Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1919-08-09
WHAT THE PRESS @ IS SAYING ABOUT
 AMERICAN LEGION
KEEPING THE LEGION OUT OF
 POITICS

KEEPING THE LEGION OUT OF
 POITICS
 Something like three million young Americans, all voters, will be eligible to membership in the American Leg ion, and if one may figure anything from the. development of the G. A. R. after the Civil War, nearly all will join. The great caucus at St. Louis is over. The desirability of keeping the movement out of politics was ap- narant there to most of the active or ganizers, to Col. Roosevelt, Republican, who refused to stand for president for that reason, to Colonel Bennett Clark, son of the Democratic Speaker of the last House of Representatives.
 Now Colonel Roosevelt says: "A certain gentlemen had violated the ethics of the Legion in falsifying the actual facts. There was no poll taken, though St. Louis newspaper sent the blanks to us for this purpose. A mo- tion stopped this intended action, and not blank was filled out.
 There were two big things that stood out in the caucus. These were the unanimous rejection of Chicago as convention city, because of its mayor and the unanimous rejection of any proposals that would give soldiers in creased pay .. So, you see, the American Legion is not for the soldier but for the benefit of the country.
 Distinctly this is the right spirit. A great organization of veterans was inevitable. If it can be formed at a convention in Minneapolis, November 10, II and 12, and held to the lines laid down by Colonel Roosevelt, it may become one of the most useful forces in the American civilization that is to come.
 Anniston Star, Anniston, Ala.
 The American Legion is demo- cratic organization in every sense of the word. There may have been eastes in the army, and certain dis tinctions !were considered necessary to dicipline. But militarism is for eign to American ideals and institu- tiOns, and it cannot permanently survive. The Legion will help to bury it and it's false standards, and will strive for permananent peace with honor. At the same time its members will fight Bolshevism, anarchy and other un-American doctrines, and they will band them selves together for mutual helpful ness and comradship, to recall and to cherish the memories that have been recorder in blood and sacrifice. 1t Twill take up the fight for social and political justice where the Con federate veterans and the Grand Army of the Republic leave off, and in the hands of men who potential Nv laid their all on the altar of their country the future of this republic may be presumed to be safe.
 Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.
 Used wisely, the influence which the new American Legion promises to wield augurs i'll for such tenden- cies of these upturned times as are not footed firmly in ideals of un- qualified Americanism.
 As civilian organization of 4,OOO 1000 ,000 men who, under the dis cipline of war, constituted history's most effective fighting machine, the power effectively to combat whatever encounters. Its net strength will lie in the degree in which it has leader ship-leadership inspired and farsee- ing.
 Observerers of the St. Louis cacus at which the Legion was born report that the first great gathering of vet erans-soldiers, sailors and marines was singularly free from radical in fiuences. The outcome- of that meet ing was a set of broad policies which indicate plainly that the Legion has leaders. And quite logically, when it is considered that the American sol dier, from the day his uniform is don ned, is trained toward one goal-that of leadership.
 Ell Paso Herald, Fl Paso, Tex.
 Fl Paso also has war veterans association and it also has con- stitution embodying the highest principles for which our government and people stand. Organizations of the same kind have sprung up through out the country wherever number of men have returned from the army, navy and marine corps and their pur- pose IS the same, to oppose bolshe- yism, keep patriotism alive, uphold the government and inculcate the doc trines of liberty, justice and democ- racy.
 All these organizations have mer- ged into the national body known as the American Legion. The conven- tion the Legion held recently in St. Louis was one of the most remark able the country ever saw. Politics had no place in it. Democrats and Republicans, Prohibitionists and men of no party worked together with no thought of party. They did not meet to see what they could get out of the government but what they could do to strengthen the country and make it better. It was a gathering dominated by nothing but patriotism, as unself- ish as patriotism must always be and the vigorous utterances that came from it spoke the convictions of 5000 900 war tried Americans who will be in the years to come, the rock foun-