| Show 0 AM pa 16 acan 0 L e lun 0 ab here and there among afe the world war veterans copy for thit department supplied by national Niu oruil headquarters of the american legion NATIONAL headquarters BUILDING OF AMERICAN LEGION oc I I 1 f W i E W one of ind la most attractive buildings why and how the hoosier capital was chosen by the world war men fly DID they locate the national headquarters of W the american legion at indianapolis this Is a question that many delegates to the minneapolis convention of the be american legion are unable to answer they k know now that indianapolis was not one of the throe three cities reported favorably on oil by the committee that a minority report was presented on the floor of the con convention contention resulting in the election of indianapolis as permanent headquarters of the organization fred bates johnson an indianapolis attorney and one of the hoosier IIo osler delegates to the convention was asked how the indianapolis delegation maneuvered neu vered to secure the headquarters it was a case of superior salesmanship as I 1 see it said mr johnson that means mean as you know faith in the superior quality of the product youre trying to sell a thorough knowledge of the article and hard work we not only worked hard in trying to convince the members of the committee thit indianapolis was the logical location we ne tried to sell the city to every delegate we could talk to the result was when we found we had lost out in committee we felt pretty confident we could win by raising the quest question irin on oil the floor of the convention ai we did we had a delegation thoroughly well informed on the advantages the city afforded as a headquarters center the line of argument was of course shaped to fit the particular delegate with whom hom we were dealing and all in line with a prearranged pre arranged plan im not saying that the political bent naturally inherent in ever every sier may not have helped us in winning out over the competing cities our first argument was that indianapolis ana polls was the ideal convention or headquarters city because it Is otay olly sixty miles from the center of population and thus most accessible to the largest number of we explained that with fifteen railroads an thirteen electric interurban lines this greatest inland ballway ral way center was easily pad and direct reached from all parts of tile the country we shoved them how bow more cities of population and over con can be reached in a nights ride from andl nna nim polls thon than front from tiny any other city in the united states embracing a zone including chicago milwaukee detroit toledo cleveland buffalo pittsburgh columbus cincinnati Loul louisville mille chattanooga tano oga knoxville memphis st louls louis peoria and springfield over two million people live within two hours ride of the city and over GO CO con can be reached over night we also argued that the fact the city was an ideal headquarters location was evidenced by the number of national headquarters hend quarters already located here listing among these the united bline workers of america Ameri cn international brotherhood of bookbinders international typographical graphical raph Ical union international broth hood of teamsters and chauffeurs bricklayers masons and plasterers international union barbers li union tilon and the international ter of carpenters and Jol joiners ners this array of labar organizations assured the approval of the thousands of legion members belonging to labor organizations we said we could assure nil AIX ex ei i service men of a most cordial welcome Is had al always ilys been most appreciative of her heroes in proof of 0 this witness the soldiers and sailors monument which was erected thirty years ago costing then over YX 00 a monument almost 3 feet in height and the patriotic manner in which In dianas sorts sons have answered the call in all previous wars all were surprised to learn leam that indianapolis has the most complete electric traction terminal building in the world where more than pis passengers each day arrive and depart on about high speed electric interurban cars the fact that we built the first union railway station in the world also appealed to many we found few knew that indianapolis ana polls was the home city of the late vice president charles W fairbanks tile the home city of vice president marshall tp tl a late james whitcomb riley and the late benjamin of booth meredith nicholson cholson Nl and other literary men of national note we explained that in addition to our unusual location and railroad facilities the city was well equipped with ninny many first class hotels large auditoriums for conventions and everything in tile the way of theaters and motion picture houses that delegates to a convention might require 5 theaters and CO 60 motion picture houses the many buildings of interest were also described a post office occupying w a city block and costing more than re li halt half million dollars a central IR library tory erected at a cost of more than a balf million dollars with fourteen branches am ail thirty live five other distributing agencies a state capitol occupy in fri two city blocks a courthouse of unusual architectural beauty and so on of course we bored some listeners and we had to permit the boosters boasters bo of other cities to have their say but nevertheless we got across the many advantages offered by this city of population we tried to appeal to the particular interest of the man with whom we were talking thus we told the men from farming fanning and rural districts that the principal industry from the value of product Is slaughtering and meat packing that lat year hogs cattle and calves and sheep were bere killed they were interested to know that more than licad head of live stock were received at indianapolis anapolis Is stock yards the year before to the same men we told that 6 bushels of wheat and bushels of corn were handled liand led by local dealers arid and a total of bushels of grain handled in elevators having baying a combined capacity of bushels none of them bliege men seemed to know that outler butler college at indianapolis was ahe first colidge college in III the country co col to receive women on equal footing with mian men and in the same way we had bad facts to interest men of every occupation arid and interest 1 I arenture there was not a delegation nt it the convention so well informed on cihat bat their city had bad to offer certain men were assignee to work with ith the lie delegations from the different states AN ve e tool took with us its a motion pic ture film showing the city but ind had not an opportunity to it but as I 1 said before I 1 believe the fact that we landed the G 11 II 0 Q of the legion was due solely to superior salesmanship |
