Arizona republican., 1920-05-11
AMERICAN LECION'S MEMBERSHIP PUSH
 WILL BE DIFFERENT

The American legron will hold
 campaign for new members the week
 or May 17-22 that will be different
 The great American public, which
 has been the "drivee" in so many in
 tensive efforts of the last several years
 has cultivated a fine taste in cam paigns- It has come to be able to spot
 good drive from one that is poorly
 handled. It can distinguish points of
 variety in campaign. It has become connoiSseur in appeal
 The public, then, will be quick to recognize the essential difference of this American legion effort.
 In the first place, it is not a drive
 but push. Back in the dim days of the early war publicity experts bor- roWed the word drive from the slang of the day. Everyone who went out after something fell into the easy habit of calling his campaign a drive. Then, when it came time for the men Who really knew what a war drive" was to go out after new members for their legion, they found that the word drive" was as punchless as a blank cartridge. They had to dig themselves up a new word So they called their campaign a push; which is a great deal like a drive" except that it goes farther in implying relentless effort 1 and resistless force.
 A feature that the great general ! public should be quick to realize is that they, members of the public, will | not be called on to contribute anything l except good will. Positively no money | contributions will be expected or re- | ceived from them. They will be ex- l pected to exhibit their friendship, but 1 not their checkbook.
 Only some three million men are eligible to take active benefit of the 1 legion campaign. The organization now has enrolled more than million and half former service men and women, leaving some three million 1 who can belong but who do not.
 The push. then, is aimed directly | at this majority. All of the combined efforts of the million and a half of their fellows will be devoted to bring ing the absent into the fold. Which means that every 1egionnaire will have to take on and convince two comrades.
 Only about one man in twenty is eligible to join the legion. It is per fectly safe to say that hundreds of ! thusands of loyal Americans would give a good deal if they were eligible. by reason of active army. navy or marine corps service, to come into the legion. But they cannot, and it is only the three million who are privileged to take advantage of the push.
 But the legion has no intention of passing up the general public, simply because 1t is not asking anything from the public. The legion keenly desires to interest every American in it's push because it believes it is to every Americans interest to be interested, which is not as ambiguous as it
 While only one American in twenty may be privileged to come into the 1 legion, every American must support, in his heart. the legion's platform, For God and Country Leaders in every field of American life have glad ly and spontaneously indorsed the Iegion's aspirations. It is widely rec ognized, although less than fifteen old, as the greatest force for the established order in these United States.
 That the general public feels that this is true is shown by the way prom nent citizens have come forward to end their aid. General Pershing has endorsed the campaign and urged elig- ble army men to join the legion. Lieut.. Gen. Robert Lee Bullard. com handing the department of the east. las included the same recognition in general orders.
 Various welfare and civic organiza- ions have endorsed the push" and nave volunteered to lend speakers and equipment to help make it q success. So the general public shows that it re- fuses to stay out. If a citizen cannot come in himself he intends to do his part to see that the eligible men do come in
 The legion intends making special sfforts to capture those men-and there are hundreds of thousands of -hem-who have every facility for joining a post, but who are the vic inns of inertia. These men-and gomen-know they are eligible to be- eome legionnaires; they approve the egion's principles; they have always intended coming in, but they have sim ply put off doing so for the same req ion of inertia that keeps men from aking out enough insurance or mak ng their wills.
 They belong in, and they know it. The legion plans to get them by back ng them into figurative corner, flashing and application blank in their aces and painlessly extracting their James and dollars
 Efforts also will be made to get Irrnv. navy and marine corps men who re eligible. Posts located near camps re expected to actively go out after hese fellows Another special sortie will be made against collegians, espe- iaiIy members of faculties.
 The nationwide push is expected O reach men in the most inaccessible ,Iaces Any fifteen ex-Seryice men an form their own post by getting ogether and applying to national for application blanks. f is believed that no locality is so hinly settled that it cannot scare up ifteen former fighters, who can band ogether for social and legion pur- oses.
 Incidentally, the campaign will reach nto the far corners of the earth. AL eady the legion has posts in fourteen oreign countries, and these outposts f Americanfsm are expected to join I the 'push" and extend the legion's rontiers.l