Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-06

My Fellow Countrymen:
It Is with a great deal of pleasure
that am able to meet here with the
American Legion.
/ hope may venture to claim, from
some years Of service during the Great
War, a measure of comradeship with
the men who fought in that war.
understand your variety of French per-
fectly. I know from intimate expert
ence, and intend to hold in confidence,
the first reaction you had from a
passing shell. and the homelike appear
'ance of shell holes under certain cir
cumstances. shall maintain secret
your opinion of those who profess in
difference to or the glory in passing
bullets, or insects, or the mud and
filth of the trenches, or days and weeks
In the wet and cold.
Glory Not in Heartbreaks.
The glories of war are not in the
heartbreaks Of passing buddies and the
thousand tragedies of the battle line.
Its glories do not lie in it's surround
ingS-they lie rather in the spirit, the
sacrifices, the devotion of those who go
cheerfully and courageously into the
trenches, and the ultimate triumph of
those lofty ideals for which they gave
their ALL
lived through that great common ex-
perience, who had engaged in supreme
adventure with death, should combine
into associations of lifelong comrade-
ship. Yet 1t was not alone the comrade-
ship of high adventure that inStinc-
lively called your organization into
being. 1t was the common understand
ing which war called forth, the common
experience from which sprang the
highest emotions of patriotism-that
shoulder to-shoulder companionship in
an idealism which TRANSPORTED mems
lives.
The millions who shared in that
experience came home from it rededi-
Gated to the further service of their
country. But great as was that service,
performed under impulse of the high
emotions of war, the service to the
great ideals of peace is ofttimeS even
more difficult and ofttirnes requires
more sustained courage. 1t was, there
fore, with deep sympathy that I wit
messed the birth of the American Legion
in France in 1919.
Preface to Citizenship.
At that memorable meeting you
sensed this high purpose and expressed
these lofty ideals of your peace-time
service in the preamble to your consti-
tuition, which reads in part:
TO uphold and defend the Constitu-
ton of the United States of America;
to maintain law and order; to inculcate
a sense of individual obligation to the
community, State. and Nation; to COM
bat the autocracy of both the classes
and the masses; to make right the
master Of might; to promote peace and
good VIII on earth; to safeguard and
transmit to posterity the principles of
justice, freedom. and democracy; to
conSecrate and sanctify our comrade-
ship by our devotion to mutual help
fulness."
That, indeed, is the real preface to
American citizenship.
Of these ideals and purposes, for ideal
ism must be translated into cold realism
OF the day-to-day task of citizenship.
At the moment you made that decla-
ration, you sensed an imperative ma
tional need. You foresaw that the
aftermath Of war would be a period. of
change, a period of disturbed mind, of
loosened moorings; a period when evil
forces among men might lead to vio-
lence and crime; a period which de-
manded understanding and wise re-
straint II the basis of all society and
all progress were to be maintained.
You realized that liberty and freedom
can be won on the battlefield, but they
can be held only by ordered govern
ment in peace. You realized, in fact,
that without ordered government the
very sacrifices which you had made,
the fruition OF your high hopes, your
endurance, your courage, might come
to naught.
Experience Shows Need.
Eleven years Of experience in our
own country and in every country en-
gagged In that waT have proved the need
OF that inspiration TO active citizenship.
It has been q period Of readjustment,
q period Of challenge to democratic
institutions, q time when the world
has had to contend with greater
mood Of violence Even today nearly
one-haf of the population of our globe
is In q state of great unrest or a state
Of revolution.
Among these ideals was: ITO promote
peace and good will upon earth" Those
indeed were courageous and conStruc-
tive words at the moment when the
guns had barely been silenced and the
fires Of hate were still burning f1ercely.
They were the words of brave men, OF
the soldiers from the trenches, men who
respected a courageous enemy, who in
clear vision saw that the future hope
of the world lay in good will, not in
hate. It was the real feeling OF men
who had fought and who knew the
dreadfulness of war.
In that statement you gave no glori-
fication to war. 1t was a pledge to
peace based upon freedom and justice,
and without this civilization itself must
fail It was a statement neither OF
pacifsm nor militarism.
Real peace in the world requires
something more than the documents
which we sign to terminate wars. Peace
requires unremitting, courageous cam
paigns, laid with strategy and carried
on successfully on a hundred fronts
and sustained in the spirit and from
the hearts of every individual in every
town and villagS of our country.
In the great iIitangibles OF human
emotion. respect Is inseparable from
good will. The maintenance OF re-
spect requires that we sustain pre-
paredness for defense that is i'm
pregnable yet that contains no threat
Of aggression.
Good VIII Required.
You have maintained that the de-
velopment Of good will also requires the
firm establishment Of confidence in our
sense of international justice. This be-
comes of double importance from US
because Of the overpowering strength OF
our country in its relations with many
nations. We haze to remember that
during the Great War we demonstrated
not only our military power but also
our ability TO quickly organize it and
the valor to use 1t. After the war the
disturbed condition of the world made
it necessary to increase our defense es-
tablished beyond the pre-war basis.
Above all, we made more rapid recov-
cry from the vast losses OF the Great
War than other nations in the world
Our national income has expanded TO
embrace more than one-third Of the
whole commercial world. AS a result