United American War Veterans, Warren S. Fischer, Commander

Just about this time it became most necessary to properly present the Legion to those men who had remained at home and who had gotten out of the Service, and to those who were incoming from France and rapidily being demobilized, as it was upon them that the success of the Legion depended. Furthermore, their opinions were the soil upon which the various State organizations had to work, and at that particular time it was vital that the Legion should be widely known and thoroughly understood; that its aims and ambitions should not be misconstrued either willfully

or unintentionally, nor its precepts perverted. To this end the temporary Chairman proceeded to publicize it in the most thorough fashion. Onepage bulletins briefly outlining the Legion's aims and ambitions were distributed in every center where soldiers and seamen gathered. Such places as Y. M. C. A. and K. of C. huts and War Camp Community recreation centers were thoroughly informed, and bulletins also were sent to every ship in the navy with the request that they be placed on the ship's bulletin board.

Literature about the Legion was placed on transports when they left empty for France so that the men might read it in their leisure hours returning home. In order to make sure that every soldier and sailor would have the opportunity to know about the Legion this literature was again placed on the transports as they arrived in New York harbor. Various demobilization camps throughout the country were widely placarded and in each instance the names of the Temporary State Secretaries were given, and service men were invited to write to the Secretaries in their particular States. Camp publications, newspapers, and periodicals published for service men throughout the country were bountifully supplied with Legion information and scores of them carried special stories in regard to it. Bulletins and pam

phlets were distributed in hospitals, placed on bulletin boards, and given to the patients. Every mayor of a town or city with a population above nine hundred got a letter containing literature about the Legion with a request that it be given publicity in the local press and then turned over to the Chairman of the Welcome Home Committee. Certain national magazines devoted a great deal of space to special articles explaining the Legion.

Three or four times a week the Foreign Press Bureau of the United States Government sent stories about the Legion and its activities by wireless to the ships on sea and to the men of the A. E. F. in connection with its "Home News Service." In addition to the foregoing, articles appeared almost daily in the press throughout the entire country, and by the time the convention was ready to meet those who ran and cared to read were fully informed that the American Legion was an organization for veterans of the army, navy, and marine corp; that it was non-partisan and nonpolitical; that it stood for law and order, decent living, decent thinking, and true Americanism.

The wide publicity given to the Legion and its aims brought into the Temporary Committee many amusing letters. Scores of them complained of the published statement that it was non-partisan and non-political. "Damn it all, we want it to be

political and partisan," one angry Westerner wrote. Another correspondent insisted that in view of the fact that sons of Theodore Roosevelt, and Speaker Champ Clark were interested, the Legion must be bi-partisan and bi-political. But most of the letters were of a highly commendatory character, expressing the deepest and widest possible interest. I recall that one of them came from Junction City, Kansas, another from Old Town, Maine; one from Delray, Texas, and others from Wolf Creek, Montana, Orlando, Florida, and Ray's Crossing, Indiana, while a postal card making frantic inquiries was dated Nome, Alaska, and arrived a week after the caucus at St. Louis. I have mentioned these towns and localities because they indicate how widespread and deep is the interest in the Legion. No matter where a man came from to go into the army, the Legion will go to him in his home now. Its members will range from fishermen on the Florida Keys to the mail carriers on the Tanana in Alaska, from the mill hands of New England to the cotton planters of the Mississippi delta. All who wore the uniform may enroll just so long as the word Americanism was inscribed in their hearts between April 6, 1917, and November 11, 1918.