Louis during the second
week in May, that the new spirit of the American army and navy
expressed itself articulately for the first time since the
armistice was signed. The birth of the American Legion was
attended by circumstances having a significance comparable with
those surrounding the signing of a certain document in
Philadelphia one hundred and forty-three years ago, come July
4th.
A brigadier general arises to "place in nomination the name of a
man who--" and is cried down by doughboys with calls of "Name
him! Who is he?" A proposal to give extra pay to enlisted men is
unanimously defeated because, as Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt
put it, "we are not here to sandbag something out of the
Government, but to put something into it." The invitation to
make Chicago the next meeting place of the Legion is refused
because "American soldiers and sailors don't want to go to a
city whose mayor would be ashamed to welcome such a convention."
A progressive Republican, son of a famous father, refuses the
chairmanship to quiet suspicion of personal ambition, and the
office goes to a Southern Democrat of whose party the gathering
is in complete ignorance.
One of the convention stenographers said: "This is the funniest
convention I have ever attended.
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