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Show LEGIONNAIRES AID VETERANS OF 1854 The things that will or will not make good news copy vary greatly with the passing of the years. Announcement An-nouncement that the Union Veteran Legion would hold its annual national convention some time In September in Altoona, Pa., made only a bare Inch of newspaper copy. "And who, and what, Is the Union Veteran Legion anyway, that they should be given even an inch of space in the newspapers? newspa-pers? I don't recollect ever having heard of them," you say. Which is rather surprising, for at one time In the nation's history the Union Veteran Legion was making column aftei column col-umn of breathless copy. Sherman's march to the sea made good copy in those days first-page stuff that was avidly read by a grateful populace. But that was more than a half century cen-tury ago and news values change and the makers of much of that copy, the Union Veteran Legion, are dropped from the first page entirely and get only a skimpy inch on an inside sheet. However, there are those In these United States who read the newspapers newspa-pers rather carefully, among them the American Legion, and the bare inch of copy concerning the proposed national na-tional convention of the Union Veteran Vet-eran Legion was sufficient to catch the eye of American Legionnaires of Altoona and interest them to such an extent that a committee was Immediately Imme-diately appointed to aid the Union Veteran Legion in preparing for their national convention. In appointing the committee to help the Union Veteran Vet-eran Legion with their convention, the American Legion was motivated by the following facts: To be a member of the Union Veteran Vet-eran Legion one must have been a volunteer and have served not less than three years in the Civil war. Most of the surviving members of the organization are very old, and the toil, harassments and uncertainty of preparing for a national convention would be a severe strain upen the strength of the veterans of 'G4. So the American Legion decided to lift the load from the shoSders of their venerable comrades to enable them to be free to enjoy themselves without the worries and trials incident to the administration of a convention. |
