wants
every one who can, to give support to that; to "what we are trying to
do."
If everyone could see just that in the Legion, if everyone will work
for just that--better citizenship--the Legion's aim will be realized
in its deepest and truest sense. Bishop Brent has a knack of hitting
the nail on the head with such force that the sparks fly and by their
light comes insight--ask anyone from out Manila-way if it isn't so.
The short address was greeted with thunderous applause. The newly born
Legion knew it had a champion and a worker in the Bishop.
Col. Wm. J. Donovan of the 165th Infantry, Forty-second Division
headed the committee of fifteen which gave the final report on
resolutions and organization. This report is reproduced here in full
because it presaged the action of the American caucus and brought
about the form of the Legion Government until November.
"RESOLVED: That an Executive Committee shall be selected, two
(2) from each unit (as recognized in this caucus) and eight (8)
to be selected by the Executive Committee; the two members, one
officer and one enlisted man, to be selected from each unit to
be named by the respective delegations attending this caucus.
Each unit shall present the names of committeemen who shall as
far as possible represent, in point of residence, each State,
Territory and possession of the United States and the District
of Columbia.
"This Executive Committee shall have general power to represent
the units now in foreign service, to determine its own quorum,
to confer with committees from a similar caucus in the United
States, to secure one general convention of persons entitled to
membership under the tentative constitution, to elect its
officers and appoint such sub-committees and give them such
powers as may be proper and necessary.
"This Executive Committee acting in conjunction with the
committee of the United States is specifically charged with the
duty of fixing a date and place for holding a national
convention, issuing a call for the holding of county and State
conventions and providing a unit of representation and method of
selection of delegates to the national convention, by the State
conventions.
"The powers of this committee shall expire upon the organization
of the permanent national convention.
"The committee is further charged with the duty of making known
the existence and purpose of this organization, of stimulating
interest in it, and of inviting the support of all those
entitled to membership.
"No policy except in furtherance of the creation of a permanent
organization having in mind the desirability of unity of action
in organizing all the American forces shall be adopted or
carried out by the committees.
A meeting for the temporary and preliminary organization of the
Executive Committee shall be held at this place immediately upon
the adjournment of this caucus.
The Executive Committee may receive and add to its number two
representatives from any division or equivalent unit not
represented at this caucus."
As the result of the passage of this report it is interesting to note
the personnel of the Executive Committee which the delegates selected
and which is controlling the American Legion of the A.E.F., observing
especially the large number of enlisted men; large in view of the
difficulties experienced in getting such men to Paris.
1st Div., Capt. Arthur S. Hyde
2d Div., Lt. Col Harold C. Snyder
26th Div., Sgt. Wheaton Freeman
26th Div., Lt. Col. Wm. J. Keville
27th Div., Lt. Col. Edward E. Gauche, N.Y.
27th Div., Reg. Sgt. Mjr. Samuel A. Ritchie, N.Y.
28th Div., Brig Gen. Wm. G. Brice, Jr., Penn.
28th Div., Sgt. Ted Myers, Penn.
29th Div., Lt. Col. Orison M. Hurd, N.J.
29th Div., Color Sgt. Andreas Z. Holley, Maryland
31st Div., Captain Leon Schwarz, Ala.
33d Div., Col. Milton A. Foreman, Ill.
35th Div., Lt. Col. B.C. Clark, Mo.
35th Div., Sgt. Fred Heney, Kans.
36th Div., Col. Chas. W. Nimon, Texas
36th Div., Sgt. Mjr. L.H. Evridge, Texas
41st Div., Col. Frank White, N. Dak.
42d Div., Col. Henry J. Reilly, Ill.
42d Div., Sgt. Rowe, Iowa
77th Div., Major Duncan Harris
77th Div., Sgt. Lawrence Miller, N.Y.
79th Div., Lt. Col. Stuart S. Janney, Md.
79th Div., Sgt. Benjamin R. Kauffman, Pa.
80th Div., Capt. Arthur F. Shaw, Mich.
81st Div., Major Theodore G. Tilghman, N.C.
81st Div., Reg. Sgt. Mjr. Wm. S. Beam, N.C.
82d Div., Capt. Frank S. Williams, Fla.
82d Div., Sgt. Alvin T. York, Tenn.
83d Div., Lt. Col. Wayman C. Lawrence, Jr., W. Va.
83d Div., Cpl. Thoyer
86th Div., Major John H. Smale, Ill.
88th Div., Lt. Col. George C. Parsons, Minn.
88th Div., Wagoner Dale J. Shaw, Iowa.
89th Div., Lt. Col. Frank Wilbur Smith, Pa.
91st Div., Lt. Col. John Guy Strohm, Oregon
91st Div., Sgt. Mjr. Hercovitz, Calif.
S.O.S. Hq., Col. James H. Graham, Conn.
Adv. Sec., S.O.S. Capt. David A. Uaurier, Wash.
Base Sec. No. 1, S.O.S., Pvt. W.L. Thompson, N.Y.
Base Sec. No. 3, S.O.S., Lt. Col. Carle Abrams, Oregon
Base Sec. No. 5, S.O.S., Major Orlin Hudson, Kans.
Base Sec. No. 6, S.O.S., Major Arthur S. Dwight, N.Y.
Troops with French, Sgt. L.K. Flynt, Mass.
Troops with French, Capt. A.W. Kipling, Paris, France
Paris Command, Pvt. Harold W. Ross, Calif.
Paris Command, Lt. Col. John Price Jackson
G.H.Q., Bishop Charles H. Brent, N.Y.
1st Army Corps, Lt. Col. Lemuel L. Bolles, Wash.
1st Army Corps, Sgt. Mjr. Race
2d Army Hq., Lt. Col. Burke H. Sinclair, Colo.
The tentative name of this organization was not adopted without a
great deal of discussion. All sorts of titles were suggested to the
committee which considered the matter. Some of them were:
Comrades of the Great War
Veterans of the Great War
Liberty League
Army of the Great War
Legion of the Great War
Great War Legion
The Legion
The American Comrades of the Great War
The Great Legion
The American Legion
The last was tentatively decided upon as the best name although there
was considerable discussion on it. This discussion waxed particularly
warm between a colonel and a corporal and it came to an end only when
some hungry enlisted delegate braved the officer's rising ire to move
an adjournment for lunch. The motion carried immediately and, true to
the understanding made at the outset in regard to rank, the corporal
clicked his heels together, stood at attention and saluted the
colonel, when the latter passed him on the sidewalk exactly five
minutes after he had been telling the colonel precisely what he
thought of him and his opinions--at least as far as the name of the
Veteran's Organization was concerned. I might add that this colonel
was well under thirty-five years of age and that the corporal was only
twenty-one.
And this brings to mind another striking feature of this most unusual
gathering, which was the comparative youth of its membership. For
instance the two individuals who have taken from the beginning the
leading parts in the movement, Bennett Clark, son of Champ Clark and a
Lieutenant Colonel of infantry, and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., son of
the ex-president and also a Colonel of infantry. They are respectively
twenty-nine and thirty-one years of age, and one of the most brilliant
speeches in the caucus was made by a captain of twenty-six.
It must not be understood from this rather dry recital of what took
place at the Paris Caucus, this record of minutes and resolutions,
that it was an entirely sedate and dignified gathering. On the
contrary, Young America was there and quite often the impression which
one gathered was that a dozen or so Big Brothers had been turned loose
at once. A great many wild speeches were made and all sorts of
ticklish questions were brought up. Chairman Clark broke two gavels
and three times overturned his table. Everyone there was young. Peace
was young. Few knew exactly, like Bishop Brent, just what was wanted.
The whole project was new. Dozens of delegates wanted to speak; it was
their first chance since April 6, 1917. In fact one man made two very
violent speeches on the same subject, one in direct opposition to the
other. He realized he was making a heated argument for both sides and
finally sat down laughing about it. Who was he? Who was the colonel
who got wrought up over the proposed name? Who were the lieutenants,
and who were any of these privates, captains, and sergeants?
"I don't know." Nobody knows.
Doubtless they have themselves forgotten what they said. No verbatim
records are available now. In fact I am told that no record could have
been kept, for many times two or three were speaking at once and the
chairman was breaking the third commandment with his gavel. But this
much everyone wanted, "A Veteran's Organization." This much everyone
swore he would have, one that was neither political nor partisan, one
that would perpetuate righteousness, insure "honor, faith, and a sure
intent," and despite whatever bickering there might have been, despite
whatever differences of opinion arose, when, with a tremendous "Aye,"
the motion to adjourn was carried, this Paris Caucus had accomplished
a body politic and a soul of the type which Bishop Brent so clearly
described.
To resume the story of actual accomplishment. The Executive Committee
was given general power to represent the units in France, to confer
with committees or representatives of the American Caucus as soon as
these should be appointed, and, in conjunction with the latter, to
issue a call for the holding of county and State conventions and
providing a unit of representation and method of selection of
delegates to one general convention for the autumn of 1919, preferably
November 11th, or Armistice Day.
The Executive Committee met immediately after the adjournment of the
caucus and elected Colonel Foreman of the Thirty-third Division,
Chairman; Lt. Colonel George A. White, Forty-first Division, Secretary
and Major R.C. Patterson, Paris Command, Assistant Secretary. Lt. Col.
White, Col. Wood, Major R.C. Patterson, and Lt. L.R. Farrell were
elected permanent members at large of the Executive Committee.
Then from this executive committee a committee of fifteen was chosen
for the purpose of expediting the work which had been assigned to the
larger committee, it being easier to assemble fifteen men than the
larger number. The committee of fifteen elected Col. Bennett Clark as
its chairman.
At the first meeting of the committee of fifteen a hope was expressed
that the caucus in America would take similar action in the
appointment of an executive committee, which would in turn delegate
its authority to a smaller committee for working purposes. Just
exactly how this worked out, is later described.
CHAPTER III.
PRE-CAUCUS DAYS IN AMERICA.
Once home again it didn't take a Solomon to tell Colonel Roosevelt
that he had a man's size job on his hands in starting the American
Legion on its way in the United States. Dispatches more or less
accurate had told the service men on this side something about the
Legion activities of the A.E.F. in France. As late as mid-April,
however, a great many men in this country knew nothing whatever about
the American Legion, while the majority of those who did were not at
all sure it was to be _The Veteran's Organization_. What I have said
previously about the "spontaneous opinion" of the men in France on the
question of a veteran's organization proved to be equally true among
service men on this side of the water. Consequently, it wasn't long
after the armistice before several veteran's organizations and
associations were in the process of formation. As it was a pertinent
news topic, the newspapers gave a great deal of prominence in their
columns to several of these organizations. They were of various types
and characters. One was for enlisted men only. Another was for
officers only. There was an organization for officers who had fought
in France, Italy, or Russia and there was one or more organizations
which had the breadth of vision to see that men of all ranks and all
branches of the military and naval establishments must be eligible.
Such was the situation confronting Colonel Roosevelt when he arrived
home to help start the American Legion in its own country. The fact of
his arrival and his announced intention to aid in the organization of
the Legion was duly heralded in the press of the United States.
At first the army and navy men were inclined to say, "Here is another
of those mushroom Veteran's Associations bobbing up." In fact I heard
one officer make just that remark, but another was quick to correct
him by saying, "Its bound to be a straight and honest organization or
a Roosevelt wouldn't stand for it." That was the crux of the initial
success of the Legion, because just that was true. Every man who wore
the uniform had known Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., and although he may not
have agreed with him in all of his political opinions still he knew
that neither he nor any member of his family would back any
organization or proposition that was not morally sterling.
There were those who did not like the American Legion. There were
those who were willing to let a past political prejudice deter them
from aiding in the most important movement in American life to-day.
There were those who stated that Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., was
prominent in organizing the American Legion for his own political
advancement. The answer to that misapprehension will develop later and
will prove one of the most striking incidents in this story.
Colonel Roosevelt has a peculiarly happy faculty of keeping those who
work with him cheerful and optimistic. He gathered around him, to
launch the movement in America, a set of cheerful, competent
optimists, prominent among whom were Colonel Richard Derby, Colonel
Franklin D'Olier, who figured in the Paris Caucus, Major Cornelius W.
Wickersham, Assistant Chief of Staff of the Twenty-seventh Division,
Captain Henry Fairfield Osborne, Lieutenant Colonel Granville Clark,
Lieutenant Colonel Leslie Kincaide, Lieutenant Colonel Eric Fisher
Wood and Captain H.B. Beers. One of Colonel Roosevelt's first duties
as temporary chairman of the Legion over here was to create the nation
wide organization. He needed committeemen in every State to work the
State organization up, and to start the machinery for the election of
delegates to the St. Louis Caucus, for it had been decided that the
representation in St. Louis must be by duly elected representatives
from congressional districts in so far as that was possible. Each such
district was awarded double its congressional representation, in
addition to the delegates at large. It was no easy task to pick these
committeemen. The decision of the Paris gathering that the
organization must be non-partisan and non-political had to be adhered
to in its fullest sense. There were soldiers and sailors enough in all
the States who would have been willing to have started the
organization in their respective localities, but how _not_ to get
politicians of the lower order, men who would gladly prostitute the
Legion, its aims and ambitions to their own selfish advantage--that
was the problem which faced the temporary committee in America.
About three weeks before the St. Louis Caucus the following names were
chosen from the various States as committeemen:
OFFICERS
Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., New York, Chairman
Lt. Col. Bennett Clark, Missouri, Vice-Chairman
Lt. Col. Eric Fisher Wood, Pennsylvania, Secretary.
ALABAMA
Lt. H.M. Badham, Jr., Birmingham
Pvt. W.M. Cosby, Jr., Birmingham
Sgt. Edwin Robertson, Birmingham
ARIZONA
Pvt. Ned Bernard, Tucson
Lt. Col. J.C. Greenway, Bisbee
ARKANSAS
Pvt. P.R. Graybill, Democ. Pub. Co. Little Rock
Major J.J. Harrison, Little Rock
Pvt. Walter J. Wilkins, Pine Bluff
CALIFORNIA
Sgt. L.P. Adams, San Francisco
Corp. Chas. A. Beck, San Francisco
Lt. Col. Benjamin H. Dibblee, San Francisco
Chaplain Joseph D. McQuade, San Francisco
Major Stewart Edward White, Santa Barbara
COLORADO
Lt. G.W. Cutting, Florence
Sgt. C.C. Neil, Greeley
Major H.A. Saidy, Colorado Springs
Sgt. Phil. G. Thompson, Denver
CONNECTICUT
Maj. Morgan G. Bulkeley, Hartford
Lt. Col. Jas. L. Howard, Hartford
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Pvt. L. Clarkson Hines, Washington
Col. E. Lester Jones, Washington
DELAWARE
Major Thomas W. Miller, Wilmington
Capt. John P. Nields, Wilmington
FLORIDA
Brig Gen A.H. Blanding, Bartow
GEORGIA
Col. Alexander R. Lawton, Jr., Savannah
Capt. Landon Thomas, Augusta
IDAHO
Major C.M. Booth, Pocatello
Pvt. John Green, Twin Falls
Major Hawley, Jr., Boisé
Pvt. D.H. Holt, Caldwell
ILLINOIS
Chf. Petty Officer B.J. Goldberg, Chicago
Maj. Owsley Brown, Springfield
Rear Admiral Frederick B. Bassett, Great Lakes
1st Cl. Pvt. Edw. J. Czuj, Chicago
Maj. Thomas Gowenlock, Chicago
1st Cl. Pvt. Hy. Hickman Harris, Champaign
1st Cl. Pvt. Geo. Kendall Hooton, Danville
Ensign Allen M. Loeb, Chicago
Capt. Clark Nixon, East St. Louis
Maj. John Callan O'Laughlin, Chicago
Capt. Joseph Medill Patterson, Chicago
1st Cl. Pvt. C.J. Schatz, Wheaton
Brig. Gen. Robt. E. Wood, Chicago
Sgt. David S. Wright, Oak Park
INDIANA
Col. Solon J. Carter, Indianapolis
Ensign Win. L. Hutcheson, Indianapolis
Sgt. R.J. Leeds, Richmond
IOWA
Sgt. Chas. A. Doxsee, Monticello
Major H.H. Polk, Des Moines
KANSAS
Gen. Chas. I. Martin, Topeka
Gen. Wilder S. Metcalf, Lawrence
Sgt. Fred C. Stanford, Independence
Sgt. Mahlon S. Weed, Lawrence
KENTUCKY
Pvt. Samuel J. Culbertson, Louisville
Lt. W.C. Dabney, Louisville
Capt. Shelby Harbison, Lexington
Major James Wheeler, Paducah
LOUISIANA
Capt. Allen Cook, New Orleans
Lt. John M. Parker, Jr., New Orleans
MAINE
Lt. Col. Arthur Ashworth, Bangor
Col. Frank W. Hume, 103d Inf.
Capt. A.L. Robinson, Portland
Pvt. Daniel J. Smart,
Sgt. Wm. H. Whalen, 103d Inf.
Sgt. Freeman Wheaton, 107th Inf.
MARYLAND
Lt. James A. Gary, Jr. Baltimore
Sgt. Alexander Randall, Baltimore
Major Redmond Stewart, Baltimore
Brig. Gen. W.S. Thayer, Baltimore
MASSACHUSETTS
Brig. Gen. Charles H. Cole, Boston
Sgt. Edw. J. Creed, 101st Inf.
Sgt. Ernest H. Eastman, 104th Inf.
Major J.W. Farley, Boston
Lt. Col. Louis Frothingham, Boston
Sgt. Geo. Gilbody, 101st Inf.
Sgt. Daniel J. Nolan,
MICHIGAN
Lt. Col. Fredk. M. Alger, Detroit
Sgt. Rand F. English, Detroit
1st Sgt. Wm. King, Detroit
Lt. Commander Truman H. Newberry, Detroit
MINNESOTA
Pvt. Gordon Clark, Duluth
Major Paul B. Cook, St. Paul
Pvt. Wm. D. Mitchell, St. Paul
Pvt. W. Bissell Thomas, Minneapolis
MISSISSIPPI
Lt. John N. Alexander, Jackson
Sgt. Maj. C.J. Craggs, Greenville
Major Alex. Fitzhugh, Vicksburg
Corp. Isador A. Frank, Clarksdale
Sgt. Elmer Price, McComb
MISSOURI
Brig. Gen. H.C. Clarke, Jefferson City
Pvt. David R. Francis, Jr., St. Louis
Corp. Sestus J. Wade, Jr., St. Louis
MONTANA
Col. J.J. McGuiness, Helena
Corp. Chas. S. Pew, Helena
NEBRASKA
Major P.F. Cosgrove, Lincoln
Pvt. T.T. McGuire, Omaha
Sgt. R. Scott, Imperial
Lt. Allan A. Tukey, Omaha
NEVADA
Sgt. E.L. Malsbary, Reno
Lt. Col. Jas. G. Scrugham, Reno
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Sgt. Herve L'Heureaux, Manchester
Major Frank Knox, Manchester
NEW JERSEY
Col. Hobart Brown, Newark
Sgt. Allan Eggers, Summit
1st Lt. Geo. W.C. McCarter, Newark
Corp. Roger Young, Newark
NEW MEXICO
Capt. Bronson M. Cutting, Santa Fé
Col. Debjemond, Roswell
Pvt. Canuto Trujillo, Chimayo
NEW YORK
Lt. Col. Robert Bacon, New York
Lt. Col. Grenville Clark, New York
Brig. Gen. Chas. I. Debevoise, Brooklyn
Pvt. Meade C. Dobson, New York
Col. Wm. J. Donovan, New York
Lt. Samuel Gompers, Jr., New York
Seaman Jos. F. Healey, New York
Chaplain Francis A. Kelley, Albany
Lt. Col. J. Leslie Kincaid, Syracuse
Ensign Jerome H. Larger, Brooklyn
Ensign W.G. McAdoo, Jr., New York
Sgt. Major Howard H. McLellan, Yonkers
Ensign R.H. Mitchell, New York
Major General John F. O'Ryan, New York
Lt. D. Lincoln Reed, New York
Col. Henry L. Stimson, New York
Lt. Col. Chas. W. Whittlesey, New York
Major Cornelius W. Wickersham, New York
Sgt. Clarence E. Williams, New York
NORTH CAROLINA
Lt. R.W. Glenn, Greensboro
Lt. Cyrus D. Hogue, Wilmington
NORTH DAKOTA
Capt. Matthew Murphy, Fargo
OHIO
Sgt. Jas. K. Campbell, Shreve
Lt. Col. Jas. R. Cochran, Columbus
Lt. Col. Ralph D. Cole, Columbus or Findlay
Lt. Col. Isadore H. Duke, Cincinnati
OKLAHOMA
Sgt. Eugene Atkins, Muskogee
Brig. Gen. Roy Hoffman, Oklahoma City
OREGON
Pvt. Harry Critchlow, Portland
Sgt. Carl B. Fenton, Dallas
Lt. Col. Geo. Kelley, Portland
Col. F.W. Leadbetter, Portland
Lt. Col. Geo. A. White, Portland
PENNSYLVANIA
Major Chas. J. Biddle, Philadelphia
Lt. Joseph F. Frayne, Scranton
Lt. Col. Robt. E. Glendinning, Philadelphia
Lt. Col. John Price Jackson, Harrisburg
Pvt. George Jones, Scranton
Maj. Alexander Laughlin, Jr., Pittsburg
Col. Asher Miner, Wilkes-Barre
Lt. John R. Sproul, Chester
Lt. Bernard J. Voll, Philadelphia
RHODE ISLAND
Major Geo. E. Buxton, Jr., Providence
Col. Everitte St. J. Chaffee, Providence
Sgt. W.C. Kendrick, Pawtucket
SOUTH CAROLINA
Sgt. W.C. Coward, Cheraw
Lt. Chas. C. Pinckney, Charleston
C.T. Trenholm, Charleston
Major W.D. Workman, Greenville
SOUTH DAKOTA
Capt. Lawrence R. Bates, Sioux Falls
Capt. Royal C. Johnson, Aberdeen
Sgt. Ruble Lavery, Vermilion
Sgt. Jos. F. Pfeiffer, Rapid City
TENNESSEE
Col. James A. Gleason, Knoxville
Sgt. Major Keith J. Harris, Chattanooga
Sgt. John Hays, Memphis
Col. Luke Lea, Nashville
Major T.C. Thompson, Jr. Chattanooga
Pvt. C.W. Tomlinson, Chattanooga
TEXAS
Capt. Stanley E. Kempner, Galveston
Col. H.D. Lindsley, Dallas
Col. H.B. Moore, Texas City
UTAH
Sgt. Maj. H.H. McCartney, Salt Lake City
Gen. R.W. Young, Salt Lake City
VIRGINIA
Pvt. Frank G. Christian, Richmond
Lt. C. Francis Cocke, Roanoke
Col. Stuart McGuire, Richmond
VERMONT
Pvt. Donald J. Emery, Newport
Sgt. Eugene V. Finn, St. Albans
Major H. Nelson Jackson, Burlington
Capt. Redfield Proctor, Burlington
WASHINGTON
Lt. Col. R.W. Llewellen, Seattle
Major P.P. Marion, Seattle
Brig. Gen. Harvey J. Moss, Seattle
Sgt. John J. Sullivan, N. Seattle
Sgt. Major R.H. Winsor, Tacoma
WEST VIRGINIA
Capt. Fleming W. Alderson, Charleston
Sgt. Walter S. Moore, Huntington
Sgt. Thomas Schofield, Wheeling
Lt. Col. Jackson A. Weston, Charleston
WISCONSIN
Edward F. Ackley, Milwaukee
Pvt. David Bloodgood, Milwaukee
Sgt. Elmer S. Owens, Milwaukee
Col. Gilbert E. Seaman, Milwaukee
Pvt. John P. Szulcek, Milwaukee
WYOMING
Major A.S. Beach, Lusk
Sgt. Morris A. Dinneen, Cheyenne
Pvt. I.H. Larom, Valley Ranch
United American War Veterans, Warren S. Fischer, Commander-in-Chief
Comrades in Service, Bishop Brent, President,
National Legion of America, Major Elihu Church,
American Army Association, Lt. Haywood Hillyer, General Secretary.
* * * * *
Just about this time it became most necessary to properly present the
Legion to those men who had remained at home and who had gotten out of
the Service, and to those who were incoming from France and rapidily
being demobilized, as it was upon them that the success of the Legion
depended. Furthermore, their opinions were the soil upon which the
various State organizations had to work, and at that particular time
it was vital that the Legion should be widely known and thoroughly
understood; that its aims and ambitions should not be misconstrued
either willfully or unintentionally, nor its precepts perverted. To
this end the temporary Chairman proceeded to publicize it in the most
thorough fashion. One-page bulletins briefly outlining the Legion's
aims and ambitions were distributed in every center where soldiers and
seamen gathered. Such places as Y.M.C.A. and K. of C. huts and War
Camp Community recreation centers were thoroughly informed, and
bulletins also were sent to every ship in the navy with the request
that they be placed on the ship's bulletin board.
Literature about the Legion was placed on transports when they left
empty for France so that the men might read it in their leisure hours
returning home. In order to make sure that every soldier and sailor
would have the opportunity to know about the Legion this literature
was again placed on the transports as they arrived in New York harbor.
Various demobilization camps throughout the country were widely
placarded and in each instance the names of the Temporary State
Secretaries were given, and service men were invited to write to the
Secretaries in their particular States. Camp publications, newspapers,
and periodicals published for service men throughout the country were
bountifully supplied with Legion information and scores of them
carried special stories in regard to it. Bulletins and pamphlets were
distributed in hospitals, placed on bulletin boards, and given to the
patients. Every mayor of a town or city with a population above nine
hundred got a letter containing literature about the Legion with a
request that it be given publicity in the local press and then turned
over to the Chairman of the Welcome Home Committee. Certain national
magazines devoted a great deal of space to special articles explaining
the Legion.
Three or four times a week the Foreign Press Bureau of the United
States Government sent stories about the Legion and its activities by
wireless to the ships on sea and to the men of the A.E.F. in
connection with its "Home News Service." In addition to the foregoing,
articles appeared almost daily in the press throughout the entire
country, and by the time the convention was ready to meet those who
ran and cared to read were fully informed that the American Legion was
an organization for veterans of the army, navy, and marine corp; that
it was non-partisan and non-political; that it stood for law and
order, decent living, decent thinking, and true Americanism.
The wide publicity given to the Legion and its aims brought into the
Temporary Committee many amusing letters. Scores of them complained of
the published statement that it was non-partisan and non-political.
"Damn it all, we want it to be political and partisan," one angry
Westerner wrote. Another correspondent insisted that in view of the
fact that sons of Theodore Roosevelt, and Speaker Champ Clark were
interested, the Legion must be bi-partisan and bi-political. But most
of the letters were of a highly commendatory character, expressing the
deepest and widest possible interest. I recall that one of them came
from Junction City, Kansas, another from Old Town, Maine; one from
Delray, Texas, and others from Wolf Creek, Montana, Orlando, Florida,
and Ray's Crossing, Indiana, while a postal card making frantic
inquiries was dated Nome, Alaska, and arrived a week after the caucus
at St. Louis. I have mentioned these towns and localities because they
indicate how widespread and deep is the interest in the Legion. No
matter where a man came from to go into the army, the Legion will go
to him in his home now. Its members will range from fishermen on the
Florida Keys to the mail carriers on the Tanana in Alaska, from the
mill hands of New England to the cotton planters of the Mississippi
delta. All who wore the uniform may enroll just so long as the word
_Americanism_ was inscribed in their hearts between April 6, 1917, and
November 11, 1918.
CHAPTER IV
THE ADVANCE COMMITTEE
When the St. Louisian puffed its way into the big smoke-begrimed
station in Missouri's largest city I looked about me for Bill, who was
going to meet me at the station. We had not met since our prep. school
and college days when Bill had been a thin, wizened little fellow, so
hollow-chested that he had to be sent to Colorado for almost two years
for his health. He came back to school looking better but before his
diploma was handed to him announcing to the world that he was a
full-fledged Bachelor of Arts, he had fallen apparently permanently
into the rut of ill-health. In fact I wondered, when we all sang _Auld
Lang Syne_ in the fraternity house at the close of college, if I'd
ever see Bill again.
From time to time I had heard from him in the years that followed, and
one day in the summer of 1917 he wrote me that he was on the way to
France.
While I gazed up and down the smoke-laden platform, I got a slap on
the shoulder that sent me spinning, and there was the once emaciated
Bill, who seemed to have grown three inches and to have put on
seventy-five pounds.
As we walked toward the taxicab stand I began to realize that instead
of an old friend, a stranger was beside me. True enough, he had the
same name and the same colored eyes, and his hair hadn't changed. But
the rather dreamy eye had cleared, the pale face of old was tanned,
and Bill's chest--the one he had gone to Colorado for--was bulging out
as he carried my two heavy suit cases like a pouter pigeon's at a
poultry show.
What had happened to Bill? The little, quiet, timid youth of the past
was now a big, burly, strong-bodied, clear-minded man. As we entered
the taxi he was telling me that he "intended to raise hell if they
didn't take some action against this blank Bolshevism, and furthermore
that this new Legion was going to be the most tremendous organization
that the U.S.A. had ever seen." If he had told me that Swinburne's
_Faustine_ was written in iambic hexameter it would have sounded more
like old times. But here was a new man, strong and virile, intensely
interested in the future of his nation.
What had happened to Bill? Eighteen months in the army was the answer.
The advanced delegation began to arrive in St. Louis, the afternoon of
May 5th. The Statler and Jefferson Hotels were packed because there
were two other conventions in progress. But our delegates needed no
badge to be distinguished from the others; there was a difference
between them and the other conventionites. There was the same
difference between the two as between the old Bill and the new Bill.
They too had had eighteen months in the army, and a coat of tan on
each one's face, his ruddy frame, and general atmosphere of a healthy
mind and a healthy body were unmistakable emblems.
This advanced delegation, two from each State, had been requested to
come beforehand to meet on the morning of Tuesday, May 6th, so as to
formulate a working order of business on which the caucus might
proceed as soon as it assembled. There was another reason for this
meeting also. The temporary committee wanted to avoid any appearance
of having "framed up the caucus." By this it is meant that the
committee wanted to be able to say to the caucus that its working
procedure had been determined by a thoroughly representative body, a
democratic, advanced delegation composed of men from every State in
the Union. There were those critics of the Legion, who, had the
temporary committee formulated the caucus procedure, would have been
only too glad to have attempted to make trouble by saying it was a
controlled and made-to-order caucus--controlled and made-to-order by
the men who had taken the lead in it. In fact, during the early
morning of the first day the advanced committee met one delegation
arrived with blood in its eyes determined to wage a fight against
universal military training. One of the stories circulated at the time
was to the effect that the entire Legion was nothing but a blind
whereby a mysterious "Military Clique" was to gain supreme power over
the Legion's policies. It took but a very short while to convince the
would-be obstreperous delegation that the caucus was not the
convention and was empowered solely to organize a veterans'
association and not to adopt policies.
The temporary committee in America determined at the very beginning
that no policies would be adopted at the caucus, that the Legion at
this time should follow in the footsteps of its comrades abroad in
stating that neither the men here nor the men there could, as
different units, adopt broad policies until a convention could be held
truly representing all men who had fought in the Great War.
Colonel Roosevelt called the advanced committee to order a little
after two o'clock in the afternoon, in a small and very noisy parlor
in the Hotel Statler. The gavel which he used was made from wood from
the rudder of Admiral Peary's North Pole steamship _The Roosevelt_,
which had been presented to him by Colonel E. Lester Jones of
Washington, D.C.
"The idea underlying the formation of the American Legion is the
feeling among the great mass of the men who served in the forces of
this country during the war, that the impulse of patriotism which
prompted their efforts and sacrifices should be so preserved that it
might become a strong force in the future for true Americanism and
better citizenship," Colonel Roosevelt said. He spoke very slowly and
measured his words carefully but emphasized them in a tone of deepest
conviction. "We will be facing troublous times in the coming years,"
he continued "and to my mind no greater safeguard could be devised
than those soldiers, sailors, and marines formed in their own
association, in such manner that they could make themselves felt for
law and order, decent living and thinking, and truer 'nationalism.'"
In this opening sentence, Colonel Roosevelt foreshadowed the spirit of
the entire caucus. These service men wanted an organization not for
their own special benefit, not that they might obtain pensions or
offices, but that they might become a power for truer Americanism and
better citizenship!
Colonel Wood, the secretary, explained in greater detail the purpose
of the proposed Legion. He broached the subject of the reemployment
for soldiers, a legal department for the handling of insurance claims,
allotments, etc., and sketched the fundamental principles of the
organization as follows:
First, its non-partisanship.
Second, that this society should be equally for those whose duty
called them overseas and for those who were held by circumstances on
this side.
Third, that it is fundamentally a civilian organization, one in which
all ranks, be they private or general, admiral or seaman, should have
an equal share and participation.
Then the advance committeemen began themselves to talk. Each one, no
matter on what subject and regardless of the side he took upon it, was
permitted to air his feelings to the full satisfaction of himself at
least. Like the Paris Caucus, the discussion grew heated at times and
every now and then the chair was forced to remind overly fervid
orators that this was an advanced meeting of the caucus and not the
convention. There were those present who wanted to obligate the caucus
to go on record for or against universal military training, woman
suffrage, prohibition, permanent headquarters, and to elect permanent
officers, and each of these had to be shown that it would be unfair to
the men still in the A.E.F. to take such preëminently vital steps
without consulting them. Then there were those present who wanted to
exclude members of the regular army and navy from the Legion; that is,
to limit eligibility in the organization to those who could show
discharge papers from either the army, navy, or marine corps. This
measure was voted down and it was given as the sense of the advanced
committee meeting that those who served in the Great War would have
perfect liberty to join regardless of whether their service continued
in the military establishment after the armistice or after peace was
formally declared.
The advanced committee outlined the order of business upon which the
caucus could proceed, named the various committees to be organized,
and discussed the resolutions which were deemed wise and expedient
topics for discussion.
On Wednesday afternoon, delegates from every district in the country
began to arrive, almost one thousand new Bills, husky of frame, some
still in uniform with the red discharge chevron on their left sleeves;
others who had manifestly tried to get the new Bill into the old
Bill's 1916 suit of clothes, and still others in new bib and tucker,
looking exceedingly comfortable after almost two years in putties,
heavy shoes, and tight blouses.
Every man came with one deep-rooted determination and that was to see
that no one "put anything over" which might make an organization so
embryonically useful take a fatal or selfish step. Each came, perhaps
imbued to a certain extent with his own particular ideas on how
everything should be conducted; but the radicalism, sectionalism, and
partisanship which would have marked a gathering of these same men
three years before was not present. The men who had thought that
nothing good could come except from south of the Mason and Dixon line
had fought side by side with woodsmen from Maine. The man who had
thought the East effete had done duty on a destroyer with a boy from
Harlem. Everybody realized full well that sectionalism must be
abandoned whenever it clashed with nationalism; and abandoned it was,
with right good will.
The meeting of the advance committeemen justified itself as a very
wise and judicious action on the part of the temporary committee. Any
suspicion of a particular delegation that anything was "framed" was
quickly allayed after a conference with its advance committeemen. If a
man from Pennsylvania suspected that anything was on foot not to the
liking of the Keystone State he had only to ask his advance
committeeman, Colonel D'Olier, about it. Incidentally the personnel of
the advance committee was not so numerous that everybody couldn't know
what everybody else was doing. As a matter of fact, everybody did know
what everybody else was doing. One of the most peculiar facts of this
most interesting caucus was that when it came to "_pussy footing_"
pussy seemed to foot it on piano keys so far as secrecy was concerned
and in such a fashion that usually the _Star Spangled Banner_ was
played. I know that the night and the morning before the caucus met
that there were many and various powwows and conferences, a great many
of which I attended, but there wasn't a one that I knew of or ever
heard about, the full details of which could not have been printed in
bold-faced type on the front page of every St. Louis newspaper and
have reflected credit on the powwowers as well as on the American
Legion.
CHAPTER V
THE ST. LOUIS CAUCUS, MAY 8, 9, AND 10
All during the morning of May 8th that delegation was constantly
getting together with this delegation; this leader conferring with
that one; was this question going to come up, and what would be done
if that question was tabled? Everybody interested, everybody excited,
everybody waiting to see the other fellow's hand at the show-down,
which was scheduled for the Shubert-Jefferson Theater at half-past two
o'clock in the afternoon. Of course, everybody had found out the
previous evening that every card in the pack was red, white, and blue,
and that, from the very beginning of the game, an attempt had been
made to keep the knaves out. As a matter of fact, they'd never been
in, but the new Bills who made up the delegations to this caucus were
going to look everybody over mighty carefully before any serious
playing was done.
Suppressed excitement doesn't describe at all the half-hour preceding
the opening of the caucus, because the excitement was not suppressed
in the least. Eager, shining, tanned faces, eyes alert, heads erect,
straight-bodied and straight-talking men one by one took seats which
were assigned to them by delegations.
A flashlight photograph of the gathering was made, but this caucus was
not one that could be pictured by the camera at all accurately. The
outstanding feature of this great get together was the spirit of the
men, and that no camera could catch.
Three large wooden tiers of seats, the kind the circus has under
canvas, were built in a sort of semicircular fashion around the large
stage. The New York delegation occupied one of these tiers; the
Ohioans another, while the third was built for distinguished guests.
If any distinguished guests came they were entirely put out of the
limelight by the audience, for this was one show which was enacted
before the footlights rather than behind them, and, with one or two
exceptions the star performing took place where the spectators usually
sit. In fact, the only spectators that I saw were the newspaper men,
seated at tables within the corral formed by the tiers. All of them
had been in the army or navy or had seen the big show abroad as war
correspondents.
When Theodore Roosevelt, as temporary chairman jammed that gaveled
bit of the rudder of the North Pole ship down hard on the table and
called the meeting to order he got what he had never received while in
the army: that is, direct disobedience. He commanded order, and there
was utter disorder. It was rank insubordination, distinctly requiring
court-martial of everyone present, from a military point of view--but
the American Legion isn't military! And so the delegates howled
joyously. Roosevelt, demanding order at this time, had just about as
much chance of getting it as the Kaiser has of making Prince Joachim
King of the Bronx. Somebody started a cheer, and the crowd didn't stop
yelling for two minutes and a half.
"Young Teddy," as they called him, was manifestly surprised at the
ovation and tried repeatedly to get the crowd quiet. He wanted to be
pleasant and yet he wanted order and so between knocks with his gavel
he smiled. And a very engaging smile it was, too.
"Gentlemen," he pleaded. "Gentlemen, a little order." Finally there
was comparative quiet. "Now let's proceed to the business of the
meeting. The floor is open for nominations for permanent chairman of
this caucus."
Sergeant Jack Sullivan of the State of Washington got the floor.
Sergeant Jack is a husky northwesterner who did his bit in the
intelligence section in Seattle and has seen a lot of the Bolsheviki
out there.
"In behalf of the State of Washington and representing the men of the
rank and file of the Pacific Northwest, it gives me pleasure at this
time to place for your consideration the name of a sterling patriot,"
he shouted. "The man I am going to place in nomination proved himself
to be a one hundred per cent. true blooded American when his country's
honor was assailed. He was among the first who placed himself in the
front-line trenches, he was wounded twice, he was ready and willing to
make the supreme sacrifice in order that this world might be made safe
for democracy. I deem it an honor and a privilege, and the Pacific
Northwest deems it an honor and a privilege to place in nomination the
worthy son of a worthy sire--Theodore Roosevelt."
The crowd seemed to know all along who Jack meant and it held its
enthusiasm in tether as best it could. But when Sullivan got to the
word Theodore, the Roosevelt was drowned out in the mightiest cheer
that is possible for eight or nine hundred throats to utter. The
second to the motion, made by Colonel Luke Lea of Tennessee, wasn't
heard at all. This time it took Colonel Roosevelt more than two
minutes to get order.
"Gentlemen, I want to speak on that now," he shouted and during a
lull in the cheering managed to make himself heard. "I wish to say
that I want to withdraw my name from nomination--"
But the "gang wouldn't hear to it." Somebody raised the old cry:
"We want Teddy!" "We want Teddy!" "We want Teddy!" they chanted in
unison. Bedlam broke loose at that. Men stood on their seats and waved
their hats and handkerchiefs; some took their collars and neckties
off; some wept, some cursed for sheer joy and others--I believe that
when Gabriel blows his horn and all the dead arise that some of the
men who attended that caucus will try to make a speech! These speeches
were going on four and five at a time during the entire hullabaloo. It
didn't seem to matter in the least to the speakers that they weren't
being heard. They couldn't hear themselves. They added a little to the
noise and that satisfied the crowd and seemed to satisfy them.
"Please, please let me talk," pleaded Colonel Roosevelt. He finally
got his plea over by means of the sign language.
"I want to withdraw my name for a number of reasons," he continued.
"The first is that I want the country at large to get the correct
impression of this meeting here. We are gathered together for a very
high purpose. I want every American through the length and breadth of
this land to realize that there isn't a man in this convention who is
seeking anything for himself personally; that all of us are working
simply for the good of the entire country. I believe, furthermore,
that what we want here is someone who has been connected with the
movement only since it started on this side of the water, someone who
originates from the convention."
The din started again.
"No, no, gentlemen," shouted the Colonel. "I want to withdraw. It is
my earnest wish. It is my absolute determination."
But the caucus seemed equally determined. "We want Teddy!" "We're
going to have Teddy!" "You got this thing going, you ought to run it."
Colonel Roosevelt paced up and down the stage, trying his best to
silence them. Then, during the din, one by one some of his oldest
friends went to him and begged him to accede to the crowd's wish.
"Take it Ted," they urged. "Take it." That underslung jaw of the young
Colonel's became rigid.
"I won't do it. I can't do it," he answered.
Then someone managed to make a motion that the nomination of Colonel
Roosevelt be made unanimous. It was seconded and made extremely
_unanimous_.
[Illustration: Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.]
[Illustration: Group on the Stage at St. Louis Caucus]
"Then, gentlemen, I accept and I resign," Colonel Roosevelt said. "I
want quiet for a moment here on this situation. This is something that
I have thought about and have given my most earnest consideration. I
am positive I am right on it. We must not have creep into this
situation, in which we all believe from the bottom of our hearts, the
slightest suspicion in the country at large. I don't think there is
any suspicion among us that anyone is trying to use it for his
personal advancement. But it is absolutely essential that this spirit
be proven. I am going to stick by this from the beginning down to the
very end because, in my opinion, we have got to create to-day the
impression all over the country on which this organization will carry
on and serve a great purpose for years to come."
Again there were outbursts of applause for the Colonel. "We want
Teddy!" "We want Teddy!" the crowd cried again and again. Men ran to
the stage from the orchestra seats and even from the second balcony.
"Take it, Colonel. You ought to take it," they urged.
What the Colonel answered couldn't be heard but the jaw was working
and the head was shaking vigorously.
A couple of newspaper men dashed up to him.
"You oughtn't to take it, Colonel," one of them whispered. "If you
don't, it will give the lie to those who are saying the Legion is
being conducted for your special political benefit."
"I haven't the slightest intention of taking it," he answered back.
He didn't take it and he nailed the lie that the Legion was started to
further his own selfish ends.
On motion of Colonel E. Lester Jones of the District of Columbia the
nominations were reopened again.
Sergeant Haines of Maine put up the name of Colonel Henry D. Lindsley,
a banker of Dallas, Texas, and a prominent Southern Democrat, for
permanent chairman. Think of it! A man from Maine nominating a
Southern Democrat! One of the Ohio delegation seconded the nomination.
Think of that too! Colonel Claud Birkhead of San Antonio, Texas,
leader of the Texas delegation "thirded" the nomination. He told
Colonel Lindsley's record. The Colonel had been Mayor of his home
city, and during the war had served his country so well in France that
he had been awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. He and Major
Willard Straight, now dead, had started the War Risk Insurance Bureau
abroad and, at the time of the caucus, Colonel Lindsley was the head
of the Bureau under the Treasury Department in Washington.
Minutes of a meeting usually are dry but here I am going to quote
directly from them because they tell the story in the most vivid way.
Fancy between the lines, please, dozens of cheers, a couple of rebel
yells, a great deal of talking and shouting for "T.R.!" "T.R.!" and a
Babelous babble that ebbed or flowed according to the strength Colonel
Roosevelt used in wielding his gavel.
COLONEL JONES (of Washington, D.C.): "Mr. Chairman, I personally feel,
and I think I voice the unanimous sentiment of this organization, that
your withdrawal is a mistake. We are not only sincere, but we are
telling you what is in the bottom of our hearts. We are weighing also
the sincerity which you have expressed, and in deference to your
wishes, which I know have not arisen spontaneously but which you have
talked about for some time, regarding the chairmanship of this
committee, I think we should not embarrass you further. I have one in
mind who I feel is going to be a man who will do credit to this
organization--"
MR. ABBOTT (of Ohio): "Gentlemen of the caucus, I think we are wasting
time around here. I can't see why we can't have for the permanent
chairman of this convention the man who will be elected in November."
THE CHAIRMAN: "Gentlemen, can't you see how it is? I can't possibly
change my convictions. I can't go back on what I have told you without
everybody, who doesn't understand the situation here, feeling that I
have just come out here to make a grandstand play. I am right. I am
absolutely sincere and right."
A motion was made that Colonel Theodore Roosevelt temporarily yield
the chair to Colonel Bennett Clark.
COLONEL BENNETT CLARK: "It is very evident what the desire of this
convention is. I know that Colonel Lindsley of Texas was only put in
nomination in response to the express wishes and repeated
determination of Colonel Roosevelt. I think that that explanation
should be made in justice to Colonel Lindsley. I think that Colonel
Roosevelt should take this chairmanship or if he doesn't want to take
it he should be made to take it. (Applause.) The chair will recognize
a motion to that effect."
CAPTAIN BOYCE (of New York shouting to a yelling audience): "What is
the use of our acting like a lot of kids? Just one minute; only one
man can talk at a time and get anywhere. Colonel Roosevelt will not
take it."
COLONEL BENNETT CLARK: "The chair will recognize nobody until the
convention is in order. It has been moved and seconded that Colonel
Roosevelt be elected chairman of this convention by acclamation."
Cries of approval from the audience and a request for the question.
COLONEL BENNETT CLARK: "On that the chair will take the responsibility
of ordering a roll call. (Applause.) The Secretary will call the
roll."
SECRETARY WOOD: "The motion is that Colonel Roosevelt be nominated by
acclamation. The chairman has directed me to call the roll by States.
Alabama--"
A call for a point of order.
DELEGATE: "After nominations have been made and closed a roll call
cannot be taken."
COLONEL CLARK: "The chair was fully aware that he was proceeding
outside of parliamentary law because it was the unanimous wish of the
convention."
MR. SULLIVAN: "I move that a roll call be made on the original
nominations."
COLONEL CLARK: "Colonel Roosevelt has expressed to me his absolute
desire that that not be done. He refuses to enter into a contest with
Colonel Lindsley in any way."
COLONEL JONES (Washington, D.C.): "Mr. Chairman, the nominations were
reopened."
COLONEL CLARK: "The chair is informed that while he was on the way up
here a motion was carried to reopen nominations after the resignation
of Colonel Roosevelt. Now nominations are again in order."
MAJOR SAMUEL D. ROYCE (Indiana): "On behalf of the State of Indiana, I
nominate Colonel Theodore Roosevelt."
The motion was seconded.
COLONEL CLARK: "The gentleman from the District of Columbia has the
floor. Others please be quiet."
Here I must inject my story into the minutes again. Colonel Roosevelt
saw the convention was "getting away to a Roosevelt finish" again, to
use a racing term, and he sent a hurry call to the Arizona delegation
for Colonel Jack Greenway.
Jack Greenway followed the elder Roosevelt up San Juan hill. He wears
underneath his civilian coat to-day, but right over his heart, a
Distinguished Service Cross won at Cantigny.
"Jack, for Heaven's sake, tell them I won't take it," Colonel
Roosevelt plead.
It was just at this moment that Colonel Clark, the acting chairman,
was saying: "The gentleman from the District of Columbia has the
floor. Others please be quiet...."
Colonel Jack waving one arm at the chairman and another at the
audience strode to the center of the stage.
The minutes read:
COLONEL JACK GREENWAY: "Will you give me the floor? I won't keep you
five minutes.
"My name is Greenway but that doesn't mean anything to you. Gentlemen,
Colonel Roosevelt has said that he is not going to take the nomination
of the caucus and you can take it from me that he is not going to do
it. Now wait a minute. Whoa! Quit yelling! I know this Roosevelt
outfit and when they say something they mean it. I followed his daddy
through Cuba and I know. I saw this boy in the first division at
Cantigny and on the Toul Front and I know that he means he is not
going to take the chairmanship of this temporary caucus. There is a
big misunderstanding about what you are trying to do. I have just
talked to Colonel Roosevelt and he says that he will not be a
candidate for the temporary caucus, but if, after all the boys come
home at the convention in November, it is still the desire of that
body as a whole, he will give the matter reconsideration." (Applause.)
Colonel Roosevelt resumes the chairmanship.
THE CHAIRMAN: "Mr. Lindsley, the gentleman of Texas is in nomination
for chairman. I mean absolutely what I say. I can't do it. I won't
serve if elected. What you have done will always be a great memory to
my family. (Applause.) I mean that, gentlemen! I mean that! Now is
there anybody else you want to put in nomination? I absolutely mean
that for the good of the cause; you have got to do what I say on that.
"Gentlemen, I believe the nominations were reopened."
Now I must again put the minutes by for a moment, for Bill has come to
the stage and what he says doesn't get into the minutes, although I
wish his remarks were there:
"That was pretty fine in him," Bill said, pointing to Colonel
Roosevelt. I nodded only, for somehow this whole thing had got to me
pretty strong and I felt like crying for some unaccountable reason.
"And then he gives his family the credit for all this yelling," Bill
was saying. "We like his family all right, but say, this wasn't to
compliment his family, not by a darn sight. Why, you know that young
Colonel's got a h---- of a fine record himself--"
But somebody within an inch of my ear was letting out a warwhoop for
Jack Sullivan who had just been nominated for permanent chairman and
I didn't hear the last of Bill's remark.
Sergeant Sullivan got up and tried to withdraw in favor of Colonel
Lindsley, and Colonel Lindsley did the same thing and each was refused
the opportunity. Colonel Lindsley then took the floor. "Comrades," he
said, "I want you to know that I came here for one man for the
chairman of this caucus, and that man was Theodore Roosevelt. He has
refused it absolutely. I appreciate the support that has been given to
my name. If honored with the chairmanship I shall be glad to serve,
but it is important that we get to business immediately. I am certain
that Mr. Sullivan will make an excellent presiding officer. If I had
the right, I should be glad to withdraw my name in his favor. But the
point is, gentlemen, let's get to business. This is the greatest
meeting that has ever gathered in the United States, and it is not so
material who is chairman of the meeting as it is to proceed to
business."
While the roll is being called let's glance around the theater again.
Most of the men in uniform are enlisted men. It is difficult to tell
at a glance just what rank or rating the majority of those present
held in the army or navy because in civilian clothing the officer and
the man are indistinguishable. I mean to say that our army was
different from most other military establishments. Being primarily a
citizen affair it was really representative. It was the desire of the
temporary committee that sixty per cent. of the delegates should be
enlisted men and when the call for the caucus was issued that was set
forth most plainly. No one seems to have taken the trouble to check
the thing up at the caucus. Anyone desiring to do so can find the
information in this volume. I was interested at the opening of the
caucus to know just what the percentage was, but after it got into
swing it didn't make any difference. No one cared. There was talk
(among officers) of making an enlisted man permanent chairman. The
only persons that I heard objecting to such a procedure were the
enlisted men themselves.
"We've forgotten all that stuff about rank. If the officers insist on
an enlisted man they'll make a mistake. We want the best man and
because we're in the majority in the organization we don't want to
discriminate against the officer. Taken as a whole, he was a mighty
fine sort."
This from Sergeant Laverne Collier of the Idaho delegation when I
asked him what he thought of the enlisted man idea. While we were
talking about it the vote was being cast on Lindsley and Sullivan. As
if to reecho Collier's sentiments, Sullivan got up and demanded that
Lindsley's election should be made unanimous, and so it was.
Colonel Roosevelt promptly put Sullivan's name in nomination for
vice-chairman. Mr. Abbott of Ohio seconded it and further moved that
the sergeant's election be made unanimous. Sergeant Jack Sullivan was
elected by acclamation. Then Colonel Wood was chosen secretary, the
rules of the House of Representatives were decided upon to govern the
procedure, and debate was limited to five minutes.
Insistence on that point was unnecessary. Our new American back from
the wars has been too accustomed to action to like words that aren't
concise and aimed right at the heart of the point. There was a good
deal of noise and talk at this particular juncture and someone moved
the appointment of a sergeant at arms. Captain A.L. Boyce of Boyce's
Tigers (those young men who drilled so persistently in Central Park in
New York preparing for the war) was picked. While this guardian of the
peace was being appointed at least five gentlemen from as many
delegations started to speak at once, perhaps against the five-minute
debate rule, and in the confusion a delegate, whom Checkers might have
described as carrying a load he should have made three trips with,
took the platform and began something that sounded about as
intelligible as Cicero's oration against Catiline in the original.
"Do I understand, Mr. Chairman, that a sergeant at arms has been
appointed?" shouted Mr. J.L. Walsh of the Pennsylvania delegation.
"That's right," answered the chairman.
"Then let's have him get busy," rejoined Mr. Walsh. "We didn't come
down here for a vaudeville show or to be entertained by some boob,
because we've got boobs back home."
After this remark, the minutes read "Laughter and applause" but that
doesn't half describe it.
Captain Boyce "got busy" and if the minutes could record the result of
his actions they would probably read "Order restored--almost. Quieter,
for a time."
Colonel Lindsley made a splendid presiding officer. None could have
done better, but as the stenographer who took the minutes remarked
(and she was convention-worn because she had attended so many): "This
is the funnest meeting I ever wrote up." Right. It was the funniest
meeting--funny being used in the sense of unusual as the stenographer
meant it--that anyone ever saw. In fact it was unique; absolutely the
only one of its kind. Because the delegates were unique. There never
was anything like them in all the history of the country. They had
gone into training camps like Bill, very tired, anæmic, with a shop
and office pallor; and they came out of the war like Bill,--new,
virile, interested, placing a value on themselves which would have
been unthinkable prior to April 6, 1917.
But they placed a greater value on this organization which was so near
the heart of all of them. No better proof of it can be shown than the
incident which has just been described, viz., the refusal of Theodore
Roosevelt to be the permanent chairman. Although I do not pretend to
be able to explain the processes of thought and reasoning which led
Colonel Roosevelt to take the action he did, still I do know this
much! There are very few young men who would have been so deaf to the
plaudits of the multitude, to the advice of old friends and to the
still small voice of personal ambition as he was in refusing. I
maintain that this refusal was by no means altogether prompted by
anything of an hereditary nature but, rather, by the experiences and
environment which had been Colonel Roosevelt's during the war. It took
more than an under-slung jaw and a rugged Rooseveltian determination
to refuse this great honor. It took _discipline_, and Colonel
Roosevelt knew how to inflict that upon himself just as he did upon
his troops whenever it was wise and necessary.
In much smaller, but no less important matters, did I see other men
practice discipline upon themselves. I saw men forego the discussion
of subjects in which they believed with all their hearts and with all
their minds solely for the purpose of doing nothing that would tend to
disrupt the Caucus or give the impression throughout the United States
that the men who had stuck together so closely in times of daring and
danger could not still stick and face, as a band of brothers in the
American Legion, any perils or pitfalls which peace might hold for
this country. Therefore, it seems to me that Colonel Roosevelt's
action was more than a manifestation of his own sterling determination
to do nothing which might hurt the Legion. It was archtypical.
Major Hamilton Fish of New York called attention to the fact that the
navy was unrepresented in the offices of the caucus and moved that a
second vice-chairman should be appointed from that branch of the
service. A delegate from Missouri seconded the motion and amended it
to read that a third vice-chairman should be appointed from the marine
corps.
During the election of these officers enthusiasm reached a high pitch
and in no more striking manner did the new American reveal his new
character.
"Gentlemen," said one dignified delegate (I don't know who let him in,
because just from the way he said "gentlemen" we all knew that once in
his life he had practiced oratory before the bureau mirror), "I want
to place in nomination the name of a man who is true blue--"
"Name him," shouted the crowd.
"He is not only true blue but he is thoroughly everything he ought to
be in addition--" continued the orator, coldly trying to squelch the
crowd.
"Name him." "Shut up." "Aw, sit down." "Who wants to listen to such
'bull' as that?"
Each of those sentences was roared by a different man.
"This gentleman is one of whom I am sure you will be proud--"
persisted the orator, but at this direct violation of its edict the
crowd began to scream its maledictions and Captain Boyce could not
have stopped them with all his Tigers if the gentleman orator hadn't
taken his seat in a most dignified manner, never to rise
again--doubtless as a rebuke for the gang, but one which was
thoroughly appreciated.
Thus the way of orators in the caucus!
The navy men who were nominated consisted of Goerke of New York;
Goldberg, Illinois; Chenoweth, Alabama; Almon, Montana; Humphrey, New
Mexico; McGrath, New Jersey; and Evans of Kentucky. The secretary took
the vote by delegations. When Goerke got a vote the New York crowd
yelled itself hoarse; New Mexico did the same for Humphrey; Alabama
cheered like mad for Chenoweth and it wasn't long before everybody
picked out his candidate and yelled furiously every time he got a
vote. The New Mexico delegation occupied a proscenium box but Humphrey
wasn't prominent enough there to suit his delegation. Before anyone
thoroughly realized what was happening, Seaman Humphrey appeared on
the stage, borne on the shoulders of two colonels! Two men who had
eagles on their shoulders, U.S. on their collars, and gold chevrons on
their left sleeves carried on their shoulders a "gob," a sailorman, a
deck-swabbing bluejacket, as he called himself.
It was the beginning of a cavalcade of noise that fairly made ear
drums ache, and, incidentally, proved a signal for the backers of
other candidates. Goerke soon was lifted aloft by a half dozen New
Yorkers; Chenoweth was exhibited to the general view from the section
of the orchestra occupied by his delegation, while Illinois paraded
up and down the aisles with Goldberg. Colonel Lindsley hammered the
speaker's table almost to pieces in an attempt to get order and then
gave it up for a few minutes as a bad job. Captain Boyce succeeded in
getting a semblance of it, when everybody got tired of carrying the
candidates and of shouting. Then the secretary again started taking
the vote by delegations. No one of the candidates received a majority
of the votes which was necessary under the procedure adopted at the
beginning of the caucus. Then began the withdrawals. This State
withdrew its vote from Goerke and cast it for Humphrey; Chenoweth
withdrew from the race and his vote went to Goerke, et cetera. A
similar situation resulted on the second count and finally Goerke
withdrew in favor of Humphrey. When Evans took the same action,
Humphrey (first name Fred), described as the "rough-riding sailor from
New Mexico," was elected.
Humphrey's speech of acceptance delighted the hearts of those who had
forced the would-be orator to sit down at the beginning of the
nominations.
"Mr. Chairman, gobs, soldiers, and marines," Humphrey said: "I am most
glad and gracious to accept this honorary position and I will do
everything that a deck-swabbing sailorman can do to fill it."
The first day's session closed with the appointment by the various
States of representatives on the following committees: Executive
Committee; Credentials; Temporary Name of Organization; Organization;
Resolutions; Constitution and By-Laws and Declaration of Principles;
Next Meeting Place and Time; Publication; Emblem; Permanent
Headquarters, and Finance.
The personnel of these committees will be found elsewhere.
Thursday evening and Friday morning were devoted largely to committee
meetings and different sections of the country came together to
discuss matters of particular interest to special localities. For
instance, the Western delegations discussed the question of
Bolshevism, because the symptoms of this mad disease had been more
apparent in that section of the country than in any other. The
question of color was practically decided in a meeting of the
Executive Committee and was ratified later by various delegations
representing the Southern States. Everybody was pleased. An attempt
was made by the leaders of each delegation to keep such questions as
might be "_loaded with dynamite_" off the actual floor of the caucus
so that those lacking in discretion might not have the opportunity to
throw the caucus into an uproar.
In fact it was this spirit--the desire on everybody's part to give in
to a certain extent on any mooted question for the sake of general
harmony that was a marked feature of the gathering. In the committee
meetings were found delegates with radically different opinions on
almost every question. It was not an uncommon thing, however, to see a
delegate very heatedly advocate a certain side of an issue; listen to
the opposing side, rise, and with equal heat and fervency advocate the
opposite point of view.
This spirit is highly significant. It will be one of the Legion's
greatest powers. It was and is due to the fact that these new
Americans are not cursed with fixed ideas. They have seen too much,
lived through too much in their comparatively short lives to be
narrow-minded. Over in the A.E.F. the former hod-carrier often turned
out to be too good as a construction manager for any officer to
despise his opinions. One noticeable characteristic of the American
Legion delegate was the respect which he had for the other man's views
and his willingness to admit outright that he was wrong in a thing or
to go at least halfway with the opponent of his particular ideas. This
was the saving grace of the caucus and this will be the saving grace
of the Legion for the spirit which was manifested there is the spirit
which will prevail at Minneapolis, and for always, because the
American sailor and soldier will not change.
It was interesting to see these modern American soldiers side by side
with the veterans of the Civil War. The Grand Army of the Republic
Post, the local Bivouac of the United Confederate Veterans, and the
Spanish War Veterans gave a joint reception for the delegates at the
Missouri Athletic Club which included a smoker and a vaudeville
entertainment furnished by the War Camp Community Service.
CHAPTER VI
THE LEGION AND THE BOLSHEVIKI
The second session of the caucus began at half past two o'clock Friday
afternoon. Like its predecessor it started with a bang. Nominations
were made for the third vice-chairman who was to be selected from the
marine corps. The first nomination was a wounded man, at the time in
the Walter Reed Hospital at Washington and who had won the
Distinguished Service Cross at Château-Thierry. Then came the name of
Sergeant Woolley of Utah, quickly followed by the name of P.C. Calhoun
of Connecticut, put up by Mr. Black of Louisiana; the name of Major
Leonard of the District of Columbia also was put in nomination and
then the slate was closed.
True to the spirit of the previous meeting the caucus was soon in an
uproar of applause for each of the four candidates, three of whom were
marched to the stage. Calhoun was elected, with the result that his
ardent brother delegates from Connecticut treated him like a football
hero by placing him on their shoulders and performing a snake dance.
Marines are no more garrulous than sailor men, for Calhoun's speech of
acceptance was just about as long as Humphrey's. While Calhoun was
being bombed by flashlight cameras Mr. Smoot of Utah moved that a vote
of thanks should be tendered to Colonel Roosevelt and other Legion
members who had been active in the preliminary work which insured the
success of the caucus and this was seconded by Major Wickersham of New
York. One of the most rousing ayes of the entire caucus carried the
motion.
Cries of "speech" brought Colonel Roosevelt before the footlights. His
remarks were just about as long as Humphrey's and Calhoun's. To be
specific he said: "Gentlemen, it is going to be a short speech because
I think we have got a lot of business to do. Thank you."
Just about this time the committee reports began to come in, the first
of which, that of the Credential Committee, brought the question of
Bolshevism to the floor of the caucus. The report read as follows:
"We recommend that all delegates to the American Legion selected and
now functioning from the various States, districts, and territories,
be seated and accredited with full vote, and that all organizations
organized and having delegates here be allowed one vote with the
exception of the Soldiers and Sailors Council, which delegation the
Credential Committee recommends shall be excluded from the caucus."
S.H. Curtin, the representative of the Soldiers and Sailors Council of
Seattle, pending the action of the Credential Committee, had been
accorded a vote at the previous session on all questions that came up
before it. The fact that Colonel Wood, the Secretary, took this action
was in line with the general spirit of fair play, which was the
keynote of the caucus. The Credential Committee's report elicited
shouts of approval. Chairman Lindsley after bringing the house to
order again said:
"I understand that the delegate from the Soldiers and Sailors Council
is here and asks to be heard. Gentlemen, the members of the Committee,
I assume, had full knowledge of facts which warranted that report, but
there are men here who have not that knowledge. Shall we hear him?"
This statement aroused mixed emotions but Mr. Curtin came to the
platform. Word having spread through the theater that he represented
the "real Bolshevik outfit" in Seattle, a great many of the delegates
began to hoot, jeer, and make cat calls.
"Give me a square deal, give me a hearing," Curtin shouted.
"Give the man a hearing," echoed Colonel Roosevelt, who sat with the
New York delegation. "Yes, give him a hearing." shouted the majority
of the delegates and when the chair had procured order, Curtin made
his plea.
"I wish to say, by way of introduction, that though I come from the
State of Washington, I am not a member of the Washington Delegation,"
he said, "I say that out of deference to the members from that State
for the reason that I wish to prejudice nobody here against the
Washington Delegation. I am not an I.W.W. I never have been and I
never intend to be I never have shown any Bolshevik tendency and I
defy any man present to prove to the contrary. If you've got proof
that Sherman H. Curtin ever was an I.W.W. or made a Bolshevik
statement, say so?" He paused here but none answered him to the
contrary
"It is true that the organization which I represent has had in the
past some I.W.W.'s, and it is true that there are some I.W.W.'s in it
now," he continued; "but I am in that organization for the purpose of
throwing those I.W.W.'s out. I got in there for the purpose of kicking
them out and I want your help."
Here he was interrupted by applause.
"At the present time, we (when I say we, I mean the particular
conservative element which I represent in that organization) have
control of the Board and practically all except one office of the
organization. We are doing everything in our power to make that a one
hundred per cent. American organization, and one of the things that I
came down here for was to see that the Legion had in its constitution
as a preamble that we pledge ourselves to the principles of democracy
as set forth in the constitution of the United States of America.
"I, personally, was the man who rewrote the constitution of the
Soldiers and Sailors Council. It was written wrong when I got in there
so I changed it. I want you men to stand behind me and help me make
this fight. My organization did not give me permission to come here
and join this, just as I presume some of your organizations did not
give you permission, for the reason that they did not know what this
was going to be; but I can see from the spirit that this organization
has, that so far, it is on the right path and I am with it and I want
you with me.
"I am already only and wholly for the purpose of doing what good we
can for the elimination of I.W.W.'s and Bolsheviki. If you are
against that, I am with you and if you are with me, I am with you.
George Pratt of Louisiana rose.
"With your permission," he said to the chairman, "I would like to ask
the gentleman one question." "Sir," turning to Curtin, "is it or is it
not true that you re-wrote the constitution now in effect for your
organization, and is it not true that it is so worded that American
Army and Naval officers or former army and navy and marine officers of
the United States are not eligible? Is that true?"
"I will answer that question and I will answer it in a fair way," Mr.
Curtin replied.
"Say yes or no. Is it true?" Mr. Pratt demanded.
"Yes," shouted the crowd. "Say yes or no. Is it true?"
Then pandemonium broke loose in the meeting. The cat calls and boos
were renewed. "Put him out!" "Put him out!" "Shut him up!" the crowd
demanded. And here I want to pause a moment to say that the enlisted
men present gave a mighty concrete sign of the approval of their
officers by this denunciation of the constitution of Curtin's outfit.
"I am not here for the purpose of being persecuted," Mr. Curtin
shouted. "I am not asking no or yes to anything. But I will say to the
gentleman who questioned me that while it is true in letter it is not
true in spirit."
At this juncture Mr. Simon, of the Washington 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
Washington.
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--damn 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 Peacock 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 Washington 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 constitution
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.
Mr. Shank of Ohio, thought that the American Legion did not convey a
sufficient meaning to the average civilians. "The American Legion
might be an organization of street cleaners, it doesn't signify
soldiers. It isn't comprehensive enough," he said. Mr. Larry of
Florida countered with, "Go ahead and call it American Legion, we will
soon show them what it means."
Mr. Walsh of Pennsylvania, suggested that the A.E.F. knew what it was
doing when they called it the American Legion. "Let us honor them and
respect them by calling it the American Legion," he urged. Colonel E.
Lester Jones, of Washington, stated the name had been considered by
the committee most carefully and--
But why go into all the arguments. The motion to call it the American
Legion was carried amid cheering and as such the name will go down
into the history of things well done for America.
CHAPTER VII
THE LEGION WON'T MEET AT CHICAGO
We have arrived at what is the most significant event of this session
of the caucus, if not of the entire gathering. The caucus has already
shown its spirit in ousting the Soldiers and Sailors Council because,
in its opinion, it could not measure up to one hundred per cent.
Americanism, and now we shall see what the same simon-pure brand of
red, white, and blueism is demanded of the second largest city in the
United States.
It came about in the most dry, matter-of-fact way. Let the minutes of
the meeting form the introduction for it.
THE CHAIRMAN: "Next is the report of the Committee on the Next Meeting
Place and Time."
SECRETARY WOOD (reading): "From the Committee on Next Meeting Place
and Time, to the Chairman of the American Legion; action of the
Committee.
"Meeting called to order at 10:30 A.M. this day at the Shubert
Jefferson Theater.
"Charles S. Caldwell, of New Mexico, unanimously elected chairman.
"Frank M. Ladd, Jr., of Alabama, Secretary.
"The majority of the States being represented as per attached list
voted unanimously for Chicago as next meeting place. Date being set as
November 10, 11, and 12, 1919.
"Respectfully submitted,
"CHARLES S. CALDWELL, _Chairman_,
"FRANK M. LADD, JR., _Secretary_."
MR. SEXTON (of Illinois): "When you consider your place for your next
convention tell Chicago what you want, and in response to that Chicago
will answer you. 'We will give you whatever you want.'"
Then the excitement started. Mr. Dietrick of Pennsylvania moved to
amend the report of the committee. "By striking out the word Chicago
and substituting therefore the city from the State which furnished
more soldiers than another state--the city of Pittsburgh."
This elicited great applause--especially from the Pennsylvania
delegation. Mr. Stems of Louisiana got the floor--
"I want to tell you what took place in that committee," he said. "The
committee selected a place to the best interest of this organization
and not to the best interest of any one specific locality, and the
question was argued in a very quiet, organized, gentlemanly manner. A
number of the delegates put up towns that did not get enough support
to get the meeting, so they withdrew their names. It was all to the
interest of the organization so it was unanimously adopted by that
committee, without any dissenting vote, that Chicago be unanimously
adopted as the place for the next convention for the best of all
interests concerned. I am from New Orleans, Louisiana, which is a
convention city and I will not offer my city to you as a convention
city at this time because I do not think it is to the best interest of
your country."
[Illustration: Bennett C. Clark
Who presided at the Paris Caucus]
[Illustration: Eric Fisher Wood Secretary]
When Mr. Stem took his seat at least a dozen delegates clamored for
recognition from the chair. Colonel J.F.J. Herbert succeeded in
getting it. It was he who then fired the gun which, if not heard
around the world at least made Chicago's ear drums rattle.
"Mr. Chairman," he began--
Colonel Lindsley rapped for order.
A man near me whispered, "There's Herbert of Massachusetts. I think
Boston is too far east for this convention, at least for the first
one."
Colonel Lindsley got order, and you could have heard a pin drop,
while the following statement was made by the Massachusetts leader:
"As the spokesman for my delegation on this question of next meeting
place I want to say that if no other body and if no other party of
this caucus wants or believes it is its duty to rebuke any city or the
representative of any city for Un-Americanism during the time when the
soldiers of that city were offering their lives in defense of the
world, then Massachusetts stands ready to offer that rebuke.
Massachusetts will not agree willingly to having a convention of
soldiers and sailors in the Great War, go to a city that has as its
first citizen, by vote, one who can not measure up in any small part
when the test is one hundred per cent. Americanism."
When Colonel Herbert reached this point one delegate with a big voice
from a big State (Texas) let out a loud yell of approval. This was the
signal for blast after blast of vocal vociferousness which fairly
raised the roof. Men stood on their seats, and cheered. "You're dead
right" and "Get a new mayor, Chicago," while others began to point at
placards advertising Chicago which had been placed on the walls of the
theater by members of the Illinois delegation. Colonel Herbert stood
for fully five minutes before order was sufficiently restored for him
to proceed.
"The hall has been placarded with invitations, reading, 'The American
Legion, Chicago wants you in November,'" he said. "I believe that this
convention, this convention of soldiers and sailors should say,
'Chicago, you cannot have American soldiers in Chicago when there is a
possibility that the chief representative of that city may not believe
it is his duty to come before the Convention and welcome it.' If these
placards read, 'American Legion, Chicago _soldiers_ want you in
November,' our answer might be different. The answer of Massachusetts
would be different but when your placard reads, 'Chicago wants you in
November' the answer of Massachusetts is, 'Chicago cannot have us in
November'--or any other time until Chicago has an American for Mayor
in an American city.
"The literature circulated through the caucus reads, 'Chicago pledges
itself to go any other city one better on anything this convention
requires.' This convention first requires that Chicago shall reach a
standard different from the standard of being the most despised city
in America, and when it has reached that standard, it is then in a
position to say whether it can go one better. It has not yet reached
par. Until Chicago reaches par, Massachusetts votes no!"
A large poster reading "Chicago bids you Welcome," had been placed
over the seats directly in the center of the stage; Captain Osborne
pulled it down. This was the signal for similar action all over the
house. Chicago banners, dropped from the boxes, were hurled to the
floor. Other banners which had been on the theater walls just out of
reach were torn down by men who climbed on the shoulders of their
fellow delegates in order to reach them. Only during the ovation given
Colonel Roosevelt, did the cheering reach such intensity.
These men were cheering for Americanism. They wanted one hundred per
cent. Americanism, untainted and unvarnished by a hyphen or an "ism,"
especially when the word pacific precedes the latter. Everyone felt
sorry for the Illinois delegation, for it was realized that Colonel
Herbert's remarks were intended solely to reflect upon the person he
specially mentioned and not upon the thousands of soldiers and sailors
who went from Illinois and Chicago and did more than their part in
writing glorious history.
Just how this was impressed upon the men from Illinois let the minutes
show. The chairman recognized "the gentleman from Chicago."
MR. CUMMINGS (of Chicago): "Gentlemen, I don't believe there is a
single delegate to this caucus who would be so unfair as to impugn the
patriotism of 650,000 men who rallied to the colors of this country
by saying: 'Because Chicago had a mayor of which they are all ashamed
that they are not patriotic.' Had the men who were serving the colors
in France been in Chicago, they would have had no apology to offer for
their mayor. (Applause.) He was elected in a three-cornered fight
where he did not receive a majority vote in Chicago, but had the
opposition to him been solidified he would have been snowed under, for
Chicago is patriotic. I consider that an insult has been handed to
every man in Illinois who rallied to the colors.
"The Tank Corps of which I am a member, and an enlisted man
originally, gave from Chicago 11,250 enlisted men, volunteers in the
most hazardous branch of the service. They gave 11,250 men as against
11,000 which the rest of the country contributed. If that doesn't
bespeak patriotism for Chicago, I don't know how you are going to
gauge it. I am saying that in the invitation which was extended to you
we are speaking for the boys of khaki and blue who rallied to the
colors from Illinois, and who are here to-day, extending the
invitation to you notwithstanding the fact that we are cursed by a
mayor who is not our choice. We would throw him out if we had the
chance, but we are extending the invitation to you on behalf of
750,000 men from Illinois and we do not feel that you are going to
impugn their patriotism, that you are going to insult them by saying
they are members of an unpatriotic community."
MR. HAWKINS (of Oklahoma): "The great State of Illinois stands
unchallenged in the patriotism of its soldiers throughout the world. I
am only sorry that you didn't leave enough patriots at home to elect a
patriotic mayor of that great city. You are in the embarrassing
position of having a man who has repudiated the things we went out to
die for. Either you have got to repudiate us or repudiate him."
"We'll repudiate him next time when the boys get home," shouted
several of the Illinois crowd.
Then other speakers tried to make it plain that the Legion's attack
was solely against the municipal head of Chicago, but some of the men
of Illinois let the incident rankle. How it came out (and it was ended
happily) will develop. Meantime the attention of the caucus was
diverted from the Chicago incident by the manifestation of that desire
which is in every true American's heart, namely to be a booster for
his own home town. In less time than it takes to tell it, Los Angeles,
Minneapolis, Atlantic City, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis,
Kansas City, and Chicago were being voted upon. While the delegates
were voting, a small body of soldiers and sailors were gathered
together in a wing of the theater, seriously discussing the incident
which was developed by Colonel Herbert's speech. They desired that it
should be made more plain to everyone just what Colonel Herbert meant
and that the millions of patriotic simon-pure Americans who live in
Illinois should not take undue umbrage of the incident. Therefore
while the vote on the convention city was being counted, Colonel Luke
Lea was recognized by the chairman and asked unanimous consent to
present for consideration the following resolution:
"RESOLVED, That the action of the caucus of the American Legion in
refusing to accept the invitation to hold its next convention in
Chicago is no reflection upon the splendid patriotism of the men and
women of that great city, who have loyally proved their Americanism by
supporting our Army and Navy and all war activities.
"BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That this caucus records its admiration of
the valor and heroism of the thousands and thousands of Chicago's sons
whose pure patriotism has been proven on the battlefields of France."
"I would like to say something in support of the motion," Colonel Lea
said. "It is very proper for me to offer it for I had the privilege of
serving for three months with the great Thirty-third Division of
Illinois and I know what wonderful soldiers they are."
The resolution was adopted by unanimous vote.
No booster ever had a better time than had those who attended the St.
Louis Caucus. Local pride assumed its highest pitch during the vote,
and at length Minneapolis won it. The date was set for November
10-11-12th.
Just before adjournment Colonel Herbert arose to a question of
personal privilege.
"I would like, if possible," he said, "to have the attention for a few
minutes of every man that is in this theater. Intentionally or
otherwise, and I think it was otherwise, the soldiers of Illinois have
felt that I was not just to them in the remarks that I made bearing on
the report of the Committee on the Next Meeting Place. I meant to say,
and I believe now that I did say, that if those banners that were hung
in this theater had read, 'American Legion, Chicago's _soldiers_
invite you next November.' Massachusetts' answer would have been
'Yes.' I believe I said that. The men of Illinois believe I did not
say it. The men of Illinois believe that when I sat down after making
the few remarks I did, that I had a sardonic smile on my lips and they
say that I have insulted them to the heart and I say to them: 'If
there is anything that I can say, anything that I can do, as soldier
to soldier to remove from your mind, or from the minds of any man who
may have been in this theater, any belief that there was any feeling
except of highest admiration, the highest respect, and the deepest
affection on the part of the soldiers of Massachusetts for the
soldiers of Illinois, then I want to correct that impression, because
I want you, the soldiers of Illinois, to know that we recognize in
Massachusetts that no better soldiers wore the khaki, no better
sailors wore the blue, than the men of Illinois. My remarks were, as I
stated, for the purpose of saying Massachusetts would, if no other
State would, take such action to rebuke the city of Chicago; would say
to Chicago that if it would have the right to invite Americans to meet
in that city, first Americanize the City Hall. That was my chief
purpose of rising to my feet. If Chicago's soldiers, if Illinois'
soldiers still think that I have not made reparation for what they
believe was the intention of my remarks, then I say to them that no
higher respect, no deeper affection exists for them than in the hearts
of the men of Massachusetts."
Colonel Herbert's assault upon Chicago's mayor in itself is only half
significant. It is only wholly so when its reception is considered.
Colonel Herbert will have none of Chicago until it has purged itself
of its municipal leader. He remembered, perhaps, the assertion that it
is "the sixth largest German city in the world." He might have said as
much in a newspaper interview as he said on the floor of the caucus
had he been asked about the Illinois city as a meeting place for
soldiers, and, perhaps, the editor would have given to it a half
column of space; in the larger dailies, less. But when men of the
army, navy, and marine corps, from every battlefield in France, from
every State in the union, voice their approval so thunderously; when
they stand on their seats and cheer; when they so positively overrule
the recommendation of committeemen who have studiously considered the
matter, presumably from all angles, it means much. No wonder
Metropolitan dailies devoted columns to it.
Those of you who have become low-spirited over your own particular
view of the future; those of you who have talked about "the good old
days"; or, the Spirit of '76, take heart. Take counsel of the Spirit
of '19, based on the deeds of '17 and '18, on the mistakes of '14,
'15, and '16. '19 is all right!
Read the constitution of the American Legion to-night just before
you go to bed. Think of this second day's session when the
Bolsheviki-tainted organization was thrown out, when the second
largest city in America was told to "clean house" and redecorate in
red, white, and blue. Then go to bed and know that all's right with
the United States.
A large number of the delegates attended, on the second evening, a
dance and supper at Sunset Inn given in honor of the Legion by the
ladies of St. Louis. For most though, there was work in plenty to do.
Some of the committees hadn't yet reported and there was an all
important meeting of the executive committee in the Statler Hotel.
I said _all important_ by design. The caucus had taken up a great deal
of time with the proceedings already recounted and it was the purpose
of the executive committee on adjournment-eve to get down to brass
tacks. It certainly did that. It was agreed to recommend to the caucus
that the Legion should attempt to help get returning soldiers and
sailors positions and that a legal department should be established
which would aid men to get back pay and allotments, while still
another department would look after their insurance and instruct them
how to change it to policies of a permanent character. Needless to say
these conclusions were not arrived at without a great deal of helpful
discussion.
Then too this executive meeting was all important because it let
several persons who claimed to be dissatisfied, air their grievances,
thereby clearing the atmosphere of considerable cloudiness. For the
most part these malcontents didn't seem at first to distinguish
between the caucus and the November convention. They didn't seem to
catch at first hand the spirit of the A.E.F. caucus which positively
refused to take action on large questions of policy until the Home
Army could be consulted. The principal leaders of the caucus in St.
Louis determined upon the same course, as has been previously
explained, and rightly so. One thing one element wanted to do was to
elect permanent officers. "How could you do that when more than a
million men entitled to a vote are still in France?" they were asked.
They couldn't answer. Another element wanted to go on record against
universal military training while still others were for endorsing it.
Someone else wanted this city to be chosen as permanent headquarters
while another wanted some other town selected. There was some
grumbling to the effect that the caucus had been too "rowdy." Then,
too, everybody was more or less tired out and a darker view of things
was natural.
The silver lining was there, however, as it always is. This time it
took the rotund form of a preacher from Alabama. Inzer was his name
and his folks and Colonel Roosevelt's away back five or six
generations ago in Georgia had been the same people, so let's
introduce him as Colonel Roosevelt's cousin. Chaplain Inzer had been
ready to embark at Newport News with his regiment when the Bolsheviki
menace grew quite serious in the Pacific northwest and he was ordered
to proceed to Seattle and was there during all the stirring times
which culminated in making Ole Hanson famous.
It might truthfully be said that the "silver lining" quite properly
had a silver tongue. When he had spoken just about a hundred words
even the grouches were holding onto their chairs if they weren't using
their hands for purposes of applause. And many a man, who thought he'd
talked his voice silent dug deep down in his vocal chords and brought
forth something that could easily be labeled a cheer! This preacher
told everybody who might have the slightest idea of making trouble
just where to get off. But I am not going to try to remember his
speech and perhaps improperly quote the chaplain. The speech was so
good that they made him do it again at the very opening of the caucus
the next morning, so I'm going to lead off with it in my story of the
proceedings of the last day, just as the stenographers recorded it.
CHAPTER VIII
THE SILVER LINING
Soon after the caucus opened on Saturday morning, May 10, the minutes
read as follows:
THE CHAIRMAN: "Gentlemen, before we have the report of the Resolutions
Committee, I want to say to those who were not of the Executive
Committee and in its meeting last night, that there seemed to me to be
there a more splendid crystallization of the real purpose of this
caucus and a foresight into what it is going to mean, not only to
these four millions of men but to the people of the United States for
the next half century, than I have ever heard, and at the request of a
number of those who were there at that meeting, I am going to ask one
of them to interpret to you in just a few minutes, as well as he can,
and he did it wonderfully well last night, the spirit that we believed
in that meeting is your spirit here to-day and the spirit that is
going out from this caucus as a slogan to all American citizens and
through them to the world, indicating the purposes for which we
fought, and more than that, the purposes for which American manhood
stands and for which it will fight again, if necessary, the heritage
we will hand down to our children, and I will ask this gentleman to
present that thought to you."
CHAPLAIN W. INZER (of Alabama): "Gentlemen, I appreciate this
opportunity more than I have words to say, and if you will only be as
sympathetic with me for these minutes as that Executive Committee was
last night, I will do my best to interpret the spirit and the mind of
this convention as I see it and as I saw it last night. I never had a
more sympathetic audience, it seemed to me, or a more psychological
moment in which to speak than that was last night and I appreciate the
spirit of the brethren who asked me to come out and make this talk
this morning and I am going to try my best to interpret it as I saw it
last night.
"There has been an undercurrent all through this Convention. Somebody
has been afraid that we are going to do something or pop some lid off
that will bust the thing and I have been, as I said last night,
sometimes scared almost to death. I think I could personally say that
I wanted to make about seventy-four speeches in the two days that I
have been here. I didn't do it but I was waiting and praying for the
psychological hour to arrive and I believe that that hour came last
night when this Executive Committee really got together and got
something concrete before them, and I think that the whole Convention
comes together this morning ready to take up matters of importance and
leave off matters that should not be taken up, and to solidify this
body in a great spirit of Americanism that shall last for fifty years
as the greatest organization that the world has ever known."
(Applause.) "Now the keyword that I want to say in the beginning is,
at all costs we want to save this organization. We do not want
anything to arise to-day that will in any way mar the spirit of this
great assembly and the work that it is going to do in the future.
While you were deliberating here these past two days some of you
thought only of this hour and this moment, but, gentlemen, I had an
eye cast into the future and I was dreaming dreams and seeing visions
of the years that are to come and the wonderful work, the wonderful
influence, and the mighty power that this organization is going to
have and exert upon this nation and upon the whole world, and I want
you to think of it in these terms. This convention is a baby and we
must not choke this baby. You can't give a young baby a gallon of
castor oil the first week. It only requires castoria, that is all the
first week. It can stand with a little mother's milk, and I want you
to feel that way about it to-day." (Laughter and Applause.)
"Our first duty is beyond the shadow of a doubt to get this infant on
its legs, and once we get it on its legs, it will be like the mighty
Niagara Falls, there isn't anything in the world can dam it up. It
will be a power that shall be known, and with influence all over
America and for good all over the world. Let's be quiet and let's be
sensible to-day until we get this infant on his legs. He's just a
recruit, a raw recruit, and he has to be trained and we are going to
do that now.
"Gentlemen, I want to say just here, if you can only think about this
Legion--the chairman spoke of it last night to me--as the jewel of the
ages. I believe that is the best interpretation I know. I cannot say
anything greater than this: I believe God raised up America for this
great hour; I can say that the strong young man of the time is to be
the American Legion in this country and in the world.
"What the great seers of the past ages have dreamed and what they have
planned and longed for, the opportunity that they sought, have
suddenly been placed and in our hands. Are we going to be great men
and big men? Will we arise to the dignity and be worthy of the
occasion?
"I believe that we will. Oh, men, if I might make it plain to you
that it seems to me I stand on the very rim of creation and I am
speaking there to an angel who has never yet been able to see light. I
said: 'Angel, what are you doing here?' and he said: 'I was placed
here when God created this world'; and he said: 'God sent me to look
down upon this world and report to him at one special time, and that
one time only,' and I said: 'What was to be the nature of that
report?' He said: 'God made man in His own image and God Himself is a
being of knowledge, love, truth, democracy, and peace,' and He said to
that angel, 'Don't you ever leave that world until you see dawn, until
you see that man has come up to the place where he will begin to
measure up to what I expected of him,' and that angel said to me, 'I
have sat here through all the ages and I have seen times when I
thought that the sunlight of God's great knowledge and love and truth
was going to come over the hills and then some being like the Kaiser
or Alexander or Napoleon or some one that was of a Bolsheviki type
would rise up and retard it and the sun could never rise,' but he
said: 'Thank God on April 6, 1917, I reported back to God when America
entered this war that I had seen the dawn.' (Applause.)
"As little as you dream, maybe when you came here and as little as you
thought about it in the commitment of time, I believe to-day that we
stand on the dawn of the realization of the republic of man which is
nothing short of the Kingdom of God on earth when men shall be men."
(Applause.)
"So the first thing we are to do to-day is to get a great spirit, men,
a great spirit that we can carry back. All the other questions will be
ironed out in due time. Everything will be straightened out when we
realize that five million men are going to be organized with the same
spirit of love and loyalty and devotion and sacrifice and democracy
that characterized their lives on the battlefield. They will never
rest until they make this whole world bloom in love, democracy, peace
and prosperity and equality and brotherhood for all mankind. That is
what we are going to do and that is what this assembly means to-day.
It is the world's great opportunity and your privilege to share with
it.
"Now, then, I want to say that the soldier spirit is going to be my
spirit and I believe it is going to be your spirit. When Wilson and
the other men called us to the war, I was glad and ready immediately
to offer my life because of the great principle. I said to those men
last night in that Executive Committee and I mean it to-day, I'd
gladly lay down my life to-day if laying down my life meant that this
Legion should live and fulfill my dreams of its service to the
country for these next fifty years. (Applause.) So do you think I want
anything to come up here that would disrupt this body? Never! Do you
think I want to make a fiery speech about something because it is my
personal conviction? No, I have a hundred personal convictions that I
would like to see operating in the United States and this convention,
but it isn't the time and I am not going to bring them up here. I
don't want to say anything that will keep all of us from pulling
together like a military army for the great things that this
convention in the future is going to stand for. So my final word is
this: That this day, we get right down to business and that we omit
everything that we can omit pertaining to the permanent policy of this
organization that we cannot all immediately agree upon.
"If there is going to be anything discussed here to-day that everybody
in this convention won't immediately agree upon and would hinder us
from sending out to the nation word that we stand together and that we
are going to pull together, that we caught a mighty vision and that we
have gained the great spirit, then, brethren, let's carry that thing
over until November when all the boys come home and then we will
discuss it there. There are many things to-day that we can discuss
that are important and fundamental and that are urgently needed in
our nation this hour. Let's take those things up and get down to
business on it to-day. Every Executive Member from each State pledged
the chairman last night that he was going to act as a sergeant-at-arms
in his delegation and hold the convention in order to-day. We are
going to do the right thing and we won't be 'busted' by anything or by
anybody, and when anything comes up that isn't the right thing for us
to do to make a great impression on America, and the world, we will
say hold that thing over until the baby is strong enough to do it
right.
"I beg you to do those things. Somebody said: 'What are the things we
can do to-day?' We mentioned them last night.
"Jack Sullivan has problems out there that we must meet this very day.
One of those is this Bolsheviki business. We are going to pass
resolutions this very day, I believe, asking the United States in
Congress to pass a bill for immediate action of deporting every one of
those Bolsheviki or I.W.W.'s out yonder." (Prolonged Applause.)
"Gentlemen, I know what I am talking about. You don't know how badly I
do hate some of those guys. If it hadn't been for them I would have
gotten on the boat in Newport News in 1918 for France, but because of
those rotten scamps I was sent to Seattle, Washington, and had to
stay there for seven months guarding the interest of the shipbuilding
in the Western States.
"I was naturalization officer for our regiment and that division out
there and I have had those scamps stand up and say: 'Yes, I have been
here fourteen years and have lived on the fat of the land, but we
don't want to fight,' and they would deny citizenship papers or cancel
their first papers.
"Now that the war is over, they are in lucrative positions and our
boys haven't got jobs; we've got to say, send those scamps to hell."
(Prolonged Applause.)
"We can all see this very moment that there is no division on that
question. We stand together. Somebody said: 'Why, we have been here
two days and haven't done anything but elect officers and decide on a
place to meet. But let me tell you, Buddy, while we have been doing
those things, we have let the world know where we stand for
Americanism. (Applause.) And we couldn't have done a bigger thing than
create the impression we did relative to Mayor Thompson of Chicago and
the I.W.W.'s of Seattle. (Applause.) We can do that. We are agreed on
that. The baby can do that without any trouble at all and we are not
going to choke him when we start that kind of thing.
"The other question that we might decide here to-day is what we are
going to do about jobs for our returned soldiers. In my city we have
already said: 'Look here, man, you'd better post every job that is
open and post it in the place where we get employment for returned
soldiers. And they have gotten down to that. We want to talk about
that to-day and get down to business--the business of getting jobs for
our men, and then we want to care for those who come back without
money. We want to help them get their allotment and get their $60
bonus, and we want to care for the wounded.
"But these other things--excuse me, I can't help but say brethren,
because I am a preacher, but you are my brethren, I thank God you are
and I love you like I love the brethren of my church. There is some
fellow here who might want to spring something because he knows it
would be a lot of fun. Oh, brethren, let's not have any fun with the
baby to-day. (Laughter and Applause.) We have all we can do to-day. We
have all we can do if we do those things that we are all united upon
and agreed upon. Those things which may have what they call a nigger
in the woodpile, when they come up, let's say that is something we are
going to talk about later when the boys get home in November, when
everybody is settled down and we have thought it through and talked
about it in our State organizations and we will come up with
solidified ideas and the great spirit will have gripped us and we will
know where we stand and will know our power and strength.
"Brethren, I say let's cut out every last bit of hoodlumism to-day. It
is the zero hour. Let's stand together. If we don't carry anything
else home, let's go home and say we are for America, that we caught
the spirit and the vision and you can't stop us with anything in the
world. I thank you." (Audience rises and applauds.)
That speech has been given in full not only for the reasons which have
been stated before but because it is archtypical of the deep-seated,
serious, and high-minded soul of the New American, born of the war.
"Mr. Chairman, it seems that Illinois caught the spirit of the speaker
who has just seated himself, in advance."
Before the applause over Inzer's speech had ended and before we
realized it, Mr. Cummings of Illinois had the floor. He said that the
Illinois delegation had been ungracious in accepting Colonel Herbert's
explanation of his remarks the previous day.
"We wish to withdraw that implication," Mr. Cummings said. "We wish to
state to you as a solid Illinois delegation that we give full faith
and credit to the high, patriotic motive which prompted this gentleman
in making the speech to you which he did and in bringing before this
organization the question which he did. We feel on cooler deliberation
and upon giving the matter the thought which its importance demanded,
that he is helping us and that he has placed the American Legion in a
position to help us to move in a body politic, to overcome certain
things in the State of Illinois and blot out pro-Germanism.
[Illustration: Gaspar Bacon Treasurer]
Three State Chairmen
[Illustration: John F.J. Herbert Massachusetts
_Photo by Gray, Worcester, Mass_.]
[Illustration: Henry G. Mathewson California]
[Illustration: Cornelius W. Wickersham New York]
"I say that the American Legion is bigger than any man; it is bigger
than any State; it is bigger than any combination of States; it is the
unified action of the millions of men who were willing to sacrifice
their lives, their fortunes, their all on the altar of this country
for the cause of democracy, to make the world safe for democracy, and
they are going to help us make Illinois come to the front and clean
its skirts of the stigma which is attached. We know that you are going
to help us in it, and with the support of the American Legion, nothing
will stop us from cleaning our skirts, from washing our dirty linen at
home. When the next convention of the American Legion is held, as soon
as we have had an opportunity or the boys in khaki and blue have had
an opportunity to give an honest expression of views on the question
of Burgomaster Thompson, we will come through with clean skirts, we
will stand before you without a question as to the patriotism of the
great City of Chicago and the State of Illinois. We are for the
American Legion first, last, and all the time, and I will pledge
Illinois' seven hundred thousand soldiers who have gone to the front
for the colors in this organization to a man."
"... and clean its skirts of the stigma which is attached and we know
you are going to help us in it, for we will have the support of the
American Legion and with that support when the boys from over there
get back, nothing will stop us from cleaning our skirts...."
Attention is drawn specifically to that sentence, because it affords
an excellent opportunity to explain the difference between politics
and policies. The Legion has policies but it is not political. One
prime policy is the demand for one hundred per cent. Americanism.
Whoever or whatever cannot read that mark, be it Chicago's mayor or
the Seattle Soldier's Council, the Legion's caution is "measure up."
The Legion, _as the Legion_ will not go into municipal politics in
Chicago but the members of the various posts in that city like all
other Legion members stand for one hundred per cent, simon-pure
patriotism and regardless of party, he who does not "measure up" had
best beware. The Legion, as the Legion, never will endorse a political
party or a party's candidate for office. But it will have platforms,
it will have tenets, it will have principles. These platforms, tenets,
and principles will be seen, felt, heard, and heeded by the voters of
the United States. Furthermore, these platforms, tenets, and
principles will be supported regardless of political party, political
affiliations, or partisan sponsorship.
CHAPTER IX
OBJECTORS--CONSCIENTIOUS AND OTHERWISE
The first of the committee reports of the morning was that of the
Publication Committee. This report is perhaps not so interesting a
document now as it may be in later years, when, with a circulation of
millions weekly, the official organ will be a tremendous power for
Americanism throughout the country, spreading in every home, in every
vale and hamlet the same dragnet of Americanism as the draft law did,
having in its tentacles the same power for culture, breadth of
experience, and abolition of sectionalism.
In view of this, the report possesses tremendous potentialities. Here
it is:
"The Committee on Publication recommends that this caucus of the
American Legion inaugurate a national publication which shall be the
Legion's exponent of Americanism; that this, the sole and only
publication of the American Legion, be owned and directed by the
Legion for and in the interest of all Americans; that the Publication
Committee be continued that it may proceed as organized with the
details of founding this publication, with the advice and under the
control of the Executive Committee of the American Legion which shall
add such specially qualified members to the Publication Committee as
it may see fit; that this publication shall be a National,
nonpartisan, non-sectional organ for the service of the American
people, a champion of Americanism which means independence, security,
health, education, greater contentment, and progress for every
patriot, to be the torch, the beacon light thrown into our hands by
the Americans who fell, and held as a unique and living monument to
that other legion which did not come back.
"(Signed) G.P. PUTNAM, _Chairman._
"CHARLES D. KELLEY, _Secretary_."
As an aside it may be interesting to say that there were at least half
a dozen publishers, some with veteran journals already started, in St.
Louis with the most alluring offers. Each wanted to have his
publication designated as the official organ. Several other
propositions were made, one syndicate offering to publish the
magazine, bear the entire expense, give the Legion fifty per cent. of
the stock, and allow it to control the editorial policy. All the
syndicate wanted was the official endorsement. From other quarters
came the word that a million dollars would be forthcoming, if such a
large amount was necessary, in order to start the publication, but
those who would furnish it wanted some return, naturally. However the
Publication Committee felt, as set forth in the resolutions, that the
magazine must be entirely owned and solely controlled by the Legion.
If it was worth a million dollars to anybody else, it certainly was
worth conserving in every possible way for the Legion.
Again I am going to let the minutes take up the story. Some of the
details which they give in the next few pages are illustrative of the
interest and care which the caucus took when it came to important
matters.
SECRETARY WOOD: "The Committee on Resolutions begs to submit the
following report:
"'GENERAL PRINCIPLES AND CREED--Recognizing the supreme obligation of
the citizens to maintain our national honor and integrity, and being
resolved that the fruits of the Great War shall not die, we who
participated in the war in order that the principles of justice,
freedom, and democracy may more completely direct and influence the
daily lives of America's manhood, do announce our adherence to the
following principles and purposes:
"'(a) To inculcate the duties and obligations of citizenship.
"'(b) To preserve the history and incidents of our participation in
this war.
"'(c) To cement the ties of comradeship formed in service.
"'(d) To promote, assist, and protect the general welfare of all
soldiers, sailors, and marines and those dependent upon them.
"'(e) To encourage the maintenance of individual and national
efficiency to the end that the nation shall never fail in its
obligations.
"'(f) To maintain the principle that undivided and uncompromising
support of the constitution of the United States is the true test of
loyalty.'" (Applause.)
THE CHAIRMAN: "Do you desire to pass on that as read, gentlemen, or by
paragraphs?"
MR. JOHNSON (Rhode Island): "I move it be adopted as a whole."
Seconded by Mr. Black of New York.
COL. HERBERT (Mass.): "I would like to ask for information: if there
aren't more eligible to membership in the American Legion than are
cited--soldiers, sailors, and marines?"
THE CHAIRMAN: "The committee understands that covers everything. The
direct eligibility comes up later."
COL. HERBERT: "But before we adopt this we must know who are eligible
so it may be inserted there. As I read the qualifications for
membership the members of the enlisted nurse corps are eligible to
membership in the American Legion. If they are eligible they must be
included there. If there are any others they must be included."
MR. FISH (of New York): "I make a motion to the effect that this
report be laid on the table until the constitution has been adopted.
There are points in this resolution that conflict with the preamble
and by-laws of the constitution. I move you, Mr. Chairman, that the
first paragraph of the resolution as read be laid on the table until
after the constitution is adopted. I will amend my motion to that
effect."
COL. HERBERT: "I want to hear that reread."
SECRETARY WOOD: "What I have read, and what I am about to read again,
is the first paragraph of the report of the Resolutions Committee.
There are many other paragraphs. The second one, for instance, is an
endorsement of the Victory Liberty Loan. If you lay the whole report
on the table we have to wait until later to consider resolutions as a
whole. The first paragraph is as follows:"
Secretary read first paragraph.
MR. MILLIGAN: "I wish to make a further amendment that the entire
report be laid on the table until after the constitution has been
adopted. I don't believe it is the sense of this meeting to hear the
report of this committee in fragments."
COLONEL LEA (of Tenn.): "If this report, or any part of it, is laid on
the table it means final disposition of it under the rules of the
House of Representatives. I don't think we want to do that until the
report is read. As a substitute for the pending motion and amendment,
I move that further reading and action of the report be suspended
until after the report of the Committee on Constitution and By-Laws."
Seconded by Mr. Black of New York and carried.
THE CHAIRMAN: "The Secretary will now proceed to read the
resolutions."
SECRETARY WOOD: "Endorsement of the Victory Liberty Loan.
"'WHEREAS, The Government of the United States has appealed to the
country for financial support in order to provide the funds for
expenditures made necessary in the prosecution of the war, and to
reestablish the country upon a peace basis, therefore be it
"'RESOLVED that this caucus emphatically endorse the Victory Liberty
Loan, and urges all Americans to promote the success of the loan in
every manner possible.'"
THE CHAIRMAN: "What is your pleasure with regard to that resolution?"
MR. SULLIVAN: "I move the adoption of the resolution."
Seconded by Mr. Wickersham of New York and carried.
SECRETARY WOOD: "Conscientious Objectors.
"'RESOLVED, that this caucus go on record as condemning the action of
those responsible for protecting the men who refused full military
service to the United States in accordance with the act of Congress of
May 18, 1917, and who were tried by general court-martial, sentenced
to prison and later fully pardoned, restored to duty and honorably
discharged, with all back pay and allowances given them, and as
condemning further the I.W.W.'s, international socialists, and
anarchists in their effort to secure the release of these men already
pardoned, and those still in prison, serving sentence, and be it
further
"'RESOLVED, that this caucus requests a full and complete
investigation by Congress of the trial and conviction of these parties
and of their subsequent pardon." (Applause.)
COLONEL HERBERT (of Mass.): "I move you, sir, that this convention
substitute the word 'demand' instead of 'request' where it says 'We
request Congress.' We are a body large enough and representative
enough and powerful enough to tell Congress what we want (applause),
not to ask it, and I move the substitution of the word 'demand'
instead of 'request.'"
Seconded by Luke Lea of Tennessee.
THE CHAIRMAN: "The motion is now for the adoption of the resolution as
read, substituting the word 'demand' for 'request.'"
ALBERT H. WILSON (of Idaho): "Gentlemen of this convention, before
this is put to the body of this house, I want to offer a resolution
that the man who convicted these men at Camp Funston be permitted to
give the facts of those convictions and the facts of those discharges
to the body of this house. I refer, gentlemen, to Major Foster, of
Camp Funston, of the General Staff at Camp Funston, and I offer a
resolution to that effect. Will you hear him?"
Assent from the audience.
MR. GASTON: "I second that."
THE CHAIRMAN: "It isn't necessary to have a resolution to that effect.
The discussion would be germane to the question before the house."
MAJOR FOSTER (of Missouri): "Gentlemen, on May 18, 1917, the Congress
of these United States passed an act defining what should be done in
regard to conscientious objectors. That act, as you are all probably
familiar with, says nothing about the I.W.W.--the so-called
humanitarian, the slacker, and the anarchist, and yet for some unknown
reason about 135 such cattle were shipped out to Camp Funston,
segregated, were not required to do military service, were tried for
disobedience to a lawful order in time of war, duly convicted,
sentenced to prison, and a large Majority of them pardoned out of the
penitentiary within two months.
"These men, and I want you to get the importance of this, are not
ordinary, poor, misguided, fanatical men, but the large number of them
were college graduates. Take the case of Lundy in Chicago and Berger
and Greenberg and all of them. Seven of them were cases so serious
that the court, of which I was a member, sentenced them to death.
Within three weeks the order came from Washington restoring them to
honorable duty. These men who were dismissed from Leavenworth and who
were tried by this court made the statement before the court to prove
their conscientious scruples that they did not accept pay from the
Government, nor did they, but when they were dismissed at Fort
Leavenworth and honorably restored to duty and given discharges with
honor, they took every dollar and cent that the Government sent or the
officials in Washington said should be paid to them and they carefully
counted it and it amounted to between four and six hundred dollars
each, and they went home with it.
"You all know who is responsible for this condition. You all know that
this convention should condemn it. And here is one more point I want
to put before you and I want you to get this carefully. One of the men
we tried, Worsman, has been pardoned. Here is a letter he sent out. I
will not read it all.
(The caucus requests him to read it all.)
It is sent out to the press and to everyone. Here is a book that has
the expressions before the court that all these men made and they
stand on that as being proper.
"This letter says: 'The committee who sends you this letter are, for
the most part, near relatives or close friends of young men now
serving long terms in the disciplinary barracks at Fort Leavenworth
because of loyalty of principle. Nearly all of them are your fellow
workers and except for those in what we call the religious
group,--trade unionists--the public knows little of their unhappy
fate, even less than the other political or labor prisoners because
they have been sent to prison by military court-martials and some have
not even had the hostile publicity of a public trial in court.
"'The war is over; whether these men were right or wrong, they were
utterly sincere. Even military prejudice has to concede that, and the
sufferings they have unflinchingly borne prove it many times over, but
the point for the country to get just now is that right or wrong, they
cannot now have any adverse effect upon the military policy of the
Government to keep them in prison.' Here is the dangerous thing--'We
are trying to educate public opinion, and particularly labor opinion,
to the point where it will demand the release of these brave and
sincere young men. We say "labor," because we know when labor really
demands a thing, it gets done.' There is the dangerous thing,
gentlemen, the direct connecting up of the I.W.W., the so-called
international socialists and anarchists who were tried, convicted, and
later pardoned by our War Department,--the direct connecting up
between that element and those like the fellow who was sentenced to
prison and who is sending out this letter, and this great and
dangerous Bolshevism that is creeping into this country and is, I am
afraid, more dangerous than many of us realize. I want to see this
caucus go on record--don't be afraid--as strong as you can against
this fellow. The officers who served on those courts know what we had
to endure. We had to treat them respectfully; we were obliged to do
that. Let me tell you a few things, if you don't know them, about what
happened in the guardhouse among those men. They would not do a thing;
they wouldn't make their own beds. They wouldn't flush the toilets in
the guardhouse, and some red-blooded American soldiers had to go and
pull the chain for them. I say you can't send out a message to these
people too strong in condemnation of this type and of the action of
the War Department or whoever is responsible for the solace and the
protection that has been thrown around the man who hid under the cloak
of an act of Congress that was designed to take care of the
conscientious objectors, and there is no conscientious objector under
that act except a man whose religious creed forbade him to take part
in the war in any way. I thank you." (Applause.)
THE CHAIRMAN: "Gentlemen, the question has been called. All those in
favor of the motion as amended will vote 'aye.'"
The motion was unanimously carried.
The general comment at the time was that Major Foster's address summed
up the opinion of the caucus on the War Department's action in regard
to the objector, conscientious or otherwise.
The accusation that the Legion was being formed for political purposes
has been frequently referred to in this account of the organization
and there follows an instance which shows very clearly the attitude of
the delegates toward anything that might tend to give to the caucus a
political savor. Just after Major Foster's address the chairman held
up his hand for silence.
"One moment before the next resolution is read," he said: "I am
informed that one of the newspapers of St. Louis has circulated blanks
among the delegates asking them to indicate thereon how they intend to
vote in the next national election in this country. I would point out
to those who are gathered here that this is a very improper suggestion
and that the action should be repudiated by the men here filling out
none of these blanks."
This statement was greeted both with anger and applause, the former at
the paper's action, the latter because of the chair's suggestion, and
Mr. Wickersham of New York made a motion that none of the blanks
should be filled out and that no delegate should take part in such a
poll. It carried unanimously and with acclamation. The blanks were not
filled out and the men distributing them were ordered to leave the
theater, which they did.
This is the nearest approach to a poll that took place at the St.
Louis Caucus so far as I am able to ascertain. In fact it would have
been quite impossible to take a poll except in the theater and I have
been assured by men sitting in widely different parts of the house
that no such poll was taken. The delegates' living quarters were in
widely scattered parts of St. Louis and it would have been impossible
to have got any large number of them together to take a poll except
during the meeting in the theater.
Despite this fact, despite the motion of Major Wickersham, and its
passage by acclamation, reports were circulated after the caucus, to
the effect that a poll had been taken and that it showed so many votes
for this man and so many votes for that one. The effect of that
statement, while not doing widespread damage, caused the Legion
leaders a great deal of embarrassment and a great deal of effort to
correct the false impression among those not present at St. Louis to
the effect that the caucus had a political complexion.
Following the refusal to allow a poll to be taken, the secretary read
the following resolution:
"WHEREAS certain aliens during the emergency of the war sought to
evade military duty by reason of their status as aliens, and
"WHEREAS, such an act indicates a lack on the part of such aliens of
the proper spirit of Americanism, therefore be it
"RESOLVED that this caucus assembled urge upon the Congress of the
United States the adoption of such measures that may be necessary to
bring about the immediate deportation from the United States for all
time of these aliens."
This resolution covered a subject very near the heart of Sergeant Jack
Sullivan, the vice-chairman. He was on his feet immediately saying:
"I agree with the gentleman from Massachusetts, Comrade Herbert, that
this is not the time to urge upon Congress but to demand of Congress
and I offer you, sir, this as a substitute resolution:
"WHEREAS, there was a law passed by the Congress of these United
States, July, 1918, known as an amendment to the Selective Service Act
giving persons within the draft age who had taken out first papers for
American citizenship the privilege of turning in said first papers to
their local exemption board and thereby becoming exempt from service,
"WHEREAS, thousands of men within draft age who had been in this
country for many years and had signified their intention to become
citizens, took advantage of this law and thereby became exempted from
military service, or were discharged from military service by reason
thereof, and have taken lucrative positions in the mills, shipyards,
and factories, and
"WHEREAS, in this great World War for Democracy the rank and file of
the best of our American manhood have suffered and sacrificed
themselves in order to uphold the principles upon which this country
was founded and for which they were willing to give up their life's
blood, if necessary, to preserve, and
"WHEREAS we, the American Legion assembled are of the opinion that
these would-be Americans who turned in their first papers to avoid
service are in our opinion neither fish, flesh, nor fowl and if
allowed to remain in this country would contaminate the 100% true
American soldiers and sailors who will return to again engage in the
gainful pursuits of life. Therefore, be it
"RESOLVED: That we, the American Legion in convention assembled in St.
Louis, this 8th, 9th, and 10th day of May, 1919, numbering millions of
red-blooded Americans, do demand the Congress of these United States
to immediately enact a law to send these aliens who withdrew their
first papers and thereby avoided service, back to the country from
whence they came, for we want them not, neither do we need them. The
country which we live in and were ready and are now ready and willing
to fight for is good enough for us and this country, which they live
in and prospered in, yet were unwilling to fight for, is too damned
good for them to remain in. Therefore, be it further
"RESOLVED, that a copy of these resolutions be sent to each and every
member of the House and Senate of our United States and a copy be
given to the public press."
"Respectfully presented
"(Signed) Sgt. JACK SULLIVAN.
"Delegate from Seattle, State of Washington."
"I move you, sir, the adoption of this resolution."
"Now, gentlemen, I have a telegram from Seattle which I will read. It
is addressed to Jack Sullivan, St. Louis.
"'Executive Board American Legion of Liberty authorizes you to
advocate before the St. Louis Convention as part of the
Americanization program, that the organization bring its influence to
bear throughout the United States to secure enactment by Congress of
laws making it possible to deport alien slackers who avoided military
service by renouncing their citizenship and signing affidavits that
they would return to the country from which they came. A bill
providing for their deportation introduced by Senator Jones of
Washington failed to pass the last session of Congress because the
demand for its passage from the State of Washington was not backed up
by other States. Demand upon senators and representatives from their
own constituents that a law should be passed to deport these slackers
would probably result in action by the special sessions of Congress of
nearly three hundred aliens who escaped military service in Seattle by
renouncing their right to become citizens. Twenty-seven per cent, were
shown to be I.W.W.'s of the thousands who thus escaped military
service. Throughout the country a large percentage are probably of the
element which is seeking to undermine American institutions. They
still remain despite their affidavits that they would leave the
country and there is no existing law under which they can be deported.
The first move towards making this country one hundred per cent.
American should be the elimination of aliens who are opposed to our
Government and institutions and who poison the minds of others by
their teachings. Every senator and representative should be urged to
back legislation for the elimination of this element and we hope that
this work will be adopted by the convention as part of the national
program.
"'(Signed) American Legion of Liberty,
"'NORMAN E. COLES, _Secretary_.'"
When Sullivan finished reading, he began one of the most stirring
addresses made before the convention:
"Now let's not be afraid to put the cards on the table and say to the
Congress of the United States that we are not afraid to trample on the
toes of the diplomats of these alleged neutral countries who do not
want legislation of this kind to pass," Sullivan plead. "We have the
interest of the man who donned the khaki and the blue and when the
ships bring the boys from over there, they must take back these alien
slackers. We would be derelict in our duty to the boys who gave their
all when they went over the top; we would be untrue to ourselves and
the institutions and principles for which we fought if we did not see
to it that these people were sent back.
"I was born in the State of Massachusetts and I was taught that
citizenship meant something. As a boy I went out West where I learned
that American citizenship meant something to the people of the West.
"To-day we are here from all parts of the country. We are not from any
section alone, because we are all Americans, This is an organization
of Americans. This should be a country of Americans and if our
citizenship means something, the swine who come from other countries
should be taught that it means something like what McCrae said:
'"When from failing hands we throw the torch to you,
Be yours to hold it high;
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep though poppies grow in Flanders' field.'
"Let's make this unanimous and do it now and say to the boys in
Siberia and France that we are going to see to it when they get back
here that those damned alien slackers are not going to be here, or if
they are, they are going to be on the dock at Hoboken to go back to
their own countries because they don't belong here and we are not
going to allow them to remain."
[Illustration: "Jack" Sullivan of Seattle
First Vice-Chairman of the St. Louis Caucus]
[Illustration: Chaplain J.W. Inzer of Alabama]
Sullivan was seated amid prolonged cheering; it was his big slap at
Bolshevism. When Colonel Lindsley restored order Colonel Ralph Cole of
Ohio was recognized.
"The delegation from Ohio has authorized me to second this motion," he
said. "This seems to be a unanimous caucus. There is harmony here. The
most impressive fact in relation to this assembly is the militant
spirit of Americanism that has been manifested. I chanced to be
Assistant Adjutant of the 37th Division when the time came for the
naturalization of aliens who were in the American Army. Thousands and
thousands of young aliens came up and raised up their right hand and
pledged fidelity to the American Constitution, and to fight for the
supremacy of the American flag, but, there was a certain small
element, a certain small percentage that refused to take the oath of
allegiance and they appealed to the Constitution and their rights
under the law and they were exempted from military service. And I say
to you, gentlemen of this convention, any alien that will appeal to
the law in order to avoid military duty has no right to the
opportunity of peace in America." Here there was prolonged applause.
"There was an outbreak in the State of Ohio of Bolshevism a few days
ago, but I want you gentlemen to know that it was put down. It was hit
by the soldiers who returned from France, the rank and file of our
boys.
"Now, as Mr. Sullivan has suggested, let it not be said that when
these boys that raised their right hand and took the oath of
allegiance to the American flag return, that these contemptible skunks
that demanded exemption under the law shall occupy the positions,
which these truly loyal men should have. Let's give those positions to
the returning American soldiers and the returning alien soldiers that
fought for the American flag and helped us win the great victory." The
applause given Sullivan was repeated.
Then the "Silver Lining," Chaplain Inzer, strode upon the stage. This
time he was a very stern Silver Lining, and what he had to say he said
with a vigor which characterized his speeches all during the
convention.
"I want to offer an amendment," he said. "Mr. Sullivan's resolution
does not cover the whole ground. As Naturalization Officer of the 14th
Infantry, I happen to be observing enough to know that there are other
men that ought to be included in this list. Often we called certain
foreigners together who had been drafted and said, 'Now, men, we are
going to go overseas in a short while. How long have you been in this
country?'
"One said, 'fourteen years.'
"'How long have you been here?' to another.
"'I have been here so and so,' he answered.
"'All right, now,' we said, 'this has been your country. If we hadn't
gone to war, you would have expected to be here.'
"'But we want to go home now.'
"'If you go home will you fight for your country?'
"'We don't know.'
"And they absolutely refused to take out citizenship papers. How do we
know them? As Naturalization Officer I marked on every one of those
papers. 'This man, though he has been here for four years or ten years
refused naturalization in the hope that he might avoid overseas
service.' Now, then, I move that we include in that motion that the
files be gone through and every man who refused citizenship, who was a
native of any other country, but adopted this country and refused to
take out the citizenship papers we offered him, after he had been
brought into the army by the draft, also be deported."
Before the applause began Colonel Luke Lea had the floor. He is tall
and imposing and a powerful speaker.
"I want to see this made a complete and thorough job, and to that end
I desire to offer a further amendment," he said. "We further demand
the immediate deportation of every alien enemy who, during the war,
was interned, whether such alien enemy be now interned or has been
paroled. I merely want to say this: That any alien enemy who is too
dangerous to be at large and bear the burdens of war, is too dangerous
to be at large and participate in the blessings of peace."
This brought down the house. It was what everybody thought and wanted.
It was what everybody had hoped for since the very first day during
the war that the Department of Justice had made its first internments.
There have been all sorts of stories telling about these interned
aliens getting rooms with baths, tennis courts, swimming pools, and
playgrounds, and everyone had consistently hoped that they would all
be sent back to Germany or Austria at the earliest possible moment
after the war. The same hope was expressed in regard to certain
Scandinavians and Hollanders here who were active in behalf of
Germany. One thing is certain and that is that none of the delegates
present were opposed to this enemy alien deportation, or if they were
they didn't or couldn't make themselves heard above the thunderous
approbation.
Chaplain Inzer at this juncture jumped to his feet and heightened the
applause by shouting, "There are four million men back of this
organization. If I were a Bolshevik, I'd pack my grip and beat it."
The culmination of this particular phase of the caucus was most
dramatic. A wounded soldier on crutches, and bearing two wound stripes
on his arm, was helped to the stage beside the chairman. "I am Private
Sossin of Kentucky," he shouted. "I was born and reared in Poland, and
came to this country and began to enjoy all the freedom of the
American Constitution when I was thirty-seven years old. I left my
business and my family to fight for this country. And if any of my
native countrymen are so despicable as not to want to fight for the
grandest flag the world has ever seen, the flag which gives freedom to
all who are oppressed, I say, damn him and kick him out of here so
that we can show that we despise such slackers."
THE CHAIRMAN: "All those in favor of the motion as finally amended
will vote 'Aye."' That "Aye" shook the theater.
The caucus then passed a resolution that every naturalized citizen
convicted under the Espionage Act should have his citizenship revoked
and should be deported.
Another telling blow for Americanism!
The caucus next went on record with a resolution calling for the
protection of the uniform. Those firms and individuals who had used
the uniform as a method of peddling their wares were scored in the
resolution and it was the sense of the motion that everything possible
should be done to prevent panhandlers and peddlers on the streets
wearing the uniform of the United States.
The caucus also indorsed Secretary Lane's plan for the "Reclamation of
arid, swamp, and cut-over timber lands." The resolution to that effect
follows in full:
"WHEREAS, the reclamation of arid, swamp, and cut-over timber lands is
one of the great constructive problems of immediate interest to the
nation; and
"WHEREAS, one of the questions for immediate consideration is that of
presenting to discharged soldiers and sailors an opportunity to
establish homes and create for themselves a place in the field of
constructive effort; and
"WHEREAS, one of the purposes for which the formation of the American
Legion is contemplated is to take an energetic interest in all
constructive measures designed to promote the happiness and
contentment of the people, and to actively encourage all proper
movements of a general nature to assist the men of the army and navy
in solving the problems of wholesome existence; and
"WHEREAS, the Department of the Interior and the Reclamation Service
have been engaged in formulating and presenting to the country broad,
constructive plans for the reclamation of arid, swamp, and cut-over
timber lands:
"NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED: By the caucus of delegates of the
American Legion in convention assembled, in the City of Saint Louis,
Missouri, that we endorse the efforts heretofore made for the
reclamation of lands, and we respectfully urge upon the Congress of
the United States the adoption at an early date of broad and
comprehensive legislation for economic reclamation of all lands
susceptible of reclamation and production."
CHAPTER X
THE REËMPLOYMENT PROBLEM
We are now coming to the consideration of a subject that was nearer to
the heart of every delegate than any other. That is the reëmployment
of one-time service men. This matter is of the most intimate and
direct concern to the Legion and its leaders and because of its
importance I believe the details of the discussion are sufficiently
interesting to permit me to quote them verbatim from the minutes.
THE CHAIRMAN: "The secretary will read the next resolution."
SECRETARY WOOD: "Reëmployment of ex-service men."
"WHEREAS, one of the most important questions of readjustment and
reconstruction is the question of employment of the returning and
returned soldiers, and
"WHEREAS, no principle is more sound than that growing out of the
general patriotic attitude toward the returning soldier, vouchsafing
to him return to his former employment or to a better job, therefore,
be it
"RESOLVED: That the American Legion in its first national caucus
assembled, declares to the people of the United States that no act can
be more unpatriotic in these most serious days of readjustment and
reconstruction than the violation of this principle announced which
pledges immediate reemployment to the returned soldiers, and be it
further
"RESOLVED: That the American Legion in its national caucus assembled
does hereby declare itself as supporting in every proper way the
efforts of the ex-service men to secure reemployment, and recommends
that simple patriotism requires that ex-soldiers or ex-sailors and
ex-marines be given preference whenever additional men are to be
employed in any private or public enterprise, and be it further
"RESOLVED: That the American Legion recommends to Congress the prompt
enactment of a program for internal improvement, having in view the
necessity therefor and as an incident the absorption of the surplus
labor of the country, giving preference to discharged ex-service men."
MR. WALSH (Pittsburgh): "I move, Mr. Chairman, that we adopt the
resolution."
The motion was seconded by Colonel Jones, of Washington, D.C.
MR. LEVEREE: "Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention, I desire
to present to you a substitute for this resolution. As one who has
been endeavoring to give a post-war service to these men who are
coming back here and need to be replaced in the industries of this
country, as a volunteer dollar-a-year man in the United States
Employment Service and one who has accomplished results in the work to
the extent that the bulletin of the National Chamber of Commerce has
commented on the work, I desire to call your attention to the fact
that the resolution as presented is not concrete. It says nothing. It
talks in generalities, and I want to present to you a concrete
proposition based on the experience of the Bureau in New Orleans."
"WHEREAS, it is desirable both for the welfare of the soldiers,
sailors, and marines, now rapidly being discharged from the service of
the United States of America, and for the industrial readjustment of
the country that the process of returning these men to productive
occupations in civil life be speeded up as much as possible;
"AND WHEREAS, by reason of the failure of the Congress of the United
States to appropriate funds for the purpose the said process has been
retarded and left to private initiative; now, therefore, be it
"RESOLVED: That the American Legion in caucus assembled calls upon the
Congress of the United States to promptly appropriate funds to be
administered for the benefit of existing coordinated Bureaus for the
Employment of Returning Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines, to the end
that there may be no interruption in the service now being rendered
and that it may be broadened and speeded up, be it further
"RESOLVED: That each local post or organization of the American Legion
is urged during the period of demobilization to constitute itself a
committee of the whole, which shall cooperate with the local
Employment Bureau and shall establish and maintain a liaison between
such Bureau and every employer in the community through members of the
local post or organization who are already employed in such
establishment to the end that it may be made easy for the employer to
avail himself of the service of the Bureau by communicating with
someone in his own establishment, and that every soldier, sailor, and
marine already replaced in industry may have an opportunity to assist
his comrades to become likewise."
"Gentlemen, this is the crux of that whole business--getting somebody
close to the employer where you can bring about that liaison which is
suggested in this substitute motion."
The motion to adopt the substitute resolution was made by Mr. Leveree
and seconded by Mr. Luss.
MR. DESMOND (of Pennsylvania): "What has been said, in my estimation,
is not comprehensive enough. In the city of Philadelphia which is
known as the Cradle of Liberty, when the men who had given up
positions in the educational system--I mean teachers--returned from
the service of their country they were not, as promised, given the
exact positions which they left. Neither were they given positions of
parallel importance. They were actually demoted in grade so that these
motions do not cover such circumstances. In many cases, in
municipalities, men have returned from the service and have been
forced to take positions not of a parallel grade but positions of a
lower grade.
"Men, Americanism depends on America's school systems, and if the ones
who are directing our school systems are so unpatriotic as to demote
those who go forth to serve their country, what is going to become of
America and Americanism? And I wish to make an amendment to the effect
that municipalities and boards of education in those municipalities be
forced to give men their parallel positions if not positions of better
grade and that in no instance will they be allowed to demote a man
because he has gone forth to serve his country. I put that forward as
an amendment, that the municipal governments and boards of education
in our municipalities be forced to give men positions of equal grade
if they cannot give better grade."
MR. SIMINGTON (of Washington): "I speak in opposition to that amended
resolution. In my State I represent ten thousand organized men. In my
State the present system has proven a failure. The organization that I
represent handles an employment bureau that places 350 service men a
week in permanent positions and 150 in temporary employment, and I say
to you that that record is far and above the record of the U.S.
Replacement Bureau. It is a proven failure. Gentlemen, I believe that
it is 'For George to do'--and we are George.
"The service man wishes to take care of himself and his own. It is for
the service man to handle his own problems and I suggest as an
amendment--I am not sure of my being in order in offering an amendment
to an amended amendment, but I suggest that it be the sense of this
meeting that Congress assist the American Legion in taking care of its
own in the matter of employment and that it do not use civilians to do
the work." (Applause.)
The motion was seconded.
MR. HILL (of Pennsylvania): "The original resolution that is before
the convention, I am frank to say, has been forwarded to me by a
soldier from Allegheny County, who walked the streets of Pittsburgh
for eight or nine weeks pleading this principle. A resolution adopted
by the Mothers of Democracy was sufficient for him to get back his
job, because he held a position as a county employee of Allegheny
County and he invoked this principle and vitalized every military
organization in Allegheny County, and by means of that he got back his
job and his back salary and his mother's allowance which was cut off
since January 1, 1918. This resolution was originally presented by me
as a member of the National Resolutions Committee from the State of
Pennsylvania. The National Resolutions Committee appointed a
subcommittee of which I was a member, a committee of three, to
consider this and refer it back to the National Resolutions Committee.
Th
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