The Connecticut labor news., 1921-08-26
ASK CONGRESS TO ANNUL CHARTER OF
 AMERICAN LEGION
Private Soldiers Declare It Support ed By Tainted Money and Un-
 fair to All Other Interests.

CaustiC charges against the American Legion, to the effect that it is supported by tained money, dominated by selfish | leaders and IS unfair to the rank and file of the soldiers and antagonistic to all workers, are made in a petition filed with Congress this week by the Private Soldiers and Sailors Union, in which Congress Is asked to cancel the charter | given to the American Legion! The peti- tiOn was presented by Senator Borah by request and at his request was ordered printed 1n the Congressional Record so that all members of both Houses might study it before it comes up for action l The petitioners do not nince words in their charges, which are as follows: To the Senate and House of Representa-
 tives of the United States of America
 in Congress assembled:
 On September 16. 1919, the Congress, l by special enactment, granted a charter to group of men and their successors | empowering them to organize an aSSo- | citation of veterans of the World War under the name of the American Legion. | By reason of the possession of this special charter and because the organi- gers had been furnished by interests which have never been revealed with practically unlimited funds, the Ameri- | can Legion has come to be considered by the general public as an organiza- l tion voicing the spirit and aspiration of | all former service men. Even since it's organization the men in control of the American Legion have wrongfully as sumed to represent the great body of veterans of the World War in matter of legislation, of public policy, and in many questions in which those leaders are per sonally interested, but about which the | body of veterans as a whole care noth- i ing. These leaders have become so overbearing and inso1ent in their as ! sumptiOns that they are now, and for some time have been, presuming to give voice t6 the opinions of all former ser vice men-those who do not belong to the American Legion as well as those who do. Their conduct in this regard | has gone to such lengths that we feel that 1t has become incumbent on us to acquaint you, as the hartering power, with the actual facts.
 The real situation is this: A group of silk -stockinged officers met in France and determined on the formation of an association of veterans. Shortly there after, at time when the Army was rapidly returning to the United States, a committee of hand-picked, self-consti- tutd former officers, carrying out the 1 line of action which had been determined on at the preliminary meeting in France, | opened offices in New York and procured | from unknown sources some hundreds | of thousands of dollars. to be used III l furtherance of their ends. This com 1 mittee prepared the constitution and by 1 laws for the proposed organization, 1 which was to be known as the American Legion. and arranged for a meeting in ! St. Louis. at which the constitution and 1 bylaws Were to be adopted and the l American Legion launched. This same 1 New York committee supervised the se- | lection of delegates to the St. Louis meeting by calling on the draft boards throughout the United States to hold meetings of former service men at which the delegates were to be selected. In each instance these metings were re- stricted in their choice of delegates to officers of the rank specified by the New l York committee.
 | By the terms of the charter of the l American Legion and its constitution and | bylaws it's first officers were selected by | the organizers, and the successors of these officers are still chosen by the same | self-constituted interests on a self-per- petuating basis.
 l We charge:
 l l. That the organizers and present | officers of the American Legion organ 1 ized 1t with tainted money, for the pur- pose of giving the men who placed them selves in it's control an opportunity of misrepresentng the wishes and desires | of former service men wherever such wishes and desires cashed with those of the unknown men who had furnished the money, and who are the real power be- hind the Legion.
 | 2 That the present officers of the l American Legion have no authority
 speak for the rank and file of veterans, either within or without the Legion.
 }. That the present officers of the Legion are receiving and paying out to 1 themselves vast sums of money Tn Sala- ries and expenses, ostensibly because of the services they are rendering to for mer service men, when, in truth, their services and activities are not Tn the 1n- terest of the veterans but of the hidden group of men who furnished the secret funds for its organization.
 4. That notwithstanding a clear and unequivoca1 provision in the law grant ing the American Leg ion its charter to the effect that financial statement must be annually filed with Congress, no such statement has ever yet been filed.
 5. That in carrying out the Orders of the unkOnWn interests who furnished the funds for its organization the present officers of the American Legion have in stigated and melted lawlessness in nu. merOuS instances. An examination Ot the facts in the cases of Arthur Clark, Carpenteria. Calif: Frederick Refs, Jr Cincinnati; Kate O'Hara, Minot, N. Dak.; former Senator J. Ralph Burton and Prof. Wilson. at Ellinwood, Kans.- to mention only few of these instances will convince all fair-mnded men that the perpetrators of these Outrages should not be permitted to hide their ofenses behind a Federal charter.
 6. That the leaders of the American Legion have pursued the settled. uniform policy of interfering with and dictating to public schools and colleges; churches newspapers, public meetings. political as senblies. officers charged with the pre- servation of the public peace and all per sons and all activities which in any way threatened to endanger the interests of the secret financial packers of the Le- eion and they still pursue this policy underth ecloak of their Federal charter and without any authorization from the body of their members.
 7. That from the day of its organi- zation the attitude of the officers of the American Legion toward labor. and eSpe- | cIaii, toward oroapized 1obOr hoe haa,