“...  It is going to be within your power to say yes or no to many of the great problems of the United States.”

The service men know this but coming from a man like Colonel Lindsley it is especially important.  How are they going to use this power?  What sort of a legislative program will the Legion have?  The answer isn’t hard to find by a perusal of the resolutions which were passed and by remembering that most important one which did not pass, viz.:  the pay grab.

The next resolution occupying the attention of the caucus was that one relating to disability of soldiers, sailors, and marines.  It reads: 

“BE IT RESOLVED:  That the delegates from the several States shall instruct their respective organizations to see that every disabled soldier, sailor, and marine be brought into contact with the Rehabilitation Department of the Federal Board at Washington, D.C., and,

“BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:  That the secretaries of the various states be instructed to write to the Federal Board for literature as to what it offers to disabled men, and that the members of the Legion be instructed to distribute this literature and to aid the wounded soldiers, sailors, and marines to take advantage of governmental assistance, and that every effort be made by the American Legion in the several States to stop any attempt to pauperize disabled men.”

The whole work of the Legion as outlined at the caucus is constructive and therefore inspiring.  The reader will note from the last resolution that members of the Legion are to be instructed to distribute the literature of the Rehabilitation Department among wounded soldiers, sailors, and marines and to show them how to take advantage of governmental assistance; and also that every effort will be made by the American Legion to stop any attempt to pauperize disabled men.

A higher-minded, more gentle resolve than that, can hardly be imagined.  All of us remember the host of begging cripples who were going the rounds of the country even so long as thirty-five or forty years after the Civil War.  This last resolution means that such will not be the case after this war.  I think that it would be safe to say that in nine cases out of ten, after the Legion gets thoroughly started, crippled beggars who pretend to have been wounded in the service of their country will be fakers.  Mr. Mott of Illinois, in the discussion on this question, brought out the fact that there were approximately sixty thousand soldiers, sailors, and marines permanently disabled as a result of wounds, accidents, and disease incurred in the war, while approximately one hundred and forty thousand discharged men were only more or less disabled.

The final resolution was that copies of all resolutions passed by the caucus were to be forwarded to every member of the United States Senate and each representative in Congress.