that the wise man stays at home, and leaves the fools to take the buffets and kick of war.”  This danger can best be met by just such an organization as the G.A.R., with its campfires of song and story.  Comradeship, charity and patriotism—­these should be the Legion’s watchwords.

New Haven (Conn.) Union, April 16, 1919.—...  Its more immediate task, as its promoters see it, is to help the members and the families of members who maybe in need of assistance.  No comrade of the great struggle is to feel that he is forgotten and forsaken by the comrades who served the same great cause.  Its large and more permanent duty is to spread the sentiment of patriotism, to set an example of love of country, and unselfish service, to keep blooming always in the soldiers’ bosom the flower of sacrifice that springs from every soldier’s grave in France.

    Philadelphia Press, April 10, 1919.—­The organization of the
    soldiers of the late war into a permanent body is inevitable and
    entirely proper.

Capper’s Weekly, May 24, 1919.—­The American Legion organized at St. Louis is the new G.A.R. and through its platforms the views of the soldiers who fought in France will be heard.  It is already apparent what the trend of that sentiment is.  Whatever military system this nation sets up, if it meets the approval of the two million men who served the nation in the Great War, it will be democratic in spirit and as far as possible in form.  It will be an army in which the self-respect of the common soldier will be recognized.  The returning soldier has no use for anyone living here who is not wholly American, and is for expelling the unnaturalized alien wherever found.  Loyalty to the Nation is fundamental in the soldiers’ view.

The Nation must safeguard itself and make a distinction between citizens who offer themselves and their all, and citizens who, for whatever reason, withhold some part of their allegiance.  Brutal treatment of conscientious objectors is neither civilized nor necessary, but a differentiation is created by such residents themselves, and there should be corresponding differentiation in rights and protection.  This is one of the subjects that the returned soldiers have at heart.

Post Intelligencer, Seattle, Washington, May 21, 1919.—...  The American Legion will be a political force in the nation as it has a perfect right to be.  No organization of its character is to be held together by the cohesive power of reminiscence.  Something more binding is required, and that something will be forthcoming whether anyone outside the Legion likes it or not....

The American Legion will be made up of intelligent young men who will have a community interest and whose interest can only be furthered by united action.  They will know that nothing is more transient than public gratitude, and they