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Show w American legion H'upy !'r This l-;;innn-iii Mipi'lUM ly ihu American Loir) on N.-ws Service.) AMERICAN LEGION NOW HAS THE DEPARTMENT OF PANAMA Scene on the Island of Taboga, Where the Department of Panama Held Itt Recent Convention. Sixteen years ago when President Roosevelt called on the men of America Amer-ica to enlist in the great adventure of cutting a waterway from ocean to ocean through the Isthmus of I'anama that the strength of the American fleet might not be divided by a voyage of weeks from the east to the west coast there were thousands of volunteers volun-teers who answered his call. To I'anama I'an-ama they went and built the grw.t canal, fighting all the time against perpetual per-petual heat, almost perpetual rain, fevers and all the pests of the tropics. Many of them gave up the struggle and returned home but others stayed until the great dream came true. And they are there yet in that far-flung outpost of America by the locks that are lapped by the waters of two oceans. Again in April, 1917, came a call to duty a summons to war and that call was not unheard at the canal. One by one men and women dropped out of the shops and offices and donned the army khaki and the navy blue or the modest cap and cape of the army nurse corps until on November Novem-ber 11, 191S, the day of the armistice, there were approximately 500 Canal men and women In uniform. They saw service in all branches of American arms. They were on land and sea, in the air and under the water. wa-ter. They were a versatile people and they were 'fighters as their building of the canal had proved. They came back with almost every medal and decoration decora-tion of the war, including citations from the French, British and the other allies. In September of last year several of these fighters met to form a post of the American Legion. One had recently re-cently been an aviator in France, another an-other as a lieutenant of engineers had done things in No Man's Land that high British officers said were impossible. im-possible. A third, after many months of volunteer ambulance driving before America entered the war, had enlisted enlist-ed in the French artillery and had ended as a lieutenant. This first post was immediately followed by a second sec-ond and the creation of the department depart-ment of Panama of the American Legion Le-gion with headquarters at Cristobal. The first convention of the department depart-ment was held recently on the Island of Taboga, 12 miles from the mainland main-land of the Isthmus of Panama and in sight of the spot where In 1513 Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovered the Pacific Pa-cific ocean. At this convention Elbert S. Waid was elected department commander com-mander and Edward J. Daily, department depart-ment adjutant for the coming year. These offices previously had been held by Conyingham Patterson and Herbert Her-bert Pearson, respectively. Arrangements Arrange-ments were also made to have the Panama department represented at the Cleveland convention. |