of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 91

an organization that now numbers within its ranks more than 11, 000 separate
posts.

"For God and Country, " to quote from this Preamble, "We associate our-
selves together for the following purposes: to uphold and defend the Constitu-
tion of the United States of America; to foster and perpetuate a one hundred
per cent Americanism; to inculcate a sense of individual obligation to the
Community, State and Nation; to safeguard and transmit to posterity the
principles of justice, freedom and democracy. "

How well the Legion is doing the work it has set apart for itself, perhaps
not everyone realizes fully. Interested as we are in our posts, we take a lively
part in seeking to achieve the particular objectives set up by our own post
officers, and we try to the best of our ability to spread the gospel of true
Americanism, and of resistance to disloyal preachments and activities. Pome-
times we may not realize how important this individual striving of ours may
be; sometimes it may seem relatively unimportant to us that we have been
able to uproot, in someone's mind, the damaging seed planted there by adverse
propaganda. Sometimes it may even seem like trying to hold back the waves
of the ocean with a tiny barrier of sand when we strive, by our efforts with
the younger generation, to build them up into good citizens, and to render
their minds less fertile soil for disloyal doctrines that assail them on many
sides.

If ever we are tempted to underrate the achievements of the American
Legion on behalf of God and Country, because we can see only our own efforts,
we have only to remember that, although we are but part of the Legion, yet
anything we are able to accomplish that in any way furthers the interest and
insures the continued security of our country, is multiplied more than 11, 000
times in the activities of all the Posts of the Legion. Even the smallest re-
sults assume gigantic proportions when multiplied 11, 000 times!

What I like possibly more than any other one thing about the American
Legion is that it is truly American, in the broadest sense of the word. It is
NOT an association of Easterners, or Southerners, or Westerners, or North-
erners, working fox 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 all-American organization in
which every decent, patriotic American who has rallied to his country's assist-
ance is eligible and welcome: It is an organization where white and colored,
Gentile and Jew, where persons of every denomination and no denomination
mingle on an equal basis, and work towards a common good. After all, every
one of those diverse elements was represented in the throngs that once respond-
ed 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 has assumed a tremendous significance in the life, and for
the future, of our Country that it never could have assumed during the earlier
years of its existence, because there was not the need then for the influence
of the Legion that there is now. The American Legion today is 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
groups and individuals will seek to impose upon us, unless we keep everlast-
ingly upon our guard.