There must be scores of them, dozens of them who were not
present at the St. Louis Caucus, to catch its spirit and who have not
carefully considered just what impression such a demand on the part of
former soldiers, sailors, and marines would create on the rest of the
country.
Why shouldn't six months' pay be given to every man who did his bit in
the war with Germany? In the first place, these men who have returned
from the war have begotten for themselves the utmost respect and
affection from those who could not go. The civilian forms the majority
of our people. Because of the esteem before-mentioned, he is willing
to grant almost anything _within reason_ to the service man who risked
so much in defense of the country. It is to the interest of the
service man to make the civilian population feel that he does not want
to get something for nothing but that, rather, he would still prefer
to give his best to the country in peaceful times in the same spirit
that he manifested in war times--an utter disregard of self.
Had the Legion endorsed this resolution, the general consensus would
have been, "There are the soldiers getting together to make demands.
Their organization is nothing more or less than an association formed
to get something out of the Treasury.
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