90

State Papers and Addresses

interest. It is a topic that, I am sure, has been in the minds of thousands of
our fellow countrymen at one time or another during these past months, as
they read what has been happening in Europe, watched weaker nations crushed
beneath the might of ruthless neighbors, and no doubt sometimes wondered
whether something might not threaten even our own land of the Free.

There is so much that could be dwelt upon by anyone who attempted to do
justice to the American Legion's worth to America, that I shall touch only the
high spots as I attempt to review briefly some of the outstanding contributions
that have been made, and are being made, by the Legion to America's security
and national well-being.

I believe I could come close to summing up the Legion's meaning to
America by telling you, of one new member of the Legion who told me why he
had come to seek membership with our organization. He never had any idea
of joining, he said, until a day several years ago when he stood for hours on
the sidewalks of New York City, and was thrilled, to the very depths of his
being, by the thousands upon thousands of Legionnaires, who, hour after hour,
marched proudly by, under the combined banners of America and the Legion,
as the climax to the greatest national convention the Legion ever held.

"It was a sight 111 never forget, " this man told me, "There I stood, hour
upon hour, " he said, "unable to tear myself away, even though I was supposed
to be in New York on business, and had plenty to keep me going every minute.
Good Heavens! Will they never stop coming?" he said to himself after the
first few hours. "God in Heaven, don't let them stop coming, " was the way
he put it, hours later, when the sun began to fade behind the skyscrapers, and
the first shadows of evening descended, while still the marching ranks came
on and on.

As first one State and then another sent its representation down the
Avenue, the thought came to him, he said, that before his very eyes, was all
the answer anyone would ever need to any threats that could be made against
America—that here was ample warning to all the world that America never
again would be caught unprepared.

"What more salutary punishment could be conceived?" he asked himself,
as he watched the endless array of marchers, "for the Communist or any
member of a disloyal breed, than to be compelled to stand on the sidelines
for an American Legion Parade, and see for himself what an insurmountable
obstacle there is to any subversive doctrine or activity that might dare to raise
its head against us?"

One of the first things he did on his return from New York was to apply
for membership in the Legion. He couldn't wait to be part of that bulwark of
American manhood, even though it has taken him nearly twenty years to
make up his mind. And it took the realization of what the American Legion
has come to mean to America, to persuade him finally to pitch in and assume
his share of the burden that, as he put it, "every real American must be pre-
pared to carry if he has sense enough to value properly his free American
citizenship, and if he has love enough for his children to wish to turn the
country over to them in at least as good shape as it came to him. "

In seeking to arrive at any valuation of the American Legion to the
United States, we need but to refer to the Preamble to the Legion's Constitu-
tion to get a clear understanding of the motives of patriotism and service
to country that promoted the formation of this great patriotic organization—