Adventure Magazine Cover, October 10, 1921 — page 189: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Camp-Fire H ERE is something to take hold of. God knows there is need of such men and of such an organization, in peace even more than in war. Those whom Mr. Wood wants to get hold of first are the members of the original American Legion, started by our magazine back in 1914 and 1915, but if you are the kind of American who sees the need of an active campaign against the evils that threaten real democracy in this country, against the graft and other corruption that are rotting our democratic institutions, send your name to Mr. Wood, even if you were not an old Legioner, and join your- self to the other Americans who are will- ing to do something instead of merely grumble. To those of you who read ‘Looking Ahead for Democracy,” referred to by Mr. Wood, there is no need to give assurance that no revolutionary methods are involved and that whatever ends are attained will be attained by the lawful exercise of the funda- mental power that lies in the people them- selves. [* WHAT Mr. Wood says about the pres- ent American Legion it is to be under- stood that his complaint is not against the Legion as a whole but against an element in it that has at least been making itself heard. Their claim that our old Legion had nothing to do with their origin is true in a sense. In another sense, they will find that very prominent among their originators were members of our old Legion. They will also find it officially recorded in their own archives that their name was formally trans- ferred to them, at their request, by our old Legion. As the old Legion has been legally dis- incorporated, I can see no objection to Mr. Wood and his associates using the old em- blem for their new organization. Who hasa better right to it than the old members themselves? You Canadian comrades at Camp-Fire, your country needs an organization of this_ kind about as much as ours does. Are some of you ready to start a similar movement? 1411 North La Salle St. Chicago, IIl. { am writing you at the request of numerous members of the old American Legion, men who were affliated both with the Chicago Division and men who belonged to the Legion in other parts of the country, and who are asking us to do something toward organization of a real patriotic organization that will DO things. 179 ITHOUT throwing any bricks at any one, and having been in attendance at several Legion meetings lately, at which the prevailing idea seemed to be that the Legion should get a bonus for every “hero by request,” I am heartily disgusted . with the prevailing attitude of the men, and long for the comradeship of real patriots who, like the Spanish- American veterans, came home and kept quiet about their heroic deeds. To hear some of these “‘heroes”’ that never got to the seacoast you would think they expected a medal every day, a soft job with nothing to do but draw their breath, and a private banker to hand them twenty-dollar bills every now and then. The Legion men are also busily denying that our old crowd had anything whatsoever to do with its origin. They claim that ours was only a political organization, and refuse to recognize the fact that our men composed the LaFayette Escadrille, etc. In fact they deny in toto everything of which we are proud, and it hurts. OR these reasons our men want to re-establish the old organization, with its original objects and with its glorious record of individual achieve- ment. And for that reason I am requesting you to insert a call of some kind in Adventure asking our old men to send their names and addresses to me, so that I may send them a few of our plans on the matter. We have had a meeting already at which quite a large gathering was present, and we are now waiting your answer before going ahead with our plans. We have a live bunch here who are willing to give both time and money to the furtherance of this organiza- tion, and we believe the other men all over the coun- try will go along with us if they are given the chance. Of course we can not use the old name, as that is no longer ours, but as the American Legion failed to take our old emblem, adopting in its stead one that is hard to distinguish from numerous other societies, we feel that there could be no objection by any one to our using the old emblem. And the old emblem is really American. As our new organization would not be anxious to make money, we could get these emblems cheap'and sell them to our members at nearly cost, or for 25 cents, as the old organization did. E BELIEVE this reorganization offers an opportunity for patriots to do some con- structive work for our country along the lines sug- gested in the series of articles ‘“Looking Ahead for Democracy,” and it might even develop in time into a great force for good government in this country of ours. By the way, we have not thought of a name for the new-old society. Suggestions on this will also be appreciated.—FREDERIC T. O. Woon, M. E. ONCERNING his novelette in this issue E. S. Pladwell writes us as fol- lows—a most interesting point of view on U. S. Grant: Oakland, California. The main character is based on Grant’s, although there is no attempt to portray the real history of the man. Incidentally, the Arizona range trouble to which I refer had no such person as Grant Wilcox MICLOOOKS C@