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Show if:SIQffll (Copy for This Department Supplied by the American Legk n News Service.) WOULD "CLEAN UP" POLITICS Massachusetts High School Girl Choses Important Topic to Win Essay Contest. An appeal to the American Legion to "clean up" politics is contained in the essay of a high school girl which recently was awarded a prize in the Somerville (Mass.) post's competition for the best article on "What Service Can the American Legion Render to the United States?" Miss Eleanor Kan-dall, Kan-dall, the winner, makes this suggestion sugges-tion : "When politics means graft, corruption, corrup-tion, and the attainment of selfish ends, then Is our government debased. It is the duty of the American Legion to change this interpretation of 'politics,' 'poli-tics,' being careful meanwhile that the game is not played within the limits of the organization itself. It must oust the grafter, wipe away the corruption, and teach that the welfare of the government gov-ernment should be first and foremost in the mind of every true American. These boys who fought in the mud in France must not allow the mud of corrupt politics to cling about this great nation. As fearlessly as they fought in France, in spite of disagreeable disagree-able conditions, they must clear away the mire and show us to the world as we really are at heart a big-minded, idealistic people. "Thousands of foreigners coming to our shores each year discover," Miss Randall continues, "that the 'streets of gold' of America are covered by the mud of' the slums and that their 'homes of happiness' are squalid flats in the tenement district. "Should it not be the members of the American Legion who should help the immigrant who has come to our shores?" she asks. "The United States has been rightfully called the 'melting pot' of all nations. After the melting who will mold? The men who fought for the democracy of the world are the ones best fitted for the task. They are the best guardians of those who hardly know what democracy means. Let them help the immigrant to understand and the down-trodden to rise and when tills task is finished they will have rendered to their nation na-tion the greatest service In the history his-tory of the world." |