Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-05-25

That the instructions given to the
committee Of 60, which will today
launch the active campaign for the
Augusta quota in the American Le-
gion Five Million Dollar Endow-
ment Fund drive, by the chairman,
Rev. Henry e. Dunnack, to return
pledges for the entire $500 in the
first "a hours of the effort here, are
not impossible of realization, was
evidenced Saturday night when re-
port came from Berlin, N. H., to the
effect that the quota for that city
was raised twice over within the
first two hours of the soliciting. Ber-
Inns quota was $1,000 and the COM
mittee of citizens and Legionaires
obtained pledge cards for $4,000 with
in two hours of the time the fire
whistles had signalled the Jump off"
Today at noon luncheon in Le-
gion hall, Chairman Dunnack will
deliver his final charge to the Angus
ia campaigners, after which the 80
citizens and 80 Legionaires, divided
into six teams of ten men each will
go forth with the resolve to register
their objective during the first days
canvas.
All banks of the city have volun-
teered their services as repositories
for the endowment funds, and all
banks will receive subscriptions and
pledges. In advance of the active
general campaign which will not be
inaugurated until after the noon hour
today, it was announced last eve
ming that members of the James
Fitzgerald Post had already sub
scribed $347 of the Augusta quota
and this from the comrades who are
1<< - LII <rtx 1,.rf
ious to again do their bit for the
brave lads who are still fighting the
war with none of the glory or appro-
baton of the hero.
AS the last gun was fired on the
western front on that morning In
November of 1918, the world put
from it the memory of the night
mare of war. Men hoped and
thought, in the delirium of that hour,
of release, that the toll had been
taken, the debt paid-an dturned 10
their routine tasks. In their hurry
to do SO, they overlooked one signi-
ficant thing, the consequences of the
war branded deep into the very vitals
Of society.
The dread casualty lists of the war
fro mthe. front pages of the news
taken. The debt is not yet all paid
nor will be for many year to
come.
This very day Il more veterans
are dying because offheir service to
their country. And tomorrow will
add its Is to the grim and growing
list, and the day after tomorrow Is
and so on for crowdihg success
At the present time Mere are 49,
900 disabled veterans of the war
stretched upon beds Of pain in gov
eminent hospitals. And with every
day that passes, the number is
growing. Five hundred men are
borne in to take their places in this
comradeship of pain every week.
There are others, too, who are be-
ing added daily to the casualty list
Of the war. They are the orphaned
and dependent children of veterans.
There are 5000 of them now who are
not getting the attention and the
chance in life their fathers would
have given them but for their service
to the country. 1t is estimated that
$4,000 of them will be in need of help
by 1882. Several hundred are emer-
gency cases. Hungry. dirty, ragged,
neglected, without home and without
school, something must be done for
them now.
The general public has an oppor-
tunity to do its part for them. and
for the disabled veterans by contri-
buting to The American Legion's So
1000 endowment fund which is
now being raised throughout the
country.