88 State Papers and Addresses

The Veterans' Commission, as you know, was given $90, 000 under this
Administration, for assisting our less fortunate comrades and their families:
for funeral expenses of such veterans and to provide compensation for members
of the National Guard who may be injured or killed in the line of duty.

After reference to "What I like most about the Legion, " when the call
went forth, for volunteers for the American Army for the World War, was
anyone rejected because of his creed, his color or his race? They were not!
One and all were accepted gladly, and, without exception, every race and color
and creed that comprise this great Country of ours, gave of their best, and
reflected glory upon their orgin.

On what basis, then, do special groups today reserve to themselves the
right to decide who, among their fellow-citizens, shall be allowed the full
enjoyment of their constitutional rights? Certainly, the American Legion
has never sponsored any such un-American, un-patriotic movements, and I
emphatically declare that there is no place in the American Legion for those
who would penalize special group of our countrymen for any reason other
than disloyalty to our Country. There is no place in the America we all love,
for such disruptive activities. As true Legionnaires, we must be ready at all
times to align ourselves against any effort to stir up class of racial feeling.
This Country is for all of us, not for any special groups. When we forget
that, when we begin to lose sight of the rights guaranteed all individuals
under our Constitution, then will America be on the Path to destruction and
ignominy. When the American Legion stands by and permits any such selfish
movements to succeed, the American Legion will have outlived the ideal upon
which it is founded, and will deserve to exist no longer.

TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONVENTION BANQUET
AMERICAN LEGION, DEPARTMENT OF MARYLAND

Emerson Hotel, August 24, 1939
Baltimore

AS Chief Executive of the State, it is my happy privilege to convey to the
American Legion, Department of Maryland, the greetings of the people of
Maryland. I welcome the opportunity to say to you that now, possibly more
than ever before in the history of our State, are we proud of, and grateful for
the American Legion, and the ideals of Americanism and toleration for which
it stands. For never, apparently, in our long history has the whole world
been more sadly lacking in just those priceless ideals of Americanism and
toleration. When we refer to the Legion, we of course include the Ladies
Auxiliary because of the important part played by its members in every ac-
tivity and undertaking.

When, slightly more than twenty years ago, (shortly after the close of
the Great War) a small group of ex-service men gathered together in Paris,
and decided to form an organization that would continue the associations of
the World War, and would perpetuate the ideals for which America took part
in that great struggle, they builded better than they knew. To their way of
thinking, perhaps, war was finally a thing of the past, because doubtless they