THE SILVER LINING
Soon after the caucus opened on Saturday morning, May 10, the minutes
read as follows:
THE CHAIRMAN: "Gentlemen, before we have the report of the Resolutions
Committee, I want to say to those who were not of the Executive
Committee and in its meeting last night, that there seemed to me to be
there a more splendid crystallization of the real purpose of this
caucus and a foresight into what it is going to mean, not only to
these four millions of men but to the people of the United States for
the next half century, than I have ever heard, and at the request of a
number of those who were there at that meeting, I am going to ask one
of them to interpret to you in just a few minutes, as well as he can,
and he did it wonderfully well last night, the spirit that we believed
in that meeting is your spirit here to-day and the spirit that is
going out from this caucus as a slogan to all American citizens and
through them to the world, indicating the purposes for which we
fought, and more than that, the purposes for which American manhood
stands and for which it will fight again, if necessary, the heritage
we will hand down to our children, and I will ask this gentleman to
present that thought to you."
CHAPLAIN W. INZER (of Alabama): "Gentlemen, I appreciate this
opportunity more than I have words to say, and if you will only be as
sympathetic with me for these minutes as that Executive Committee was
last night, I will do my best to interpret the spirit and the mind of
this convention as I see it and as I saw it last night. I never had a
more sympathetic audience, it seemed to me, or a more psychological
moment in which to speak than that was last night and I appreciate the
spirit of the brethren who asked me to come out and make this talk
this morning and I am going to try my best to interpret it as I saw it
last night.
"There has been an undercurrent all through this Convention. Somebody
has been afraid that we are going to do something or pop some lid off
that will bust the thing and I have been, as I said last night,
sometimes scared almost to death. I think I could personally say that
I wanted to make about seventy-four speeches in the two days that I
have been here. I didn't do it but I was waiting and praying for the
psychological hour to arrive and I believe that that hour came last
night when this Executive Committee really got together and got
something concrete before them, and I think that the whole Convention
comes together this morning ready to take up matters of importance and
leave off matters that should not be taken up, and to solidify this
body in a great spirit of Americanism that shall last for fifty years
as the greatest organization that the world has ever known."
(Applause.) "Now the keyword that I want to say in the beginning is,
at all costs we want to save this organization. We do not want
anything to arise to-day that will in any way mar the spirit of this
great assembly and the work that it is going to do in the future.
While you were deliberating here these past two days some of you
thought only of this hour and this moment, but, gentlemen, I had an
eye cast into the future and I was dreaming dreams and seeing visions
of the years that are to come and the wonderful work, the wonderful
influence, and the mighty power that this organization is going to
have and exert upon this nation and upon the whole world, and I want
you to think of it in these terms. This convention is a baby and we
must not choke this baby. You can't give a young baby a gallon of
castor oil the first week. It only requires castoria, that is all the
first week. It can stand with a little mother's milk, and I want you
to feel that way about it to-day." (Laughter and Applause.)
"Our first duty is beyond the shadow of a doubt to get this infant on
its legs, and once we get it on its legs, it will be like the mighty
Niagara Falls, there isn't anything in the world can dam it up. It
will be a power that shall be known, and with influence all over
America and for good all over the world. Let's be quiet and let's be
sensible to-day until we get this infant on his legs. He's just a
recruit, a raw recruit, and he has to be trained and we are going to
do that now.
"Gentlemen, I want to say just here, if you can only think about this
Legion--the chairman spoke of it last night to me--as the jewel of the
ages. I believe that is the best interpretation I know. I cannot say
anything greater than this: I believe God raised up America for this
great hour; I can say that the strong young man of the time is to be
the American Legion in this country and in the world.
"What the great seers of the past ages have dreamed and what they have
planned and longed for, the opportunity that they sought, have
suddenly been placed and in our hands. Are we going to be great men
and big men? Will we arise to the dignity and be worthy of the
occasion?
"I believe that we will. Oh, men, if I might make it plain to you
that it seems to me I stand on the very rim of creation and I am
speaking there to an angel who has never yet been able to see light. I
said: 'Angel, what are you doing here?' and he said: 'I was placed
here when God created this world'; and he said: 'God sent me to look
down upon this world and report to him at one special time, and that
one time only,' and I said: 'What was to be the nature of that
report?' He said: 'God made man in His own image and God Himself is a
being of knowledge, love, truth, democracy, and peace,' and He said to
that angel, 'Don't you ever leave that world until you see dawn, until
you see that man has come up to the place where he will begin to
measure up to what I expected of him,' and that angel said to me, 'I
have sat here through all the ages and I have seen times when I
thought that the sunlight of God's great knowledge and love and truth
was going to come over the hills and then some being like the Kaiser
or Alexander or Napoleon or some one that was of a Bolsheviki type
would rise up and retard it and the sun could never rise,' but he
said: 'Thank God on April 6, 1917, I reported back to God when America
entered this war that I had seen the dawn.' (Applause.)
"As little as you dream, maybe when you came here and as little as you
thought about it in the commitment of time, I believe to-day that we
stand on the dawn of the realization of the republic of man which is
nothing short of the Kingdom of God on earth when men shall be men."
(Applause.)
"So the first thing we are to do to-day is to get a great spirit, men,
a great spirit that we can carry back. All the other questions will be
ironed out in due time. Everything will be straightened out when we
realize that five million men are going to be organized with the same
spirit of love and loyalty and devotion and sacrifice and democracy
that characterized their lives on the battlefield. They will never
rest until they make this whole world bloom in love, democracy, peace
and prosperity and equality and brotherhood for all mankind. That is
what we are going to do and that is what this assembly means to-day.
It is the world's great opportunity and your privilege to share with
it.
"Now, then, I want to say that the soldier spirit is going to be my
spirit and I believe it is going to be your spirit. When Wilson and
the other men called us to the war, I was glad and ready immediately
to offer my life because of the great principle. I said to those men
last night in that Executive Committee and I mean it to-day, I'd
gladly lay down my life to-day if laying down my life meant that this
Legion should live and fulfill my dreams of its service to the
country for these next fifty years. (Applause.) So do you think I want
anything to come up here that would disrupt this body? Never! Do you
think I want to make a fiery speech about something because it is my
personal conviction? No, I have a hundred personal convictions that I
would like to see operating in the United States and this convention,
but it isn't the time and I am not going to bring them up here. I
don't want to say anything that will keep all of us from pulling
together like a military army for the great things that this
convention in the future is going to stand for. So my final word is
this: That this day, we get right down to business and that we omit
everything that we can omit pertaining to the permanent policy of this
organization that we cannot all immediately agree upon.
"If there is going to be anything discussed here to-day that everybody
in this convention won't immediately agree upon and would hinder us
from sending out to the nation word that we stand together and that we
are going to pull together, that we caught a mighty vision and that we
have gained the great spirit, then, brethren, let's carry that thing
over until November when all the boys come home and then we will
discuss it there. There are many things to-day that we can discuss
that are important and fundamental and that are urgently needed in
our nation this hour. Let's take those things up and get down to
business on it to-day. Every Executive Member from each State pledged
the chairman last night that he was going to act as a sergeant-at-arms
in his delegation and hold the convention in order to-day. We are
going to do the right thing and we won't be 'busted' by anything or by
anybody, and when anything comes up that isn't the right thing for us
to do to make a great impression on America, and the world, we will
say hold that thing over until the baby is strong enough to do it
right.
"I beg you to do those things. Somebody said: 'What are the things we
can do to-day?' We mentioned them last night.
"Jack Sullivan has problems out there that we must meet this very day.
One of those is this Bolsheviki business. We are going to pass
resolutions this very day, I believe, asking the United States in
Congress to pass a bill for immediate action of deporting every one of
those Bolsheviki or I.W.W.'s out yonder." (Prolonged Applause.)
"Gentlemen, I know what I am talking about. You don't know how badly I
do hate some of those guys. If it hadn't been for them I would have
gotten on the boat in Newport News in 1918 for France, but because of
those rotten scamps I was sent to Seattle, Washington, and had to
stay there for seven months guarding the interest of the shipbuilding
in the Western States.
"I was naturalization officer for our regiment and that division out
there and I have had those scamps stand up and say: 'Yes, I have been
here fourteen years and have lived on the fat of the land, but we
don't want to fight,' and they would deny citizenship papers or cancel
their first papers.
"Now that the war is over, they are in lucrative positions and our
boys haven't got jobs; we've got to say, send those scamps to hell."
(Prolonged Applause.)
"We can all see this very moment that there is no division on that
question. We stand together. Somebody said: 'Why, we have been here
two days and haven't done anything but elect officers and decide on a
place to meet. But let me tell you, Buddy, while we have been doing
those things, we have let the world know where we stand for
Americanism. (Applause.) And we couldn't have done a bigger thing than
create the impression we did relative to Mayor Thompson of Chicago and
the I.W.W.'s of Seattle. (Applause.) We can do that. We are agreed on
that. The baby can do that without any trouble at all and we are not
going to choke him when we start that kind of thing.
"The other question that we might decide here to-day is what we are
going to do about jobs for our returned soldiers. In my city we have
already said: 'Look here, man, you'd better post every job that is
open and post it in the place where we get employment for returned
soldiers. And they have gotten down to that. We want to talk about
that to-day and get down to business--the business of getting jobs for
our men, and then we want to care for those who come back without
money. We want to help them get their allotment and get their $60
bonus, and we want to care for the wounded.
"But these other things--excuse me, I can't help but say brethren,
because I am a preacher, but you are my brethren, I thank God you are
and I love you like I love the brethren of my church. There is some
fellow here who might want to spring something because he knows it
would be a lot of fun. Oh, brethren, let's not have any fun with the
baby to-day. (Laughter and Applause.) We have all we can do to-day. We
have all we can do if we do those things that we are all united upon
and agreed upon. Those things which may have what they call a nigger
in the woodpile, when they come up, let's say that is something we are
going to talk about later when the boys get home in November, when
everybody is settled down and we have thought it through and talked
about it in our State organizations and we will come up with
solidified ideas and the great spirit will have gripped us and we will
know where we stand and will know our power and strength.
"Brethren, I say let's cut out every last bit of hoodlumism to-day. It
is the zero hour. Let's stand together. If we don't carry anything
else home, let's go home and say we are for America, that we caught
the spirit and the vision and you can't stop us with anything in the
world. I thank you." (Audience rises and applauds.)
That speech has been given in full not only for the reasons which have
been stated before but because it is archtypical of the deep-seated,
serious, and high-minded soul of the New American, born of the war.
"Mr. Chairman, it seems that Illinois caught the spirit of the speaker
who has just seated himself, in advance."
Before the applause over Inzer's speech had ended and before we
realized it, Mr. Cummings of Illinois had the floor. He said that the
Illinois delegation had been ungracious in accepting Colonel Herbert's
explanation of his remarks the previous day.
"We wish to withdraw that implication," Mr. Cummings said. "We wish to
state to you as a solid Illinois delegation that we give full faith
and credit to the high, patriotic motive which prompted this gentleman
in making the speech to you which he did and in bringing before this
organization the question which he did. We feel on cooler deliberation
and upon giving the matter the thought which its importance demanded,
that he is helping us and that he has placed the American Legion in a
position to help us to move in a body politic, to overcome certain
things in the State of Illinois and blot out pro-Germanism.
[Illustration: Gaspar Bacon Treasurer]
Three State Chairmen
[Illustration: John F.J. Herbert Massachusetts
_Photo by Gray, Worcester, Mass_.]
[Illustration: Henry G. Mathewson California]
[Illustration: Cornelius W. Wickersham New York]
"I say that the American Legion is bigger than any man; it is bigger
than any State; it is bigger than any combination of States; it is the
unified action of the millions of men who were willing to sacrifice
their lives, their fortunes, their all on the altar of this country
for the cause of democracy, to make the world safe for democracy, and
they are going to help us make Illinois come to the front and clean
its skirts of the stigma which is attached. We know that you are going
to help us in it, and with the support of the American Legion, nothing
will stop us from cleaning our skirts, from washing our dirty linen at
home. When the next convention of the American Legion is held, as soon
as we have had an opportunity or the boys in khaki and blue have had
an opportunity to give an honest expression of views on the question
of Burgomaster Thompson, we will come through with clean skirts, we
will stand before you without a question as to the patriotism of the
great City of Chicago and the State of Illinois. We are for the
American Legion first, last, and all the time, and I will pledge
Illinois' seven hundred thousand soldiers who have gone to the front
for the colors in this organization to a man."
"... and clean its skirts of the stigma which is attached and we know
you are going to help us in it, for we will have the support of the
American Legion and with that support when the boys from over there
get back, nothing will stop us from cleaning our skirts...."
Attention is drawn specifically to that sentence, because it affords
an excellent opportunity to explain the difference between politics
and policies. The Legion has policies but it is not political. One
prime policy is the demand for one hundred per cent. Americanism.
Whoever or whatever cannot read that mark, be it Chicago's mayor or
the Seattle Soldier's Council, the Legion's caution is "measure up."
The Legion, _as the Legion_ will not go into municipal politics in
Chicago but the members of the various posts in that city like all
other Legion members stand for one hundred per cent, simon-pure
patriotism and regardless of party, he who does not "measure up" had
best beware. The Legion, as the Legion, never will endorse a political
party or a party's candidate for office. But it will have platforms,
it will have tenets, it will have principles. These platforms, tenets,
and principles will be seen, felt, heard, and heeded by the voters of
the United States. Furthermore, these platforms, tenets, and
principles will be supported regardless of political party, political
affiliations, or partisan sponsorship.