Show the american lesion here and there among the world war veterans copy for this department auppl ed by of the alenen legion NATIONAL headquarters BUILDING OF AMERICAN LEGION one of indianapolis most attractive capital was chosen by DID they locate the national headquarters of the american legion at indianapolis this Is a question that many delegates to the minneapolis contention of the american legion are unable to answer the know that indianapolis was not one of the three cities reported favorably on by the committee that a minority report was presented on the floor of the convention result ing in the election of indianapolis as permanent headquarters of the bation fred bates johnson an indianapolis attorney and one of fhe IIo osler delegates to the convention was asked how the indianapolis delegation ma neutered neu vered 0 o secure the headquarters it was a case of superior salesmanship as I 1 see it said mr johnson that mcants as you know faith in the superior quality of the product you re trying to sell a thorough knowl edge of the article and hard work we not only worked hard in trying to convince the members of the committee indianapolis was the logical location we tried to sell the to every delegate vve could talk to the result was when we found we had lost out in committee we felt pretty confident we could win by rals ing the question on the floor of the convention and we did we had a delegation thoroughly well informed on the advantages abo city afforded as a headquarters cen ter the line of argument was of course shaped to fit the particular delegate with whom we were dealing and all in line with a pre plan I 1 m not saying that the political bent naturally inherent in every hoobler may not have helped us in winning out over the competing cities our first argument was that indianapolis was the ideal convention or headquarters city because it Is oily sixty miles from the center of and thus most accessible to the largest number of members we ex that with fifteen railroads an thirteen electric interurban lines this greatest inland railway center was easily and directly reached from all parts of the country we showed them how more cities of population and over can be reached in n night s ride from andl nna polls than from any other city in the united states embracing a zone including chicago milwaukee detroit toledo cleveland buffalo pittsburgh columbus cincinnati I 1 chat memphis st iguls leorla and springfield over avio million people live within avio couro ride of he city and over CO can he reached over night e alfo argued that the fact the city was an ideal headquarters location wo evidenced bv the number of headquarter located here listing among thee the united mine workers of america international of bookbinders intel national typographical union international broth hood of teamsters and chauffeurs bricklayers masons and plasterers international union barbers union and the international ter national brotherhood of carpenters and joiners array of labor or assured the approval of the thousands of legion members be to babot organizations we cald we could assure alt ex men of n most cordial welcome indian hid aldays been most WWW UCA J Al MiJ J ji j buildings why and how the hoosier the world war men appreciative of her heroes in proof of this witness the soldiers and salt ore monument which was erected bears ago costing then over a monument almost SOO feet in height and the patriotic manner in which indiana s sons have answered the call in all previous wars all were surprised to learn that indianapolis has the most complete traction terminal building in the world where more than passengers each day arrive and depart on about high speed electric inter urban cars the fact that we built the first union railway station in the world also appealed to mapy ve found few knew that andl was the home city of the late vice president charles W fairbanks the home city of ace president mar shall the late james whitcomb alley and the late benjamin harrlson of booth meredith Nl cholson and other literary men of national note we explained that in addition to our unusual location and railroad facell the city was well equipped with many first class hotels large auditoriums for conventions and everything in the way of theaters and motion pic ture houses that delegates to a con might require 5 theaters and pa motion picture houses the many buildings of interest were also described a post office occupying n city block and costing more than cr half million dollars a central erected at a cost of more than a half million dollars with fourteen branches and thirty five other agencies a state capitol occupy ing two city blocks a courthouse court houie of unusual architectural beauty and so on of course we bored some listeners and we had to permit the boasters boosters bo of other cities to have their say but nevertheless we got across the many advantages adan offered by this city of population e tried to appeal to the particular interest of the man with whom we were talking thus we told the men from farm ins and rural districts that the principal industry from the value of prod and meat packing that last year 1394 hogs cattle and calves and sheep aare killed they were interested to kanovi that more than head of live stock were received at andl anapolle ana polls stock cords the year before to the same men we told that G TO bushels of w heit he it and i buhel of corn were handled by local dealers and a total of 40 bush els of grain handled in elevators hav ang a combined capacity of 2 bushels none of ohp college men seemed to know that butler college at indianapolis was the first college in the country to receive aomen on footing with men and in the ime sime s way we had facts to interest men of every occupation and interest I 1 venture there was not a delaga alon at the convention so well in formed on what their city bad to offer certain men were assigned to work with the delegations from the different stated we took with us a motion picture film showing the city but had not an opportunity to use it rut as I 1 said before I 1 believe the fact that we landed he G H Q of the legion was due solely to superior salesmanship |