OCR Text |
Show 11 SOLDIERS ffEQTOdlRY J;t Louis Caucus Reveals J High Patriotic Aims of N Returned Heroes. . tah Delegates to Call Convention Con-vention During Confer-ence Confer-ence Week. By J. LEO MEEHAN. i'Io upholi and defend the constitu-;0 constitu-;0 0f the United States of America; ceintain law and order; to foster A perpetuate a 100 per "nt Araeri-pi?m; Araeri-pi?m; to preserve tlio memories and talents of our association in the great I," to inculcate a sense of individual Ration to the community, state and lion; to combat tho autocracy of both B classes and the masses; to make jit the master of might; to promote ace and good will on earth; to safe-ard safe-ard and transmit to posterity the inciples of justice, freedom and de-jcracv; de-jcracv; to consecrate and sanctify our p nrad'eship by our devotion to mutual '."Iflpfttlness." the purposes above mentioned, Ci J' e men and women who served in the ilitary naval and marine forces of the lited States during the Europoan war ve banded themselves together in an eanization to be known as the Amer-la Amer-la legion. Chosen representatives of S e men who are still overseas and reparatives rep-aratives of the men who have re-lr re-lr .. rned to their homes, fifteen hundred '"round numbers, gathered last week tJL St. Louis, launched the organization !;" .4 made the above declaration of L pnciples, which already has been sent 1 ';? "Badcast over the land. (p I Be Leading Factor. "."ffhat an organization which has such l!-Eh aims, and which is to be com- ! tii sed of between four and five mil-i.v:.ii3 mil-i.v:.ii3 of men who served under their "": imtry's flag during the greatest of wars, wiil be a leading factor in , ncrican life for the next fifty years ;181 evident. That the representative tliering of men who formed the or-tization or-tization in St. Louis sensed the im- i ttiince of the steps they were tak- was evident to all who were privi- I ed to be present. It was the unani- j lus opinion of the Utah delegates i listiv at the organization was "real"; that T. was intended for the exact purposes tlined, and not for the fostering of j chi.ibitious of any man or set of men. I I, not even primarily to foster the terests of its members. Its purpose, aim . repeatedly expressed at the caucus St. Louis, is not to do something for e soldier, but to do something for the ntitrv, through the soldier. With these firm convictions in mind, e eleven Utah delegatus returned me during the week and recommend-to recommend-to the temporary organization which alt them, and which is headed by Hgadier General Richard W. Young, rynint a state caucus or convention be lid in Salt Lake City during confer- -"-tce week next month. Pursuant to pj ;l rocommendation of the delegates, tneral Young announced yesterday a W: tat he would call a state convention . ff June 4 and 5 in this citv, at which IB men of the stato will fie asked to I to a state organization to affiliate Ith the national organization of the Inrrican legion. The exact method by which voting pi be done in the first state caucus P- - has not yet ben determined bv the Hiato committee, but it seems likely tha tho committee, and the St. Louis delegates dele-gates will recommend that each of the twenty-oight counties in the state shall have votes equal to a certain percentage percent-age of tho men who were in service from tho county. However, the caucus will bo open to every man or woman who served in the army, navy or marine ma-rine corps and who is a'resident of the stato of Utah. In the event it is necessary nec-essary to docido how each county shall c:ust its voto at the state caucus, it is probablo that the men present from each county will be asked to caucus among themselves and determine how that county is to cast its vote. This was the method adopted by states in the national convention at St. Louis. Temporary officers of the organization organiza-tion are now getting figures from official offi-cial files in Washington as to the number num-ber of men that served from each county in the state, and the vote will be apportioned accordiugly, each county being allowed votes equal, perhps, to two or three per cent of the number of nien it had in service. In this way it is hoped to have the actions taken at the June caucus representative of the entire slate. State Organizations. Under the constitution which wa3 adopted at tho St. Louis convention, state organizations hereafter will con- ! sist of delegates from locally organized posts. The plan of organization of local posts will be taken up in detail at the June convention in Salt Lake, and rules set down for their formation : and affiliation with the state organization. organi-zation. Charters will be issued to local , I posts by the American Legion office ' I on recommendation of the state organ- i ization. However, in view of the fact that very few local posts have yet been organized, it was deemed advisable by , the temporary state organization to j have representation in the convention ' next month general, and that voting be done by county units. It is the Eopa of General Young and other members of the state temporary organization that hundreds of men from all parts of the state, representing all ranks and all branches of the military and naval service will come to Salt Lake and attend at-tend the June caucus, so that the action ac-tion taken there will be representative. Movements already are on foot in various parts of tho state for the for- j mation of local posts. Vi'eber county j already has an organization with between be-tween 500 and 600 members. Captain D. E. Khivers, who spent 'eighteen months with American army engineers overseas, is president, and he was also a delegate to the St. Louis caucus from Utah. The Weber county club for soldiers, sol-diers, sailors and marines is probably the most - thoroughly organized in the state, but several more are under way. Local Posts. Following the action of the St. Louis caucus, service men in any community ! may now proceed with the organization j of local posts. And when they are or- j ganized they may apply, through the 1 state organization, for a charter in the ! American Legion. The minimum mem- j j bership for a local post was set at the! St. Louis caucus at fifteen. Posts may ; be named after well known American ! heroes, but the national caucus in St. Louis decided that no local post may be named after a living person. The matter of local dues, local officers offi-cers and such questions may be settled set-tled . by the local post. The only provision pro-vision made by national caucus was that each state organization shall pay aunually to the national organization the sum of 23 cents for each member I in the state. This fund will be collected col-lected from the local posts, and it is likely that the state convention will decide 'to1 levy another small tax for the maintenance of the state organization. The .balance of the dues collected will be disposed of by the local posts under their own constitution and by-laws. Eligibility. Another question taken up by the St. Louis convention which has been discussed dis-cussed widely by men who have been in service is that of membership and eligibility for membership. The convention con-vention in St. Louis decided that "all interest and to affiliate with the legion. Civilian Organization. The delegates further desire to emphasize em-phasize tho fact that, the 'American legion is neither an organization of enlisted en-listed men nor an organization of officers. of-ficers. It is an organization of American Amer-ican citizens who served their country iu the army, uavy or marine corps 'during 'dur-ing the European war. At tho St. Louis meeting it was a common sight to see generals arguing with privates and sailors with navy captains. Positively Posi-tively uo distinction was made, and, if any was noticeable, it was that the enlisted men wielded the strongest influence. in-fluence. Tho great body of the army military and naval forces that brought Germany to her knees was composed of civilians who came from the farm, the factory and the office. They were not professional soldiers the)T were men and women who sought only to discharge the obligations of American citizenship. Thev considered it a privilege priv-ilege to do so. Now an organization is being formed for them, as civilians, wherein they may perpetuate the memories mem-ories of those days in service on land, sea and air, at homo and abroad, and to give to their respective communities, to the Ptate and to the nation the value of the, lessons in citizenship which they learned during the great war. the St. Louis delegates to rush the permanent per-manent organization in the slate. It is desired to have a strong working organization as soon as possible, but to leave the final selections until such a time as the great majority of the men are home, and have had an opportunity to 'organize their local posts and form their views relative to policies and other important matters. It is likely that the delegates and the state com mittee will recommend to the June caucus cau-cus in Salt Lake that a temporary organization or-ganization similar to the one formed nationally in St. Louis be set up, and that every effort be made thereafter to proceed as rapidly as possible with the organization of local posts. Then, perhaps during conference week in October, Oc-tober, delegates of the local posts may meet in Salt Lake and elect permanent state officers and choose delegates to the November convention in Minneapolis. Minneapo-lis. However, following the policy of the organizers in St. Louis, the state committee com-mittee and delegates are disposed to leave the settlement of these questions entirely to the meeting to be hold next month in Salt Lake. For this reason those now active in the state deem it urgently desirable that as largo a number num-ber of service men as possible, representing repre-senting all parts of the state, gather at the caucus here next month. To Help Service Men. In conclusion, it is the desiro of the delegates to the St. Louis caucus to impress upon every man and woman in Utah who was in service in the European wrar that the American legion is absolutely and wholly designed to bo their organization. No selfishness of purpose exhibited itself at any time during tho St. Louis meeting, despite some efforts of outsiders to make it appear otherwise. Undoubtedly such misrepresentations will be made again, because there are men who will envy tho strength and power of- such a society, so-ciety, and who will mako efforts to pervert its influence to their own selfish purposes. But it can be said without reservation that the guiding spirits of the organization thus fa, composed of the fifr.een hundred men gathered in St. Louis and more particularly particu-larly to the men to whom they delegated delegat-ed further power of action, are actuated actuat-ed by the highest and best motives, those 'so splendidly stated in the legion's declaration of principles that is embodied in its constitution. And the best way to make sure that the legion shall continue to serve its purposes pur-poses best is for each anil every man anil woman who is eligible for membership member-ship to begin nt once to take an active persons shall be eligible to membership member-ship in this organization who were in the military or naval service of the United States during the period between be-tween April 6, 1917 and November 11, 1918." It also decided to include citizens citi-zens of the United States who served in the allied armies, provided they have again become citizens under the act of congress entitling them to regain their citizenship. Tho exceptions made by the St. Lotus caucus include persons who were "separated from the service under terms amounting to a dishonorable dishonor-able discharge" and also "those persons per-sons w-ho refused to perform their military mili-tary duties on the ground of conscientious conscien-tious objection. " Under this construction only men and women who were under the direct orders of the secretary of war and the secretary of the navy will be eligible. The membership, therefore, will not include in-clude those who served in the Bed Cross, Y. M. C. A., Knights of Columbus, Colum-bus, Jewish Welfare, Salvation Army or kindred organizations, nor those who held civilian positions in the war or navy departments. Army nurses, naval ycomanettes and signal corps telephone operators, therefore, who were actually enlisted for service and under military or naval jurisdiction, will therefore be entitled to membership in the American Ameri-can Legion. No other men or women will be admitted to any post which is chartered by the Amorican Legion. Utahns Active. Utah delegates to the Amorican Legion Le-gion convention took a keen and active interest in the deliberations of the convention. con-vention. Every member of the Utah delegation attended every session of the caucus, and every Utah man attended at-tended faithfullv to the committee work to which he was assigned. The delegation selected Royal Douglas of Ogden and Baldwin Robertson of Salt Lake as the Utah members of the national na-tional executive committee, which is composed of two representatives from each state. Committes at the national caucus were composed of one representative from each state, with the exception of the executive committee. In- eases where committees bad work to be done between now and the November convention con-vention in Minneapolis, the custom adopted was to select from the large committee a smaller executive committee commit-tee to "carry on." Two Utah men were honored with memberships upon such executive committees. Charles Parsons of Salt Lnke was elected secretary sec-retary of an executive committee ol seven which is to secure designs for an American Legion emblem, and recommend them to the November convention. con-vention. Tho writer was chosen as one of a committee of seven, headed by (. P. Putnam of the New York publishing firm of G. P. Putnam's Sons, to organize or-ganize and launch the publication of the American Legion's official organ, a magazine which promises to eclipse in circulation and influence anything that has ever been published in America. Amer-ica. It is tentatively proposed to have a weekly paper, a copy of which will go to every member of the Legion, thus giving the' organ, when tho Legion is fullv organized, a circulation of four million readers. Organization Plans. Tho national organization will be completed and perfected at the November No-vember convention to be held in Minneapolis. Min-neapolis. Delegates from Utah will be chosen on a basis of one for each one thousand members of the legion in the state. At that time permanent officers offi-cers will be chosen and n permanent organization completed. The organira-'ion organira-'ion olected in St. Louis will continue in office until the Minneapolis meeting. It seems likely that some similar plan will be adopted by the caucus in Salt Lake next month, relative to the state organization. There is no sentiment on tho part of the temporary officers or |