privilege.

"I would like, if possible," he said, "to have the attention for a few
minutes of every man that is in this theater. Intentionally or
otherwise, and I think it was otherwise, the soldiers of Illinois have
felt that I was not just to them in the remarks that I made bearing on
the report of the Committee on the Next Meeting Place. I meant to say,
and I believe now that I did say, that if those banners that were hung
in this theater had read, 'American Legion, Chicago's _soldiers_
invite you next November.' Massachusetts' answer would have been
'Yes.' I believe I said that. The men of Illinois believe I did not
say it. The men of Illinois believe that when I sat down after making
the few remarks I did, that I had a sardonic smile on my lips and they
say that I have insulted them to the heart and I say to them: 'If
there is anything that I can say, anything that I can do, as soldier
to soldier to remove from your mind, or from the minds of any man who
may have been in this theater, any belief that there was any feeling
except of highest admiration, the highest respect, and the deepest
affection on the part of the soldiers of Massachusetts for the
soldiers of Illinois, then I want to correct that impression, because
I want you, the soldiers of Illinois, to know that we recognize in
Massachusetts that no better soldiers wore the khaki, no better
sailors wore the blue, than the men of Illinois. My remarks were, as I
stated, for the purpose of saying Massachusetts would, if no other
State would, take such action to rebuke the city of Chicago; would say
to Chicago that if it would have the right to invite Americans to meet
in that city, first Americanize the City Hall. That was my chief
purpose of rising to my feet. If Chicago's soldiers, if Illinois'
soldiers still think that I have not made reparation for what they
believe was the intention of my remarks, then I say to them that no
higher respect, no deeper affection exists for them than in the hearts
of the men of Massachusetts."

Colonel Herbert's assault upon Chicago's mayor in itself is only half
significant. It is only wholly so when its reception is considered.
Colonel Herbert will have none of Chicago until it has purged itself
of its municipal leader. He remembered, perhaps, the assertion that it
is "the sixth largest German city in the world." He might have said as
much in a newspaper interview as he said on the floor of the caucus
had he been asked ab