THE LEGION AND THE BOLSHEVIKI
The second session of the caucus began at half past two o'clock Friday
afternoon. Like its predecessor it started with a bang. Nominations
were made for the third vice-chairman who was to be selected from the
marine corps. The first nomination was a wounded man, at the time in
the Walter Reed Hospital at Washington and who had won the
Distinguished Service Cross at Château-Thierry. Then came the name of
Sergeant Woolley of Utah, quickly followed by the name of P.C. Calhoun
of Connecticut, put up by Mr. Black of Louisiana; the name of Major
Leonard of the District of Columbia also was put in nomination and
then the slate was closed.
True to the spirit of the previous meeting the caucus was soon in an
uproar of applause for each of the four candidates, three of whom were
marched to the stage. Calhoun was elected, with the result that his
ardent brother delegates from Connecticut treated him like a football
hero by placing him on their shoulders and performing a snake dance.
Marines are no more garrulous than sailor men, for Calhoun's speech of
acceptance was just about as long as Humphrey's. While Calhoun was
being bombed by flashlight cameras Mr. Smoot of Utah moved that a vote
of thanks should be tendered to Colonel Roosevelt and other Legion
members who had been active in the preliminary work which insured the
success of the caucus and this was seconded by Major Wickersham of New
York. One of the most rousing ayes of the entire caucus carried the
motion.
Cries of "speech" brought Colonel Roosevelt before the footlights. His
remarks were just about as long as Humphrey's and Calhoun's. To be
specific he said: "Gentlemen, it is going to be a short speech because
I think we have got a lot of business to do. Thank you."
Just about this time the committee reports began to come in, the first
of which, that of the Credential Committee, brought the question of
Bolshevism to the floor of the caucus. The report read as follows:
"We recommend that all delegates to the American Legion selected and
now functioning from the various States, districts, and territories,
be seated and accredited with full vote, and that all organizations
organized and having delegates here be allowed one vote with the
exception of the Soldiers and Sailors Council, which delegation the
Credential Committee recommends shall be excluded from the caucus."
S.H. Curtin, the representative of the Soldiers and Sailors Council of
Seattle, pending the action of the Credential Committee, had been
accorded a vote at the previous session on all questions that came up
before it. The fact that Colonel Wood, the Secretary, took this action
was in line with the general spirit of fair play, which was the
keynote of the caucus. The Credential Committee's report elicited
shouts of approval. Chairman Lindsley after bringing the house to
order again said:
"I understand that the delegate from the Soldiers and Sailors Council
is here and asks to be heard. Gentlemen, the members of the Committee,
I assume, had full knowledge of facts which warranted that report, but
there are men here who have not that knowledge. Shall we hear him?"
This statement aroused mixed emotions but Mr. Curtin came to the
platform. Word having spread through the theater that he represented
the "real Bolshevik outfit" in Seattle, a great many of the delegates
began to hoot, jeer, and make cat calls.
"Give me a square deal, give me a hearing," Curtin shouted.
"Give the man a hearing," echoed Colonel Roosevelt, who sat with the
New York delegation. "Yes, give him a hearing." shouted the majority
of the delegates and when the chair had procured order, Curtin made
his plea.
"I wish to say, by way of introduction, that though I come from the
State of Washington, I am not a member of the Washington Delegation,"
he said, "I say that out of deference to the members from that State
for the reason that I wish to prejudice nobody here against the
Washington Delegation. I am not an I.W.W. I never have been and I
never intend to be I never have shown any Bolshevik tendency and I
defy any man present to prove to the contrary. If you've got proof
that Sherman H. Curtin ever was an I.W.W. or made a Bolshevik
statement, say so?" He paused here but none answered him to the
contrary
"It is true that the organization which I represent has had in the
past some I.W.W.'s, and it is true that there are some I.W.W.'s in it
now," he continued; "but I am in that organization for the purpose of
throwing those I.W.W.'s out. I got in there for the purpose of kicking
them out and I want your help."
Here he was interrupted by applause.
"At the present time, we (when I say we, I mean the particular
conservative element which I represent in that organization) have
control of the Board and practically all except one office of the
organization. We are doing everything in our power to make that a one
hundred per cent. American organization, and one of the things that I
came down here for was to see that the Legion had in its constitution
as a preamble that we pledge ourselves to the principles of democracy
as set forth in the constitution of the United States of America.
"I, personally, was the man who rewrote the constitution of the
Soldiers and Sailors Council. It was written wrong when I got in there
so I changed it. I want you men to stand behind me and help me make
this fight. My organization did not give me permission to come here
and join this, just as I presume some of your organizations did not
give you permission, for the reason that they did not know what this
was going to be; but I can see from the spirit that this organization
has, that so far, it is on the right path and I am with it and I want
you with me.
"I am already only and wholly for the purpose of doing what good we
can for the elimination of I.W.W.'s and Bolsheviki. If you are
against that, I am with you and if you are with me, I am with you.
George Pratt of Louisiana rose.
"With your permission," he said to the chairman, "I would like to ask
the gentleman one question." "Sir," turning to Curtin, "is it or is it
not true that you re-wrote the constitution now in effect for your
organization, and is it not true that it is so worded that American
Army and Naval officers or former army and navy and marine officers of
the United States are not eligible? Is that true?"
"I will answer that question and I will answer it in a fair way," Mr.
Curtin replied.
"Say yes or no. Is it true?" Mr. Pratt demanded.
"Yes," shouted the crowd. "Say yes or no. Is it true?"
Then pandemonium broke loose in the meeting. The cat calls and boos
were renewed. "Put him out!" "Put him out!" "Shut him up!" the crowd
demanded. And here I want to pause a moment to say that the enlisted
men present gave a mighty concrete sign of the approval of their
officers by this denunciation of the constitution of Curtin's outfit.
"I am not here for the purpose of being persecuted," Mr. Curtin
shouted. "I am not asking no or yes to anything. But I will say to the
gentleman who questioned me that while it is true in letter it is not
true in spirit."
At this juncture Mr. Simon, of the Washington delegation, said that in
all fairness to Sergeant Curtin he wanted to say that during the
recent demonstration of Bolshevism in Seattle, Curtin commanded a
machine gun company on the side of right and law and order.
"I do not speak for his organization," Simon said, "but I speak for a
clique in it, headed by Sergeant Curtin, who went into that
organization to clean it up, to make it a fair and square one hundred
per cent. American organization." The applause of Simon's remarks had
scarcely died down when General Moss succeeded in gaining the floor.
"I want to say to the members of this delegation," he said, "that I
led the fight against the soldiers' and sailors' organization before
the Credential Committee, and I want to say to you gentlemen that we
didn't lead a fight personally against this man, but against his
organization.' We know the outfit in our country and we do not want
that organization in unless the Americans in it come in as
individuals. I want to say that we are to be organized here on a basis
of one hundred per cent, true Americanism.
"I asked Curtin in the presence of the committee if he represented a
minority or a majority in his outfit and he admitted that he
represented the minority."
"But we can lick a majority," Curtin shouted back. "I want Captain
McDonald who had charge of the Intelligence Department at Camp Lewis
to say a word on this subject. He knows the history of my organization
and I would like to have him give it to you." But if Curtin counted on
McDonald to help him he reckoned without his host.
Captain McDonald rose and speaking with great deliberation said:
"I have been an American soldier for thirty years. I was a regular
telegraph officer at the time of the Bolshevik trouble. I established
stations at Seattle and Camp Lewis and this man represents the real
element that we are all working against. Personally he is all right
but he is backing that organization because he wants to represent it.
If he desires to be admitted into the Legion let him get loose from
that outfit and come in by himself."
Captain McDonald's statement was greeted with enthusiasm.
"Are you ready for the question?" demanded the chairman.
The caucus certainly was.
"Those favoring the adoption of the credentials report vote aye," he
cried.
That aye could almost have been heard in Seattle itself.
That aye answered the question of what the American soldier thinks of
Bolshevism or anything tainted with it. That aye answered the lying
statement that our troops abroad had been inoculated with the germ of
the world's greatest mental madness.
That aye marked the distinction between a grouch caused by a
cootie-lined bunk and a desire to place a bomb under the Capitol at
Washington.
I have intimated that the chief aim of each delegate was to see that
no one "put anything over" at this caucus. I think that the only other
determination which might rival that in intensity was most apparent at
the mention of anything that pertained to or bordered on Bolshevism.
This incident of ousting Curtin's organization was not the only
manifestation of it by any means, although it was perhaps the most
striking on the floor of the caucus. But, outside the caucus, in the
hotel lobbies, and in the various committee rooms, whenever the
subject came up these soldier and sailor men, in almost every
instance, got mad--damn mad.
"The trouble with these people who talk Bolshevism is that they don't
know anything about our country," I heard one of them say.
Another quickly interrupted him with, "The big thing the Legion's got
to teach is Americanism and let those crack-brained fools know just
what this country stands for." While still another injected, "The
average 'long-beard' has been so crazed by persecution in Russia that
he would mistake Peacock Alley in the Waldorf-Astoria in New York for
a Siberian coal mine."
This last remark brought forth a laugh, and though it was whimsically
made it illuminated the matter under discussion very well, I thought.
In fact, the whole conversation made clear to me one of the
fundamental missions the Legion must perform.
The seeds of Americanism which Legion members sow to-day will be
reaped, not only to-day but in the generations of to-morrow. The
Soldiers and Sailors Council, Seattle, was thrown out and its
representative knew why. But, if Jack Sullivan and his red, white, and
blue colleagues in the State of Washington preach in the future what
they did at this caucus, the children of those northwestern Bolsheviki
will not only salute the Stars and Stripes, but will know _why_ they
do so. They will know what their fathers don't--that the constitution
means Americanism and that Americanism means "life, liberty, and
pursuit of happiness."
In most conventions the reports of committees are invariably adopted.
There are many reasons for this, the particular one being the theory
that when a set of men are placed on a task they will study the
situation in all its angles, in all its ramifications, in all its
different phases and that its report should therefore be adopted
because of this expert thought and study on the matters under
consideration. I say that most conventions do this. Once as a
newspaper man, I attended an undertakers' convention. It always did
so. And at another time I attended a manufacturers' gathering where
this procedure was invariably followed out. But how about at St.
Louis? Not on your life! The delegates of the American Legion were
neither like undertakers nor manufacturers nor like any-other business
men that I ever saw during ten years on a Metropolitan newspaper. The
new American doesn't do business that way.
Witness the report of the Committee on Name. This report read:
"We, your Committee on Name, unanimously make the following
recommendation--that the name of this organization be the American
Legion of World War Veterans." The chairman had scarcely finished
asking: "What is your pleasure gentlemen" when Major Wickersham got
the floor and moved an amendment that the name be "The American
Legion." This was seconded by Mr. Cochrane of Ohio and then came the
argument about it.
Mr. Shank of Ohio, thought that the American Legion did not convey a
sufficient meaning to the average civilians. "The American Legion
might be an organization of street cleaners, it doesn't signify
soldiers. It isn't comprehensive enough," he said. Mr. Larry of
Florida countered with, "Go ahead and call it American Legion, we will
soon show them what it means."
Mr. Walsh of Pennsylvania, suggested that the A.E.F. knew what it was
doing when they called it the American Legion. "Let us honor them and
respect them by calling it the American Legion," he urged. Colonel E.
Lester Jones, of Washington, stated the name had been considered by
the committee most carefully and--
But why go into all the arguments. The motion to call it the American
Legion was carried amid cheering and as such the name will go down
into the history of things well done for America.