ndsley recognized him.

"Gentlemen, I want to draw your attention to one feature of this
question," he said. The Colonel spoke very deliberately and very
distinctly, reminding a great many of his auditors of his father
because of the way he snapped his words out. "I heartily agree with
what the chair has said so far. I want you to get this particular
reaction on the matter and I want to relate to you a little incident
that happened coming out on the train from New York. One of the
delegates on the same train with me said that the conductor stopped
and talked to him and among other things said, 'Young Teddy Roosevelt
is up ahead. He's going out to St. Louis to try to get some of the
soldiers together to sandbag something out of the Government!'
_Sandbag something out of the Government!_" The young Colonel's frame
shook with emotion as he repeated that sentence. "Do you men get the
idea of what he thought we were trying to do? We want everything that
is right for us to have, but we are not going to try to sandbag the
Government _out_ of anything; primarily we are going to try to put
something _into_ the Government. In thinking over this resolution
think of that."

[Illustration: Fred Humphrey of New Mexico
A Vice-Chairman.]

[Illustration: Private V.C. Calhoun, of Connecticut and the Marine
Corps.
He is a Vice-Chairman.]

The cheer which greeted this suggestion was so resounding and the
opinion of the caucus so positive on this question that Mr. Gordon of
Connecticut, a member of the committee that framed the resolution,
moved that it should be laid on the table.

The thunderous "Aye" which tabled this resolution might well be
recorded in letters of gold.

It showed the utter unselfishness of the American doughboy, gob, and
leatherneck. He had followed Colonel Roosevelt's advice: he refused to
sandbag the Government out of anything, and this action gives the best
possible basis for the procedure to put something into the Government.

In view of the action of certain newspapers, organizations, and
individuals in advocating that six months' pay should be given to the
returned service man, I wonder if there are not still a great many of
them who are still puzzled over why the Legion refused to endorse this
movement. There must be scores of them, dozens of them who were not
present at the St. Louis Caucus, to catch its spirit and who have not
carefully considered just what impression such a demand on the part