of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 59

NOT an association of Easterners, or Southerners, or Westerners, or Northern-
ers, working for the advancement or the security of any particular section of
the country. It is NOT an organization dedicated to the good of any one
color, or nationality, or creed. Rather it is an American organization in which
every decent, patriotic American who has rallied to his country's assistance
is eligible and welcome—it is an organization where white and colored, Gentile
and Jew-—where persons of all denominations mingle on an equal basis and
work towards a common good, just as all those separate elements once re-
sponded with equal ardor and love of country, and fought together that the
ideals of democracy upon which this country is founded might be preserved
to the world.

Today, with the War that was to end all wars twenty years behind us, the
American Legion assumes a tremendous significance in the life, and for the
future, of our country that it could never have assumed during the earlier
years of its existence, because then there was not the need for the influence
of the Legion that there is today.

Fortunate are we, indeed, that we are not situated as are the nations of
Europe, with enemies or potential enemies crowding our borders, and with our
thickly populated cities open to devastating assault from the air by almost any
nation on the continent that might find it to their interest to declare war upon
us. Fortunate, indeed, are we to have as a neighbor to the North a country
like Canada, whose outlook on life is similar to ours, a country which seeks
nothing that we possess, just as we seek nothing that she possesses.

Fortunate as we are in such respects, however, let us not deceive our-
selves that we are entirely free from the dangers of one kind or another that
menace practically every nation in the world at the moment. Wherever trouble
has spouted, it did not just happen overnight, without any apparent reason.
In each of the countries where totalitarian doctrines now rule, for instance,
there were subversive forces at work for months and even years before the
final explosion took place, sowing the seeds of discord, preparing the field for
the crop of distrust and violent dissatisfaction that always precede the over-
turning of an established government. Don't let us try to deceive ourselves
that we are free from such disturbing influences.

These forces are busily at work in our own country today, and they have
made great progress during the past ten years, feeding upon the deprivations
and miseries that resulted from the business depression of 1929. We read
about them continually, we learn about them to our sorrow sometimes after
we see the result of their efforts in disastrous strikes, in sabotage aboard our
ships, in subversive campaigns that are carried on within our schools and col-
leges, sometimes cleverly financed by our own public funds. We must be vigi-
lant, now more than ever before in the history of these United States, to
detect and stop such movements before they can accomplish their aims. Gladly
do I acclaim the American Legion as one of the most potent of the means at
our command to fight the good fight of Democracy and free institutions,
against the "All for the State" policy that self-seeking individuals and groups
will impose upon us unless we keep everlastingly upon our guard.

Tonight, as Legionnaire, and as the Chief Executive of a great State that
as much as any of the States of the Union, has valued and fought for its
priceless heritage of freedom—a state that has resolutely and continuously