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Show MEN WHO MAKE THE POPPIES Every good American who remembers re-members with, pride the services of the men who died in the World War and who has any feeling in his heart for the men who came back from the War disabled will buy and wear an American Legion Le-gion and Auxiliary oppy on Saturday, Sat-urday, May 24, 1930. Wearing the poppy is the way in which we can all honor the war dead and help the war's living victims. The little red flower is an individual indivi-dual tribute and each has been made individually by a disabled veteran. Each poppy has a story of it: own. The flowers are not machine ma-chine nyide, but each has been shaped by the hands of some disabled dis-abled man in a government hospital hos-pital or one of the convalescent workshops maintained by the Auxiliary. Look at your poppy when you buy it. Examine it, see how it is made and think for a moment of the story behind it. Perhaps your poppy will be one of those made by a paralyzed vet- eran in one of the big government hospitals. This man has been confined con-fined to his bed for a number of years and probably will never leave it until he goes to his final resting place, lie cannot move the lower part of his body, but his fingers can fashion poppies with amazing skill. Poppy making mak-ing fills many long, tedious hours for him and gives him the feeling feel-ing that he is a man again earning earn-ing money for useful work. Your poppy may be one of the hundreds made by a veteran in another hospital who worked steadily on the flowers as he lay waiting for a very dangerous operation. op-eration. The night before the operation op-eration he worked as late as he was allowed, finishing as many poppies as possible so that in case the operation was unsuccessful there would be the poppy money to send to his destitute family at home. Again your poppy may be one from the hands of a young farmer, farm-er, under treatment in -a government govern-ment hospital following a nervous and mental breakdown. Like thousands of men in the service, this man could not stand the sJrain of war, but like many others, oth-ers, his breakdown did not come until a number of years after the war. Because he held up bravely brave-ly until after the time set by the government for connecting disability disa-bility with service, he could get no compensation and when he was finally forced to go to he hospital his wife and two children were left on the farm without means of support. Money earned by making mak-ing poppies enabled him To support sup-port his family and save his farm during the long period of hospital treatment. Perhaps the poppy you wear will not be the product of a single sin-gle disabled man but will come from one of the "Poppy- Corporations" Corp-orations" organized by the very badly disabled. The veterans who are too badly disabled to make the completed poppy by themselves band together in groups of two, three, or four, and together turn out the flowers. In one hospital where a typical "Poppy Corporation" was working, work-ing, a blinded man began the flowers, doing the operations he could do without eyesight; another an-other veteran with a shattered hand then took the flowers and carried the work as far as he was able, after which a third man finished fin-ished the poppies. The earnings were divided among the three and they were able to make almost as much as the abler men. The disabled veterans are paid one cent each for the poppies they make for the American Legion Le-gion Auxiliary. The auxiliary furnishes the material and takes charge of the distribution. For many of the men employed, the money is the first money they have been able to earn since the war. No service work accomplished accom-plished with the pofits from the poppy sale can excel this service to the disabled, which gives them an opportunity to enjoy the strengthening and encouranging experience of again taking their places among the wage earners. While the first purposes of the poppy is to honor the World War dead, and while the vast welfare work of the Legion and Auxiliary Auxili-ary among the disabled and the families of the dead and disabled is supported largely through the sale of the poppies, if the wearing of the poppy meant nothing more than the giving of the men in the hospitals an opportunity for remunerative re-munerative work it would be very much worth while. Think of these men Saturday when you buy your poppy. |