The Washington herald., 1919-04-27

The majority of the National Guard
and Reserve officers who thus hap
pened to be together for an official pur-
pose had long shared with thousands
of other soldiers of the American
forces the hope and desire that the
officers and men who are about to re-
turn to civil life after serving in the
present war. whether with the COM
bat units, in the Service of Supply or
at home. might sooner or later be
united into one permanent. nation
wide organization. similar in general
character to the Grand Army of the
Republic or the United Confederate
Veterans. and composed of all parties.
all creeds and all ranks. who wish to
perpetuate the relationships formed
while in the military service
They appreciated that one of the
principal obstacles to the initiation OF
such n movement was the difficulty of
assembling at one time and in the
same place a gathering of individuals
who would be even approximately rep
resentative of the whole army.
Therefore it appeared to them that
the fact of their presence in Paris pre-
scented an unusual opportunity to ini-
tiate the first steps of such a move
likely to be repeated and which they
ought not to let slip. Several meet
ings were held by them during the
recesses between their official con-
ferences to consider the situation.
It was finally decided that although
they were by no means either widely
chosen enough or sufficiently numer-
Gus to warrant their actually launch
ing an organization, they were never
theless representative enough to make
it proper for them to act as a tempo
rary committee for the gathering to-
gether from the whole army a body
of several hundred national guard ana
reserve officers and enlisted men who
would be of a character to command
the confidence and support of all off,
GERS and men from all States and all
units. and who would act as deputies
from the A. f. F. to a caucus for
the discussion and formulation of
tentative arrangements which might
later result in creating a satisfactory
permanent organization.
1t was assumed that one among the
duties of such a caucus would be to
study the possibility of a tentative
constitution. to consider a name for
the organization and to make ar
rangements whereby all units and all
territories could duly elect delegates
to a great convection which woud be
clothed with full power and authority
to- adopt. modify or reject the tenta-
tive steps taken by the caucus.
In accordance with these ideas the
National Guard and reserve officers
present constituted themselves a tenn
porary committee to act until sucb
time as the larger and more represent
tative caucus could be convened and
elected Lieut.. Roosevelt as tenn
porary chairman and Mai. Eric
Fisher Wood as temporary secretary.
A subcommittee composed of Lieut. :
Col. Clark. Maj. Cole and Mai. Wood
was appointed to receive from all
the members OF the temporary COM
mittee the names of such individual
officers of the A. E. F. as are admit
tedly leaders of their units and as
are likely to be available in order
that these might be urged to attend
a caucus comprising three midday
meetings to be held in Paris on March
10, 16 and II.
Accordingly such a meeting, at
tended by about 500 officers and
enlisted men of the American Ex-
peditionary Forces. was held in
Paris on the date scheduled and an |
organization committee. with Lieut.
Col Bennett c. Clark as chairman,
xak duly elected Mai. Wood was
continued in office as secretary of |
the organization.
Meanwhile Lieut.-CoI. Roosevelt |
had been returned to the United |
states and charged with creating an /
organization OF similar character |
on this side of the Atlantic. In