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Show . American Legion Notes (Contributed by the Milford I'o-U WAR SERVICE Henry Ford recently said that there would be no future wins if every man and woman realized that he or she must n.n equal risk in loss of time, money, pleasure and life. The summer and fall of liU7 found the people of the United States willing will-ing to give their all to promote the j cause of the Allies. Any evidence to the contrary immediately caused strict action to be taken to eliminate danger. Neighbors were su-picious of each other. Many times irregularities irregu-larities resulted in arrests and im-pri.-onmcnts that were unjust. However, How-ever, pro-German sentiment and sympathy expressed itself in bombing bomb-ing of factories, railroads and flu-giant flu-giant nets meant to hamper us in our effort to create an effective army. To tell the story of our efforts and accomplishments in organizing this country to more efficiently carry on the war is a story of itself and will not be dealt with except to .-ay thi't boards ami commissions were organized orga-nized under the dictatoral power of President Wilson to direct the work of accomplishing the desired end- a-rapidly a-rapidly as possible. Citizens had their meatless, hea'.-less, hea'.-less, wheatless, etc. days. They were limited in quantities of sugar, wheat, flour and varied substances they might purchase. However, in many cases these hardships were in name only am to counter-balance this tremendous tre-mendous salaries were paid, industries indus-tries netted incredulous returns, wealth, opportunity was to be had for the grasping; scarcity of labor made demand tremendous. In addition to the private industries, indus-tries, government created great demand de-mand for labor. A day laborer's weekly check looked like a years salary to the soldier. Yet men, if physically fit were taken into the service of the United States. The story of this service would be interesting. One came when called, if he could be found, did as he was told if he could not pass it to some one else. Worked as hard as he must to get by. This condition was caused by the apparent futilty of it all, the seeming lack of definite leadership and planning. A man volunteered for service n the engineering department depart-ment of the signal corps and gives the following history: transferred to aviation section of signal corps, aviation avia-tion then made a department separate sepa-rate from the signal corps. He was then joined to the aircraft production division of the aviation department and assigned to a special draft to get spruce timber to use in aircraft building, he was transferred to Oregon Ore-gon and became a member of the Spruce division where he made railroad rail-road or worked on a lumber mill until un-til the early part of February, 191S. : A friend enlisted in artillery at the same time found himself three months later in France connected with the medics. The creation of our I four million men army was a tre- mendous accomplishment and a man was a very small unit to be used to I seemingly advantage, with personal J likes and desires of little concern. So ; at the conclusion of that terrible '. story we found ourselves, some in ! ship yards, training station, school, j doing duty at a railroad yard or ' mine, working in timber, building camps, railroads, mills, convoying men, munitions, in camp receiving last minute instruction Qrevious to j going to the front or at the battle line. Little was our wishes considered in what we were to do or where we ; were to go. Of course that was as it ! must be. Only a condition of unity of effort could result in such tre-I tre-I mendous achievement. As we look back aren't we compell-' compell-' ed to wonder what it was all about, I what was gained? Ex-service men, we appeal to you, vou were the men who gave up homes, positions, loved ones; who gave your time, efforts, health and blood for may I say, what? No one knows the possible terrors of it better bet-ter than you. We appeal to you to stand by your comrades now as you ? did in St. Mihiel, Belleau Wood, the Meuse-Argonne offensive on the sea and countless other fields and scenes of action. Let us unite in one great army that stands for economy, progression and peace. Join the American Legion and aid your comrades com-rades in creating a constructive national na-tional policy, in aiding our district problems and help make our local post an organization that may operate for the good of our community. |