service in the common family of the nation.

The plan of organization sprang from the desire of serious and
able men in the American Army to maintain the high ideals for
which all of them have fought, to preserve the soldier
comradeship and carry it over into civilian life as an element
of broad helpfulness while keeping the record of the army free
from the taint of selfish aims. It was also wisely intended to
forestall by the creation of one big genuinely representative,
nonpartisan and democratic body, the formation of numerous
smaller organizations in various places by men intent on
exploiting the soldier sentiment and the soldier vote for other
than patriotic purposes.

_New York Sun_, April 11, 1919.--... The American Legion will
do an indispensable service. We, who have lived up to the past
few years in an agitation of protest against the pension grab
must now make our minds over sufficiently to realize that in the
new situation we run immediately into danger not of
over-pensioning the veterans of to-day but of neglecting them.

The new organization must of course be nonpartisan and
non-political. Precedent enough exists in the career of the
Grand Army to make that clear. It should include and enjoy the
guidance of the most influential military men. Politicians it
will have at its service so long as it is well run and organized
from within. Despite its proper political limitations, it should
serve as the most salutary means to influence returned soldiers
to cling to plain old Americanism, shed their martial
acquirements and return to plain, praiseworthy citizenship.

_Washington Star_, April 10, 1919.--... The American Legion is
to be welcomed as an agency for the promotion of the best in our
national life. It will represent, with other things, the majesty
of numbers. A great many men will be eligible to membership; and
they will be young, and full of hope and purpose. And when they
act together in matters within the scope of their organization
they will represent a force to be reckoned with in the
formulating of public policies.

_Brooklyn Eagle_, April 11, 1919.--Organization of "The American
Legion" is going on rapidily in every State in the Union. Vast
as was the mass of eligibles on which the Grand Army of the
Republic could draw after the Civil W