Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-09-02
WAR VETERANS
PLAN FOR FIRST
STATE MEETINGS
270 American Legion Posts to
Send Delegates Here
Early Next Month

tohiHenl 10 ne nelu mere oCloDer Z, d
and 4. Two hundred and seventy
posts are eligible for representation.
The sessions of the convention will be
held in the Penn Harris Hotel.
Governor William c. Sproul will Of
fcially welcome the returned soldiers,
sailors and marines on behalf of the
Commonwealth. The freedom of the
city of Harrisburg will be extended
by Mayor Daniel Keister Major Gen
eral William G. Price, Jr.. command
chief of the National Guard of
Pennsylvania, member of the ma
tional executive committee of the
American Legion from Pennsylvania.
who was present at the Paris caucus
on March II. 1919, when the American
Legion was formed, will be one of the
speakers.
During the next week each of the
posts in the State will elect their
delegates to the State convention.
Each post is entitled to delegate
and an alternate, and an additional
delegate and alternate for each one
hundred members. Since its organi-
zation in the latter part of May the
legion has grown with leaps and
bounds. so that Pennsylvania stands
to-day the second in Importance in
the States of the Union. being sur
passed only by New York.
Tentative Program Announced
The tentative program for the con-
Vention, as announced by Paul ]. Nc
Gahan. the State publicity officer. has
been arranged with the idea of Civ
ing the delegates the utmost free
dom of action. The morning of
Thursday, October 2, will be given
over to registration and valuation of
credentials. The first session of the
convention will be held in the after
noon. chairman and a secretary
for the convention first will be chosen.
Then the program for the convention
will be adopted and the various COM
mittees named. An elaborate enter
tainment is planned for the evening.
On the morning of Friday October
3, there will be meeting of the
State executive committee and of the
other committees of the convention.
In the afternoon these committees will
report and their reports will be acted
upon. That night there will be an
other entertainment.
Final reports will be submitted by
the committees on Saturday morning.
October 4. Then will follow the cleo
IlOH Oh utItSSleSI dlleIIultS ana uelS-
gates at large to the National con-
vention to be held at Minneapolis on
November 10, IL and II.
state Delegates AppOrtiOned
1t has been officially announced
that Pennsylvania will be entitled to
four delegates and alternates to the
National convention under the con-
stitution and to one delegate and one
alternate for each one thousand men,
berships paid up thirty days before
the National convention. In addition
to these delegates and alternates au-
thorized by the constitution of the
American Legion, a number of dele
gates-at-la equal to twice the
United States Senate and House of
Representa- tives representation. is au-
thorized. But this latter class will
not have any vote at the National
convention. This insures, however,
that Pennsylvania will have one of
the principal delegates to the great
Minneapolis assemblage, where the
American Legion will officially be
launched as the great body of Veter-
ans of the war now reaching it's con-
clusion.
The direct result of the State con-
vention will be the elimination of
the volunteer workers who have car
ried the organization of the Ameri-
can Legion forward in this State.
Their work having been completed
to the point of making the convention
possible, the first action will be to
turn the convention over to the dele
gates representing the membership
at large.
War Risk Insurance Favored
Each post during the present week
N,sf of 1ttff f.,t,
adopted by the National executive
committee on the question of War
Risk insurance. This is being sent
out by G.. -Aertsen, Jr, the State sec
Ietary. Each post is requested to
take prompt action on this most i'm
portant subject and to communicate
with the Congressman and Senators
from Pennsylvania relative to it.
The letter is as follows:
There has been introduced in Con-
gress a bill known as the Sweet bill
II. r. S2SS. which amends the War
Risk insurance act. This bill pro-
poses four changes of major import
ance in the present law. These are:
Cd An increase in the period of
automatic insurance. (This amend
"on who entered the service prior to
November II, 1918, for 120 days after
entrance in the active service)
CD An increase in the basis of
awards III compensation cases of S6J
when disability is total and tempor-
AIRY, and to 500 when the disability
is total and permanent.
(3) An increase in the class of
beneficiaries of insurance to include
uncles, aur.s, nieces, nephews, broth
sisters-in-law, and persons
in loco PARENTS.
(4 The payment of converted in
surance, at the election of the insured
either in one lump sum, or in sc or
more instalments.
1t is believed by the National execu-
tive committee of the American Le-
gion, that the proposed amendments
should pass and that in addition
thereto the law should he amended a :
follows:
% TO permits lump sum payments
Tor term insurance as well as for con-
verted insurance, and to place term
insurance exactly on the same basis,
as to payments, as converted insur-
ance thus enabling a man who can
not now afford to convert his insur
ance to have the same advantage as
the man who is able to immediately
convert
1t is requested that each local most
of the American Legion write its
Congressman and also it's United
states Senator, urging the passage of
the Sweet bill and also urging that
the law be further amended so as to
place term insurance exactly on the
same basis, as to payments, as con-
Verted insurance.