“The service man wishes to take care of himself and his own.  It is for the service man to handle his own problems and I suggest as an amendment—­I am not sure of my being in order in offering an amendment to an amended amendment, but I suggest that it be the sense of this meeting that Congress assist the American Legion in taking care of its own in the matter of employment and that it do not use civilians to do the work.” (Applause.)

The motion was seconded.

MR. HILL (of Pennsylvania):  “The original resolution that is before the convention, I am frank to say, has been forwarded to me by a soldier from Allegheny County, who walked the streets of Pittsburgh for eight or nine weeks pleading this principle.  A resolution adopted by the Mothers of Democracy was sufficient for him to get back his job, because he held a position as a county employee of Allegheny County and he invoked this principle and vitalized every military organization in Allegheny County, and by means of that he got back his job and his back salary and his mother’s allowance which was cut off since January 1, 1918.  This resolution was originally presented by me as a member of the National Resolutions Committee from the State of Pennsylvania.  The National Resolutions Committee appointed a subcommittee of which I was a member, a committee of three, to consider this and refer it back to the National Resolutions Committee.  That committee passed favorably upon it and the National Resolutions Committee passed it.

“Now, if that resolution, as it stands before the house, was sufficient to get a job back for him, playing almost a lone hand, surely it is sufficient for any man here or for, this American Legion, for all it provides for, and all that is necessary to be done is the simple patriotism with the American Legion in back of it which can place its hands on the shoulder of any substantial employer and say, ‘Do you wish to rectify yourself on this thing called “patriotism?"’ Do you wish to give the soldier back his job who presents to you a meritorious case?  We give you a chance.  If you do not take it we will publish this thing and you will go down to contumely and stultification.”

MR. KNOX:  “Gentlemen, I am speaking on behalf of the Resolutions Committee.  We spent all day yesterday listening to such requests as this.  Our final calculated judgment is represented in the resolutions as presented.  We found in the discussion that there was opposition to an endorsement of the United States Federal replacement division.  (Applause.) And so we determined that the language as adopted covered the cast.  We proposed to create in this organization a reemployment bureau of our own, and the resolution as presented is all the support that bureau needs.

“I move you, sir, that all the substitutes for the original resolution be laid on the table.”

The motion was seconded.

MR. BENNETT CLARK:  “I simply want to call attention to the fact that under the rules of the House of Representatives that if you lay all amendments on the table it carries the entire proposition to the table and I don’t believe this convention wants to do that.”