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.”