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Show Legion To Mobilize Vast Reserves For National Defense Emergency; Registration On Washington's Birthday I I Following a conference with Com- I mander Jack Iverson of the local American Legion post Mayor O. De-Vere De-Vere Wootton issued the following statement: "Our Nation, State and Community Communi-ty always have looked upon the American Legion as their first line of defense. For more than 20 years the American Legion has been almost al-most singlehanded the foremost champion of all patriotic endeavors, and has been rendering a high type of community service. "It is inspiring to find the American Ameri-can Legion in this hour of national emergency, mobilizing all its assets for the good of the country. The American Legion constitutes a huge backlog of manpower, experience, training ana devotion in our national nation-al defense. "To catalog these qualities so that they may be readily available to our government authorities in preparing our nation for total defense, is not only a wise and practical measure, but it is also another great demonstration demon-stration of the American Legion's devotion to God and Country. "It is my hope that all World War veterans in our community will register." A total of 38 questions will be asked ask-ed of all World War veterans registered regis-tered tomorrow iSaturday) by The American Legion for possible national na-tional defense service, Commander Jack Iverson of the American Fork Post 49 announced here yesterday. One significant question will not be asked, however, Commander Iverson Iver-son said. That question, strange to say, is that of the registrant's age! The American Legion does not want to know how old its members or other World War veterans are, who register, because there is no longer any restriction of age in a citizen's sharing in national defense. Thereby hangs a grim story. "Total war has virtually eliminated eliminat-ed the factor of age in national defense!" de-fense!" Commander Iverson explained. ex-plained. "In the old days mostly the young and strong went forth to battle. Those days are gone forever. Wars today no longer are merely tests of strength between manpower and gunpower. They are today contests also between industrial and economic econo-mic systems. Everybody is a part of these systems. , "Likewise the battle front has vanished. Or rather it has spread to include every home in the nation. Bombs that rain down from the sky-have sky-have no preference in objectives. They destroy anything that comes in their way. That has made every citizen, young or old, a combatant today. "In view of these facts The American Ameri-can Legion has not included the age question in its national defense questionnaire. There will be no age restriction in any possible anticipated anticipat-ed home service in defense of the nation. Every good citizen, young or old, must do his share in national na-tional defense. That, is the new-order new-order in national emergencies today!" to-day!" Commander Iverson pointed out that men and women skilled in the trades now are in demand in national na-tional defense industries irrespective irrespec-tive of age. "Factories and shops are reported to be hiring trained men today in some cases who are past 70 years and even older," Commander Iverson Iver-son said. "This is especially true in machine, mechanical and metal trades." The American Legion national defense de-fense questionnaire lists 67 special trades and vocations which each registrant is asked to check. If the registrant's trade is not listed, he should write it in, Commander Iverson Iver-son advised. o . |
