Show plans for the 1939 american legion convention in chicago s famed faked coliseum bring to light a new ew chapter in nation r s sT presidential residential history vr w mn i r as v r v f K t ff J y JK i I 1 erl alk tjay A bikk larte I 1 f rs 1 am sl I 1 interior ol of the chicago coliseum where the american legion 1939 national convention will open ope september 25 the view was taken duricr the th republican national convention of 1912 when a plan to t stampede itam ped the delegates lecates de with the appearance ot of theodore roosevelt who was later named as the th rational national progressive candidate was abandoned the plan to smuggle teddy to the speakers plat form Is told here for the first time by ELMO SCOTT WATSON released by western newspaper union THE HE work of preparing for the 1939 national convention T of the american legion which meets for the first time L yi n Chi cagos coliseum scene of the nomination of three presidents of the united states has brought to light a new chapter in american presidential history it is the story of a plan to smuggle teddy roosevelt into the regular republican convention back in 1912 which if it had succeeded succeed ed might well have changed the course of events in this during the last 25 years the story was told for the first time recently by charles R hall veteran manager of the coliseum while he and philip W collins executive vice president of the legion 1 convention corporation were y making arrangements for the big gathering of thousands of legionnaires from all parts of the country in that historic convention hall on september 25 the incident has additional interest because of the fact that a prominent figure at the 1939 session will be teddye Ted dys son col theodore roosevelt who helped organize th the legion just 20 years ago bearing his credentials as a delegate he will walk unhampered into the very hall which his father was kept from entering by the use of wire I 1 but let charles R hall who was one of the 1912 plotters tell the story himself the democratic party at baltimore already had nominated woodrow wilson and thomas R marshall when the regular republican convention opened in the coliseum on june 18 although the logical thing for the republicans to do was to william howard taft who was just completing his term as president there was an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with the record which taft hid had made in the white house and there was repeated talk of teddy roosevelt eft still a magic name for vote getting so the sessions dragged along while the delegates debated in their minds whether or not to taft while the convention marked time I 1 was approached by the late georgew george W porter a chicago capitalist who was a strong roosevelt supporter 1 roosevelt is in chicago he whispered to me ma could you get grhim hi minto into the convention unseen 9 my answer was of course coursel 1 ill put him on the front of the platform right beside the chairman of the convention What ll you charge porter wanted to know 11 hells belisl I 1 answered you dont think id charge for giving those convention delegates the thrill of seeing teddy do you ybur but the very next day I 1 found out that news of our plot had leaked out the sergeant at arms ams of the convention ordered me to stretch rolls of barbed wire along thi the footlights in front of the speakers platform I 1 guess they thought we were going to have teddy planted on the floor of the convention start a demon and then rush him up 4 athe athe center aisle and on to the platform they know that their barbed wire have stopped T R if we had gone through with our plan 1 I was going to admit him through a secret outer doors door rush him into a tunnel entrance a few feet away and then through the tunnel and up a short flight of ste steps ps when he hirthe hit the top step he would have been behind their barbed wire directly facing acing every deli delegate kate in the building if he had done that thal it would have stampeded the delegates delegate s declared phil collins to whom mr hall was relating the incident 1 I remember what ha happened p at that colv convention antion a woman delegate mentioned roose belts name and it started a demonstration on which lasted for two hours before it could be stopped theres Th erbs not a doubt about it agreed mr hall ive often wondered why the plan was never carried through all I 1 know is that george porter and his friends dropped the matter I 1 never asked him why and he never volunteered the information but I 1 wish they had gone ahead I 1 was ready for my part in it As the 73 year old coliseum manager fingered an old fashioned scarf pin in his tie he continued maybe if they had gone ahead I 1 have had this pin you see it was given to me by teddy himself but that was six weeks later when the bull mods ers met in the coliseum and nominated roosevelt and sen hiram johnson of california as their candidates on the progressive party ticket in addition to contributing this now it can be told item to american political history the veteran manager of the coliseum is also an authority on another story which links this building with another historic structure that was the famous libby prison in richmond va of civil war days which was moved to Chi chicago dago piece niece by piece 60 50 years ago and rebuilt on the present site of the coliseum during the civil war libby was known as the palace prison of the confederacy where union soldiers most pt them officers were confined the main prison was originally a tobacco warehouse made of 13 inch bricks which were brought to this country from england while plans for the chicago worlds fair of 1893 were under way a movement was started to purchase libby prison and move it to the c city ity on the lake as a civil war m museum u s e u m prominent in this m movement 0 v e m en t was the chicago historian and collector C F gunther the work of moving the prison from richmond to chicago began in december 1888 each board beam timber and block of stone was numbered and lettered and the task of transporting in g these and the bricks in in the main structure required the use of 20 ton cars by the chesapeake ohio railway the pris on was rebuilt on the site of the present coliseum and reopened opened re as a war museum on september 21 1889 just 50 years and four days before the opening of this y years ears legion convention 1 appropriately enough its first meeting was a G A R reunion meanwhile a massive battlement which was designed to provide a flashy front for the museum was built along the wabash avenue side of the transplanted prison from stone that was quarried within the chicago city limits of that time thousands of visitors before and during the 1893 worlds fair were attracted to the museum and its historical relies relics however this old prison museum was torn down in 1900 to make way for the present coliseum but the I 1 Z ti k X t 1 MOO ni charles K R hall veteran manager of the coliseum looks over the official KW badges of tom some e of the national nominating conventions convention held idan in that building he Is wearing a presented to him by b theodore icadore roosevelt after the national progressive pro convention in 1912 n stone wall which was its front still faces on wabash avenue relics in the museum became scattered some of them being given to the chicago historical society where they are still preserved bricks of the prison were distributed tri buted ib G A R posts throughout the country and some of them were sold fora for a dollar apiece a p 1 ece 11 mr hall recalls but even in recent years when we excavated to provide a pool forthe diving horse of e a circus or for other purposes some of those old bricks from libby prison came to light the floors and other fea tures ture of the coliseum have been altered dozens of times to meet the needs of special events but one distinctive feature remains unchanged our outside walls with their turrets and observation posts today are exactly as they were when they surrounded the transplanted historic libby prison this year the American legion comes come of age gein ge in more re e aspects than one not only is it the organizations twenty first annual convention but according to national commander stephen F chadwick the 1939 assembly of the veterans will have a more serious tone than ever before it will be provided by american democracy first con convention convente 0 n keynote in legion history M moreover re convention program plans call for large scale participation by the wives sons and daughters of the legionnaires who will accompany them to chicago the history of the american legion goes back to the year 1919 and to paris france that sto story ry is told by col theodore roosevelt velt one of its founders thus no one man can claim to to be be the founder of the american legion I 1 got the idea from a wounded sergeant in a hospital he said we should form an organization iz of veterans of the war adding we have stuck together in the bad times lets stick together in the good ones after that I 1 talked with numbers of people many of whom had been thinking on these lines dines the problem was to get the organization under way the armistice had been declared I 1 asked some regular army friends at G H Q if soldiers from each of the american divisions then in france could be ordered to paris to discuss the idea they told me they could not do that directly but that they could order such a group of men to meet in paris and discuss the morale of the american troops we held the meeting on morale afterwards at a dinner we discussed plans for a veterans organization all agreed on certain principles the first was that no difference should be made ra it 1 r COL THEODORE ROOSEVELT between those who had served overseas and those who had not as the desire to serve was what counted the second that the legion was to be a democratic organization in which there should be no question of rank and privates would get a full chance to tell the generals what they thought of them third and last the organization should concern itself with policies not with partisan politics next an organ committee was appointed eric fisher wood was named secretary bennett dark clark today senator from missouri vice chairman and I 1 chairman we decided to hold two meetings one in paris and the other practically simultaneously in the united states bennett clark eric wood and a number of others took the responsibility for the paris caucus I 1 had been ordered home and agreed to arrange the caucus at home the paris meeting went off in splendid shape everyone was interested te and enthusiastic all units were represented and privates as well as generals were delegates incidentally there was no trouble in getting delegates to go paris was a lodestone this group adopted the name american legion the name had been used by my father before the war when he formed a group of americans who had experience which qualified them to serve in the army in case of need am meanwhile ean while I 1 returned to this country and with some same other veterans arranged for a caucus we rented an office in new york city and got in touch with ex service men in every state asking them to organize the soldiers and sailors in their community elect delegates and come to st louis on may 8 1919 the first order of business was the election of a permanent chairman we selected col henry D lindsley of texas a southern democrat thereby giving the lie to those who said it was to be a republican organization next we confirmed the actions taken by the paris caucus such as the selection of the name american legion and adopted a declaration of faith and a temporary constitution ution we provided an organization to carry on until the fall when the first real convention was called in minneapolis there representatives of both paris and st louis meetings would be and the american legion could take final form at minneapolis on november 10 our convention assembled we elected as commander franklin K doller dalier Dp lier of new jersey adopted a permanent constitution and the legion leejon came into being |