The Story of The American Legion by George Seay Wheat

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The Story of The American Legion

By

George Seay Wheat

The Birth of the Legion

The first of a series to be issued after each
Annual National Convention

_Illustrated_

[Illustration: The St. Louis Caucus]

G.P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
1919

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

FOREWORD

The American Legion was conceived by practically the entire personnel
of the army, navy, and marine corps! Every man in the military and
naval establishment did not think of it in just such terms, but most
of them knew that there would be a veterans' organization of some
tremendous import, and here it is!

"A veterans' organization of some kind will be formed." I heard that
identical remark not once, but a dozen times on board a transport en
route to France as early as September, 1918. In fact, one night in the
war zone a group of officers were huddled around a small piano trying
to make the best of a lightless evening, and, having sung every song
from _Keep the Home Fires Burning_ to _You're in the Army Now_,
paused, longingly toyed cigarettes which were taboo by ship's order,
and then began to spin yarns.

"Reminds me of a G.A.R. reunion," one second lieutenant from Maine
remarked, after a particularly daring training camp adventure had been
recounted.

"Just think of the lying we'll all do at our reunions when this war is
over," chirped a youngster from South Carolina. And then spoke a tall
major from Illinois:

"The organization which you young fellows will join won't be any
_liefest_--at least not for forty years. Don't forget there's some
saving to do for the United States when this European mess is over. Us
fellows won't ever get out of Uncle Sam's service."

How well the Illinois major hit the nail on the head! The incident on
the transport seems worth recording not only because of the major but
because it shows the general anticipation of what is now the American
Legion. Perhaps it was this general anticipation which is responsible
for the cordial reception that the Legion has had ever since its very
inception in Paris.

No one can lay claim to originating the idea of a veterans'
association, because it was a consensus among the men of the armed
forces of our nation. A certain group of men can take unto themselves
the credit for starting it, for getting the ball rolling, aiding its
momentum, and, what is more important, for guiding it in the right
direction, but no one man or group of men "thought up" the American
Legion. It was the result of what might be called the "spontaneous
opinion" of the army, navy, and marine corps caused by a fusing
together in a common bond of the various elements of the service, just
as spontaneous combustion is brought about by the joint action of
certain chemical elements.

Spontaneous opinion, like spontaneous combustion, is dangerous when
improperly handled and beneficient when rightly directed. That's what
the organizers of the Legion have been and will be mostly concerned
with. They have their elements--these men of the army, navy, and
marine corps, and the organizers mean to direct this united and
organized patriotism into such channels as will make for the welfare
of the United States of America primarily, and, secondarily, for the
welfare of the service men themselves.

Just how much attention this Legion with four million potential
members intends to pay to the United States of America, and just how
much to themselves _per se_, is basicly important and pertinent as a
question, nowadays when the Legion is being tried and is on the
witness stand before public opinion. The answer is most clearly
indicated by the preamble to the proposed constitution printed
elsewhere.

This preamble stresses _Americanism, individual obligation_ to the
_community, state_, and _nation; battling with autocracy_ both of the
_classes_ and _masses; right_ the _master_ of _might; peace_ and
_good will_ on _earth; justice, freedom_, and _democracy_! Only in the
last two words of the preamble is mention made of the welfare of the
men themselves. These two words are _mutual helpfulness_. But be sure
and understand the connection in which they are used.

"... _we associate ourselves together ... to consecrate and sanctify
our comradeship by our devotion to mutual helpfulness_."

This is the way the last purpose of the preamble reads.

The men who framed this constitution certainly did not believe that
comradeship would be consecrated and sanctified by anything of a
selfish character under the guise of mutual helpfulness. Certainly not
the _comradeship_ that made bearable the zero hour in the trenches or
the watch in a submarine infested sea.

To go a little in advance of the story and speak practically, mutual
helpfulness has meant so far voting down a pay grab from Congress; a
get-together spirit to foster the growth of the Legion; a purpose to
aid in the work of getting jobs for returning soldiers, and the
establishment of legal departments throughout the country to help
service men get back pay and allotments. Mutual helpfulness in this
case would seem to make Uncle Sam as much a partner in it as are the
Legion members. Because, for every job the Legion gets an unemployed
man, and for every dollar Legion lawyers help collect for back pay and
allotments, a better citizen is made. And better citizenship is what
the Legion most wants.

So here seems to be the place to make the patent observation that
_mutual helpfulness_ will in future years mean just what it means
to-day--doing something for the United States of America.

At the present time the Legion might be compared to a two-headed
American eagle--one looking towards France and the A.E.F., and the
other homewards to the service men here. The two are a single body
borne on the same wings and nourished of the same strength. They are
the same in ideal and purpose but directed for the moment by two
different committees working together. One committee is the result of
the caucus at Paris in March, when the A.E.F. started the
organization, while the other was born this month in St. Louis, Mo.,
for the men here.

GEORGE S. WHEAT.
NEW YORK May, 1919.

CONTENTS

I.--LATTER WAR DAYS IN FRANCE

II.--THE PARIS CAUCUS, MARCH 15-17, 1919

III.--PRE-CAUCUS DAYS IN AMERICA

IV.--THE ADVANCE COMMITTEE

V.--THE ST. Louis CAUCUS, MAY 8, 9, and 10

VI.--THE LEGION AND THE BOLSHEVIKI

VII.--THE LEGION WON'T MEET AT CHICAGO

VIII.--THE SILVER LINING

IX.--OBJECTORS--CONSCIENTIOUS AND OTHERWISE

X.--THE REEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM

XI.--THE DISREGARD OF SELF

XII.--THE CLOSING HOURS

XIII.--WHY THE AMERICAN LEGION?

THE AMERICAN LEGION

CONSTITUTION OF THE AMERICAN LEGION

RESOLUTIONS

LEGION FACTS

WHAT THE PUBLIC PRESS THINKS

COMMITTEES

ROSTER

ILLUSTRATIONS

THE ST. LOUIS CAUCUS

HENRY D. LINDSLEY

THE PARIS CAUCUS

THEODORE ROOSEVELT, JR.

GROUP AT ST. LOUIS CAUCUS

BENNETT C. CLARK

ERIC FISHER WOOD

CASPAR BACON

STATE CHAIRMEN HERBERT,[A] MATHEWSON, AND WICKERSHAM

"JACK" SULLIVAN

CHAPLAIN J.W. INZER

FRED HUMPHREY

P.C. CALHOUN

[Footnote A: Photo by Gray, Worcester, Mass.]

THE STORY OF THE AMERICAN LEGION

CHAPTER I

LATTER WAR DAYS IN FRANCE

I believe that the army of to-day, when it goes back to citizen
thinking and citizen acting, will be capable of so contributing
to the commonwealth of the United States as to change the
character of the whole country and lift it up to a higher plane.

BISHOP BRENT, _Senior Chaplain, A.E.F_.
Paris, March, 1919.

On a midsummer morning in 1918, ambulance after ambulance unloaded its
cargo of wounded humanity at a base hospital in Paris. The wounded
were being conveyed rapidly from the front and the entire hospital was
astir with nurses, surgeons, and orderlies. A major, surgeon, almost
staggered out of an operating room where he had been on duty for
twenty-two hours and started for his quarters when a colonel arrived
on an inspection trip.

"Pretty busy," remarked the colonel as he acknowledged the major's
salute.

"Busy? Busy!" replied the major. "Good Lord, the only people about
here that aren't busy are the dead ones. Even the wounded are busy
planning to hobble around at conventions when the Big Show is over.
Already they are talking about how they intend to take a hand in
things after the war when they get home."

Over across the street a sergeant, limping slightly, stopped under a
shade tree and leaned against it to rest. He was almost well of his
wound and eagerly awaited the word that would send him to join his
regiment, the Twenty-sixth United States Infantry. As he paused under
the tree another soldier with a mending wound in the knee and just
able to be about stopped to speak to him. The sergeant's hand rose in
quick salute for the newcomer was an officer.

"Expect to get back soon, sergeant?" said the officer.

"Yes sir," he replied. "Anxious to go back and get the whole job over,
sir."

"So am I," responded the officer. "But what will we all do when the
Germans really are licked?"

"Go home and start a veterans' association for the good of the
country, sir," the sergeant answered.

Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, then major, was the officer,
and Sergeant William Patterson, later killed in action, was the
enlisted man, and the institution was Base Hospital No. 2.

Colonel Roosevelt, who was in the hospital convalescing from a wound
in his knee caused by a machine gun bullet, told me the story and said
it was the first time that he had heard the subject of a veterans'
association mentioned, although he had thought of it frequently
himself as an organization with boundless possibilities for good. He
found later that it was being very generally discussed by men in Base
Hospital No. 2, particularly those who were so badly wounded that they
could not be sent to the front again and who knew they must further
serve their country along peaceful lines at home.

This was during war time, remember!

Then came the armistice!

When our victorious armies were wending their way towards the Rhine,
when men of the navy and the marine corps realized that peace had come
and that home was again within reach, this thought of a veterans'
band, which had slumbered far back in the subconscious thoughts of all
of them, burst into objectivity. An association of some sort was
widely discussed not only by the men but by the officers as well. But
how could even the start of it be begun? Those who considered the
project most seriously were confronted with a difficulty which seemed
at first to be almost insurmountable: that was the difficulty of
assembling at one time and in one place a gathering which might at
least approximately represent the whole army, navy, marine corps, or
even the A.E.F.

This difficulty tended to narrow what is believed to have been the
wish of everyone when he first thought of the matter, that is the hope
that it would be another Grand Army of the Republic, another United
Confederate Veterans, but greater than either because representative
of a United Country. Talk started then about all sorts of imagined and
fancied veteran organizations. Some advocated an officers'
association. This was believed to be possible because officers had
more freedom and more financial ability to attend a convention. Others
thought the enlisted men should perfect organizations by regiments
first, then divisions, and finally form one great united body.

The present leaders in the movement have since said that they realized
that all of these schemes must come to naught because no organization
except one on the broadest possible lines could be effective. They
believed that all officers and men of the three branches of the
service and all enlisted women, whether they served at home or abroad,
should be eligible and urged to join one thoroughly democratic and
comprehensive organization. They knew that any organization leaving
out one or more elements composing the military service of the United
States would be forced to compete constantly with the organization or
association so discarded. In short, they knew that in union there is
strength. And they believed, and still believe, that the problems of
peace after a catastrophe such as was never before witnessed in
history are so grave that they can be met with safety only by a
national bulwark composed of the men who won the war, so closely knit,
so tightly welded together in a common organization for the common
good of all that no power of external or internal evil or aggression,
no matter how allied or augmented, could hope even so much as to
threaten our national existence, ambitions, aspirations, and pursuit
of happiness, much less aim to destroy them.

Don't forget that the leaders of the movement realized all this, and
also remember that they include among their number the enlisted man of
the A.E.F. and home army and the sailor in a shore station and on
board a destroyer. The realization may not have been in so many words,
but each knew he wanted to "make the world safe for democracy"--he had
fought to do that and had thought out carefully what it meant, that
is, that it didn't mean anything selfish--and each knew enough of the
principle of union and strength to embrace the idea when "organize"
first began to be mentioned.

But how to do it, that was the problem.

Then kind Fate in the shape of G.H.Q. came to the rescue with what
proved to be the solution.

G.H.Q. didn't mean to find the solution. There had been a deal of
dissatisfaction with the way certain things were going in the A.E.F.
and on February 15, 1919, twenty National Guard and Reserve officers
serving in the A.E.F., representing the S.O.S., ten infantry
divisions, and several other organizations, were ordered to report in
Paris. The purpose of this gathering was to have these officers confer
with certain others of the Regular Army, including the heads of train
supply and Intelligence Sections of the General Staff of G.H.Q., in
regard to the betterment of conditions and development of contentment
in the army in France.

Included in this number were Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt,
Jr., of the First Division, Lieutenant Colonel Franklin D'Olier of the
S.O.S., and Lieutenant Colonel Eric Fisher Wood of the 88th Division.
All of these officers have since told me that when they left their
divisions they were distinctively permeated with the desire to form a
veterans' organization of some comprehensive kind. When they got to
Paris they immediately went into conference with the other officers
on the questions involved in their official trip, details of which do
not concern this story.

What is important is the fact that Colonel Roosevelt, Colonel D'Olier,
and Colonel Wood each discovered that all of the officers in this
representative gathering shared with the thousands of other soldiers
of the American forces the hope and desire that the officers and men
who were about to return to civilian life, after serving in the great
war, whether at home or with the combat units or in the S.O.S., might
sooner or later be united into one permanent national organization,
similar in certain respects to the Grand Army of the Republic or the
United Confederate Veterans and composed of all parties, all creeds,
and all ranks, who wished to perpetuate American ideals and the
relationship formed while in the military and national service.

When these officers realized what each was thinking they promptly set
about with the "let's go" spirit of the A.E.F. to avail themselves of
a God-given opportunity. A dinner was spread in the Allied Officers'
Club, Rue Faubourg St. Honore, on the night of February 16th and
covers were laid for the following:

Lt. Col. Francis R. Appleton, Jr., 2d Army.
Lt. Col. G. Edward Buxton, 82d Div.
Lt. Col. Bennett C. Clark, ex 35th Div., now with 88th Div.
Lt. Col. Ralph D. Cole, 37th Div.
Lt. Col. D.J. Davis, ex 28th Div., now att. G.H.Q.
Lt. Col. Franklin D'Olier, Q.M., S.O.S.
Col. W.J. Donovan, Rainbow Div.
Lt. Col. David M. Goodrich, G.H.Q.
Maj. T.E. Gowenlock, ex 1st Div., now with 1st A.C.
Col. Thorndike Howe, A.P.O. Dept.
Lt. Col. John Price Jackson, Peace Commission
Maj. DeLancey Kountze, G.H.Q.
Lt. Col. R.W. Llewellen, 28th Div.
Capt. Ogden Mills, ex 6th Div., now att. G.-2, S.O.S.
Lt. Col. Benjamin Moore, 82d Div.
Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., 1st Div.
Lt. Col. R.C. Stebbins, 3d A.C.
Maj. R.C. Stewart, 1st Div.
Lt. Col. George A. White, ex 41st Div., now att. G.H.Q.
Lt. Col. Eric Fisher Wood, ex 83d Div., now with 88th Div.

At that dinner the American Legion was born.

Why not let this gathering--the most representative in the history of
the A.E.F.--consider itself as a temporary committee to launch the
movement? Why not? everyone asked himself and his neighbor over the
coffee. All felt that their presence in Paris presented an unusual
opportunity to initiate the first steps of such a movement, an
opportunity unlikely to be repeated and one they ought not to let
slip. Another meeting was suggested to consider the matter. It was
held. The result was that there were several more conferences and
every such gathering was more enthusiastic than its predecessor. At
each of these informal conferences, some one was careful to emphasize
that these self-appointed committeemen were by no means
representative enough of the army or navy, nor sufficiently numerous
to warrant their actually effecting an organization of any character
whatsoever. Yet it was believed that, nevertheless, the gathering was
representative enough to act as a temporary committee so functioning
as to get together from the whole army and navy two caucuses--one to
represent the troops in France, and the other those who had remained
in America and who, through no fault of their own, had been denied the
privilege of making history on a European battlefield. The temporary
committee realized that due care must be exercised in getting these
caucuses started. Every unit in the A.E.F. should be represented, if
possible, at the Paris caucus, while to the one in the States,
preferably to be held at St. Louis because of its central location,
delegates must come from every Congressional District in the Union.

Thereby would be avoided, it was urged, the mistake of giving the
impression that it was a small gathering of men, unrepresentative or
serving some special and selfish end.

This was unanimously agreed upon and the temporary committee elected
Lt. Col. Roosevelt, temporary chairman, Lt. Col. Bennett C. Clark,
temporary vice-chairman, Lt. Col. Wood, temporary secretary.

A sub-committee was appointed to receive from all the members of the
temporary committee the names of such individuals of combat divisions
and each section of the S.O.S. of the A.E.F., who were eligible and
suitable to be delegates to a caucus scheduled for March
15th-16th-17th in Paris. A similar sub-committee was appointed to
ascertain the names of men of the home forces in order that they might
be urged to attend a caucus in America on or about May 8th-9th-10th.

The work of the sub-committee of the A.E.F. was much more difficult
than would appear at first glance. It was easy enough to get the names
of leaders in the various outfits, both of officers and men, but to
get them to Paris! That was the job. Of course it was the ardent
desire of everyone that the new organization should eventually become
a society principally devoted to the interests of those who served as
enlisted men, for they bore the brunt of the fighting and the work and
were fundamentally responsible for the splendid victory.

But once the names of such men were in the committee's hands the real
work had not begun. There were mechanical difficulties in securing for
enlisted men in active duty leave to attend a caucus in Paris. In the
first place the enlisted men themselves, as indicated by several who
were consulted, were very diffident about accepting an invitation to
attend a caucus where they would be required to sit beside and debate
with and against generals and field officers to whom they owed
military obedience. Then again, there was the expense of travel in
France, as well as the high cost of living in Paris. At the outset
this raised the expense of a trip to the French capital to a sum
amounting to many months of an enlisted man's pay. Furthermore, the
sub-committee was face to face with the A.E.F. regulations providing
that except in the most unusual circumstances an enlisted man would
not be granted leave except in company with a trainload of his
fellows, and to a certain specified leave area.

But as has been said before the conclusion had been reached that if
the organization was really to become preeminently an enlisted man's
outfit, it would be absolutely necessary to overcome these
difficulties and by hook or crook to obtain the attendance of as many
privates and noncommissioned officers as possible who were leaders.
So, scarcely had seventeen of the twenty officers returned to their
commands before they received an urgent appeal to help out the
sub-committee of three. They were told to get enlisted delegates to
Paris, never mind how, the method being of small importance provided
the men were there.

CHAPTER II

THE PARIS CAUCUS, MARCH 15-17, 1919

The first delegates began to arrive for the caucus on March 14th.
After-the-war good fellowship between those who had been commissioned
officers on the one hand, and enlisted men on the other, was
foreshadowed in a most interesting and striking manner when they began
to come into the hotels. A dozen or more officer delegates brought
with them as orderlies an equal number of delegates from the ranks.
Thus enlisted personnel, by devious means, were ordered to Paris under
one guise or another. One sergeant came under orders which stated that
he was the bearer of important documents. He carried a despatch case
wadded with waste paper. Another non-com., from a distant S.O.S.
sector, had orders to report to Paris and obtain a supply of rat
poison. Several wagoners, farriers, and buck privates acquired
diseases of so peculiar a character that only Parisian physicians
could treat them. As one of them said, he hadn't had so much fun since
his office-boy days when a grandmother made a convenient demise every
time Mathewson pitched. The expense of the trip was gathered in
diverse ways. In some divisions the officer delegates took up
collections to defray the expense of enlisted delegates.

In numerous instances, enlisted men refused such assistance and took
up their own collections. One amusing story was told by an enlisted
man. He said that the "buddies" in his regiment had deliberately lost
money to him in gambling games when he refused to be a delegate
because he couldn't pay his own expenses. So by various means nearly
two hundred enlisted delegates were in Paris by late afternoon on
March 14th. It must not be imagined from the foregoing that all the
officers arrived on special trains and were themselves in the lap of
luxury. One second lieutenant who attended has since confided that he
sold his safety razor and two five-pound boxes of fudge sent from home
in order to get carfare to Paris.

Practically all of the self-appointed, temporary committee, with the
exception of Colonel Roosevelt, was present. He was Chairman of the
American Committee and had left France for the purpose of organizing
that part of the army and navy which did not get abroad or which had
returned home.

The Paris caucus convened at the American Club near the Place de la
Concorde on the afternoon of March 15th, Colonel Wood presiding.
Lieutenant Colonel Bennett C. Clark of the 88th Division was selected
Chairman of the caucus and Lt. Col. T.W. Miller of Pennsylvania, and
serving in the 79th Division, was elected Vice-Chairman. When Colonel
Wood called the meeting to order nearly one thousand delegates
answered the roll-call and these were of all ranks from private to
brigadier general; and every combat division and all sections of the
S.O.S., were represented. Colonel Wood briefly reviewed the
self-appointment of the temporary committee during the previous month
and outlined the purposes of the caucus.

A few minutes after Colonel Clark had taken the chair an officer of
high rank, a colonel to be exact, moved that while in the convention
hall, the after-war status as fellow civilians be forecast and that
the stations of rank would there cease to exist. It was agreed that
they would be resumed with full force and full discipline as soon as
the delegates crossed the threshold of the convention hall and
regained the street.

It was the ability of the American officer to do this--to be friendly
to a certain extent with his men and yet at the same time to keep them
perfectly disciplined--which amazed the officers of the armies of our
Allies. No more striking example of this was ever given than within
the confines of the American Club on that 15th day of March. The
Colonel's motion was unanimously carried and the work of the
organization began. Then generals forgot their rank, corporals engaged
in hot debates with colonels, sergeants argued with majors and
everybody talked with everybody else in a most boylike spirit of
fraternity and equality.

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