OCR Text |
Show TheATOHMLlON1 WITH THE POSTS OF THE fek NATIONAL SERVICE men wSm (Copy for' This Department Supplied by National r Headquarters of the American Legion) Jg-fr OFFICE OF THE COMMANDER. AT NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS 4 t l 1 I & ' I y I ; I f1 A Mil S I - - 1 - - . - ' , n r - 4 1 ft. '..iv.vii ,1 i nv.Mfivi'; vmV::"-'viViv.m' ' -, i '. . .. Lemuel bones, National Adjuiant of xne American Legion, Conducting a Staff Meeting of Heads of the Different Divisions in the Office of Franklin Frank-lin D'Olier, National Commander, a National Headquarters, Indianapolis. he men who gathered at that eventful event-ful meeting did many important things, including the selection of a home for the new patriotic organization. They called it the American Legion, and under that name it wdll go down in the patriotic history of the United States. The caucus also named a committee of fifteen to work in the United States and to plan for a national meeting within a year. This committee came home and a caucus was arranged for at St. Louis, May 8. The St. Louis meeting was a revelation. revela-tion. There several hundred men who had served their country at home and abroad met and, forgetting both creed and politics, worked to inject the prim ciples of Americanism in one great movement, the American Legion. At this meeting a joint executive committee com-mittee was formed by men of 34 states with units in the Legion. This committee com-mittee formulated a basis for permanent perma-nent organization and agreed that a constitutional convention of the Legion Le-gion would be held in Minneapolis in November.-- An organization committee commit-tee of five was appointed to complete plans for the Minneapolis meeting. This committee was composed of Henry D. Lindsley of Texas, Bennett C. Clark of Missouri, Franklin D'Olier of Pennsylvania, Dr. Richard Derby of New York, and Eric Fisher Wood of Pennsylvania. Mr. Lindsley was chosen chairman of the committee and because of that service and his subsequent sub-sequent work as chairman of the Minneapolis Min-neapolis convention, the title of first commander of the American Legion was conferred on him. Mr. Wood was named the secretary. One important step taken at the St. Louis meeting was that of asking the congress of the United Stales for a charter. This request was intrusted to Luke Lea and Thomas XV. Miller. The measure was introduced in both houses June 27, last year. It passed the house of representatives August 27 and the senate sen-ate September 5. President Wilson signed the charter September 10, completing com-pleting the work of granting a charter, the first ever granted to an organization organiza-tion of the nature of the American tv, yO PATRIOTIC organization In the history of the world has I J had such remarkable growth as the American Legion, and it is going forward with a speed that indicates a membership of 2,000,000 before the end of the present, year. The Grand Army of the Republic, founded following the Civil war, reached its peak in 1900, when the roster showed a half million members. With 4,SOO,000 to draw from, it is predicted pre-dicted that with the present campaign for 100 per cent Americanism, the roster of the American Legion will be above the 2,000,000 mark by 1921. The Grand Army of the Republic has played an important part in the life of the republic. Once or twice politics threatened its total disruption, disrup-tion, particularly in the year preceding preced-ing the election of Gen. John A. Logan Lo-gan as commander in chief. General I'gan succeeded in steadying the boat. The disaffection grew out of reports that men with bad Civil war records were receiving preferment in appointment appoint-ment to political offices. To Maj. Benjamin F. Stephenson of Decatur, III., belongs the honor of founding the Grand Army of the Republic. Re-public. In 1SG0, the year following the close of the Civil war, Major Stephenson called together a handful of veterans at Decatur and established the first post. Only one charter member mem-ber of the Grand Army still is living, Capt. R. A. Smith of Lake City, la. Major Stephenson, in council with some of his comrades, drafted a secret ritual. It was a wordy, oratorical af-fafr af-fafr and was revised in later years. The ritual was so pretentious that it was hard to find printers who could set the typo, but Major Stephenson finally rounded up Isaac C'oltrin and Joseph Prior, printers who served in the Urion army and entitled to know the contents of the ritual when they joined the Grand Army. Twelve men constituted the first post and the hall in which they met still is a hallowed landmark in Decatur. Deca-tur. The Grand Army at first was a sort of vigilance committee that sought out persons given to disloyal utterances, ut-terances, and soon had them marked fi- i.rinittiniAiif if II, mr II, 1 nf .1... region. j ne legislative committee oi the Legion also placed before the congress con-gress many other important legislative legisla-tive matters, including hills covering land grants for former service men, bills dealing with the question of the deportation of alien slackers and other matters of interest to men of the Legion. Le-gion. Important stops taken at Ihe St Louis meeting provided for the opening open-ing of national headquarters in New York and for the publication of a weekly periodical that would be of interest in-terest to former service men. Plans also were made to have three well-known well-known men of the legion visit different parts of the country to further the Interests In-terests of the new organization. The men chosen were Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., John P. J. Herbert and John W. Inzer. These made tours of the country coun-try to advance the organization of local posts. When the American Legion Le-gion met in Minneapolis Ihe membership member-ship had passed the 750.000 mark, and it was predicted that the million mark would be reached in a few months. There now are more than 8.000 American Amer-ican Legion posts in the United Slates, Alaska, Cuba and Hawaii. Franklin D'Olier of Pennsylvania l the new commander of the American Legion. He, with oilier new ollieers of the Legion have opened headquarters headquar-ters offices of ihe Legion in Indianapolis. Indian-apolis. And Indianapolis and Indian, feeling a joint pride in the honor paid the state by Ihe American Legion, welcomes wel-comes them. When they came they heard that Indianapolis was preparing to erect a memorial to her fighting sons that will serve not only as a home for the American Legion, but for other patriotic bodies, including the veterans Lof the Grand Army of the Republic and the Spanish-American war. sist. The men of the Grand Army demanded de-manded a hundred per cent Americanism, American-ism, just as the American Legion makes it plain that only one (lag, Old Glory, will be tolerated in this land of ours. On through the years the Grand Army has stood for this same principle prin-ciple of patriotism, but death has been removing its comrades at a rapid rate and the ranks have diminished until now only a few more than 100,000 remain. re-main. The American Legion was born In France, and it was lilting to have It so, for in Flanders fields repose thousands thou-sands of American soldiers who died that the principles of American freedom free-dom might live. On February 15, 1910, twenty American officers, who had been assembled in Paris to discuss conditions con-ditions in the American expeditionary forces, met at the Inter-Allied club and there talked of the formation of an after-war organization that would look-to look-to the well-being of the men of the service both on land and sea. The decision was made at this conference con-ference to start an after-the-war or-i or-i ganization. while the men were yet in France. Thus they would go back to America with their minds and hearts centered on protecting the principles ihey had fought for. Aral they came home to find that the great army of men In American training camps were ready, too. They had not crossed the ea. but thoy were willing to go and were equally wiiiing to participate in any movement that meant a bigger, . fronger America. The twenty men who met in conference confer-ence February 15, 1919, In Paris agreed at that time to call a caucus of men i representing every branch of war serv-i serv-i Ice and the caucus assembled In Paris iarch 15, continuing for two days. |