Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1919-12-24
WORLD WAR VEsTERA ANS
ORGANIZE AT SPICER
Speaker Makes Interesting Talk
Outlining Need and Purpose Of
Organization. e

.1@ - H. =.
The World War Veterans held d
mass meeting at Spicer on Wednesday
evening, December II, 1919, in the
NJ: w. A. Hall which all the boys who
live in the vicinity OF Spicer attended.
Also quite a number Of the town peo-
: pie who showed great interest in the
remarks Of the speaker.
There were two solos rendered by
the Misses Florence Nelson and Mable
Thorvig, respectively, which were very
enthusiastically received by the audi
ence. - :
Carl o. Parsons, business represen-
tative Headquarters Minneapolis,
Minn.,) was the speaker of the even
ing and spoke for an hour and half
on the purposes and aims of the
World War Veterans, and the audi
ence listened with the keenest inter-
est. Mr.. Parsons made a strong ap-
peal for American1sm, based on law
and order. He criticized severely. men
who take the law into their own hands
and do violence to those whom hap
pened to disagree with them. Mr..
Parsons stated he was very sorry to
state that in some cases these mobs
were led by members of the American
Legion. He appealed to the ex-service
men in Spicer, who formed a post
here of twenty-five honorably dis
chargeded men, to at all times live up
to the slogan of the World War Vet
Grams which was: 1.-THE Enforcement
of the Constitution of the United
States as it is written" and to pre-
serve law and order regardless of
what any other soldiers organization
may do. Mr.. Parsons spoke we'll of
the buddies in the American Legion
who joined the organization in the be-
ginning and did not realize that the
officers would try aud use them to
foist upon the American people uni
versal military service which COM
mittee is now in Washington, D. c.,
before a committee in Congress, ask
ing Congress to pass. The speaker
declared that it was question in his
mind if the buddies in the American
Legion wished to pass this kind of
legislation. The speaker showed
very clearly the danger of militarism
Now that we have made the world
safe for democracy and crushed the
military autocracy of the spiked he'll
met, we should keep it so.
He charged that financial pirates
of the United States looted the coun-
try of fourteen billion dollars while
our boys were in the service for $50
per month. He said according to our
congressional records we created some
$4,000 new millionaires. When the
World War Veterans called this to the
attention of the delegates of the Am
erican Legion in the convention at
Minneapolis and asked for the floor
of that convention, the chairman, Ben
L. Lindsey refused, and passed it over
to the resolution committee When
Lester P. Barlow, appeared before
this committee and asked to have a
resolution passed to censure the pro-
fiteers, he was howled down and told
he was in the pay of Hearst.
The Spicer meeting was a great sue
cess and all the boys in Spicer and
vicinity are now members of the
World War Veteran Post.
The following officers were elected
for six months: F. G. Banker, presi-
dent; Louis Thorvig, vice president;
A. J. Kloster, secretary; Melvin Pauls-
ness, treasurer; Joe Thorvig, business
representative; John Boreen, sergeant
at arms. Norman Christianson, Jack
Martinson and Oscar Oman were elect
ed trustees.