from all but certain formal sessions. This was a mistake. The action was rescinded later, but harm had been done. A story that might have gone around the world, set millions thinking, and won millions to the FIDAC cause was lost.

Contrary to certain reports and conjectures, there was nothing sinister in this action with reference to the press. Nothing transpired in the sessions which would not have benefited by publicity. It simply represented the Continental method of procedure as moulded by Continental habits of thought. The mistake will not be made again. In its peace manifesto FIDAC declared for full publicity-a step in the direction in which the world is moving.

The peace declaration was worked out by a committee on which one delegate of each nation served. Gignilliat of America was chairman. Much credit belongs to him. He was tactful, thoughtful, resourceful. Concessions were necessary. France deemed reparations and security from the German menace essential to peace. Great Britain saw paramount the economic recovery of Germany. The Roumanians feared the armies of Soviet Russia which are mobilized on their frontier.

But the conference sought to avoid the controversial pitfalls which have engulfed every international alliance that has been engineered by diplomacy since history began, and have brought failure upon every diplomatic effort at

peace.

With all their hearts, those delegates wanted peace. One was blind. One had no legs. One no voice gas. One no right arm. "Gentlemen, I am not old," said a Serbian who is under thirty, "yet I have been in four wars. My father, who was killed in the last war, had been in seven." They wanted peace, they strove earnestly to avoid pitfalls and to concentrate upon workable and practicable principles upon which the means to peace might be predicated. Sincerity pulled them through. These are the principles the

Legion ratified as rendered into "plain American" by Hoffman:

With an earnest desire to promote peace, tranquillity and good will among nations; secure the institutions of organized society; preserve the sacred principles of liberty and democracy and transmit their blessings to posterity; and establish safeguards to prevent the recurrence of war, we, the undersigned, representing the ex-service men of the signatory countries, agree to submit and endeavor to secure the adoption by our societies represented and through them urge upon our respective governments the following declaration of principles:

1. That all international agreements among governments affecting the entire people shall be open and aboveboard, with full publicity.

2. That treaties make the law between the nations, and they must

be executed in good faith.

3. To oppose territorial aggrandizement.

4. To vigorously suppress within our own boundaries all persons and propaganda seeking to overthrow by force government existing by will of the people.

5. That the financial policies of the Allied governments must have as their aim the stability of exchange and the resumption of international commerce, and we recommend the suspension of trade relations with countries maintaining armies organized for aggressive purposes.

6. In view of the distorted political reports tending to unbalance the public mind, we recommend that there shall be established by the FIDAC a news-disseminating bureau with representatives in every member country; that this agency shall receive the official sanction of the governments of the respective countries; that it shall collect and issue news designed to offset destructive and inflammatory propaganda, particularly the propaganda put out by the proponents of bolshevism with the intent to change other forms of government.

7. That an international court be established to outlaw war.

8. To proceed as rapidly as conditions permit and when the decrees of such court become operative (except for machinery necessary to maintain them and the minimum police forces) to entirely disarm and disband our land, sea and air forces and destroy the implements of warfare.

The foregoing becomes binding upon the Federation only when approved by all of the constituent veterans associations of the FIDAC. Of these the Legion was the first to act.

The vision of Galbraith has gone thus far.

CHAPTER XXV

"WE GO FORWARD"

WHEN the fourth National Convention selected Alvin Owsley to direct the Legion's affairs it selected a man possessed of qualifications which would seem to be singularly well adapted to the work the responsibilities of the office place upon him. Owsley is a lawyer, and from early youth he has had two principal avocations which have consumed a great share of his energies.

He has been a student of and an enthusiast for the military science, including the human equation of the soldier, in uniform and out-his wants, his needs, his problems.

He has been a public servant. As the youngest member of the Texas legislature, as the district attorney of his home county of Denton and as the Assistant Attorney-General of his State, he has made a record which men admire in Texas.

Mr. Owsley resigned the office of district attorney in April of 1917 to enter the Army. After a period in the first officers training camp at Leon Springs, Texas, he became a major in the Seventh Infantry of the Texas National Guard, and finding his battalion largely non-existent, he organized and trained four infantry companies. The regiment was consolidated with the First Oklahoma, becoming the 142d Infantry of the 36th Division. Owsley took his battalion overseas and led it until promoted to be lieutenant-colonel and division adjutant. He participated in all actions in which his division was engaged.

He had an early perception of the Nation's post-warproblems. He was a delegate to the Paris caucus and helped organize the Legion in Texas. He resigned as Assistant Attorney-General in 1920 to become Assistant Director of the National Americanism Commission of the Legion. When Henry J. Ryan was obliged to retire, due to injuries sustained in the accident in which Commander Galbraith was