Legion at Chicago

At its national convention in Chicago this year, the American Legion found itself hemmed between two sharp issues. In his speech at the opening session, President Roosevelt voiced the undoubted sentiment of the country when he firmly discouraged recrudescence of the Legion's twice-rebuked demand for immediate cashing of the Bonus (TIME, Oct. 9). Wisest heads in the Legion--potent (758,000 members) but not so potent as it was in 1931 (1,054,000 members)--realized the danger as well as the futility of pressing the Bonus movement now. Not only would it revive the hostility that the Legion had earned for itself but payment of the Bonus now would force the country toward Inflation, the other sharp issue before the Legion. Payment of the Bonus in greenbacks would be worse than no payment in hard dollars, for in any time of greenbacker and soaring prices, fixed incomes such as veterans' pensions would become a pittance indeed.

So while Legion delegates were parading down Michigan Avenue last week, and upsetting trucks to get ice for their beer, dropping paper sacks of water out of upper-story windows, happily messing up Chicago's hotels, their working committees worked out a program of which the essence was conservatism, the watchword. "Resell the Legion to the country." Through its committees and on the convention floor, the Legion:

1) Sat down hard upon Congressman Wright Patman of Texas and his Bonus-seeking colleagues from Illinois, Missouri, South Dakota.

2) Demanded cancellation of interest on Bonus loans. Lender the law of 1931 veterans have borrowed $1,500,000,000 at interest rates varying from 6% to 3 1/2%. Abolition of interest charges would save them some $50,000,000 a year. This resolution, the only one on which radicals and conservatives were in complete agreement, was adopted by a rousing viva voce vote on the convention floor. A legislative lobby will attempt to put it through the next session of Congress.

3) Voted down a resolution urging that veterans be given preference in Government jobs.

4) Adopted a cautious resolution favoring "a sound American dollar" and recommending "careful study by our government of the dangers of inflation." Urging a stronger stand, onetime National Commander Henry Leonidas Stevens Jr. cried:

"You veterans paid good American dollars worth 100-c- for your war risk insurance. If we have inflation and wallpaper money becomes the currency of the land that $10,000 policy of yours will buy about $4,000 worth of stuff. One disabled veteran said to me the other day: 'Don't let the Legion fail to oppose Inflation. For God's sake let us hold on to what little we're getting now-.' "

5) Opposed recognition of Russia, or extension of credit to Russia. Condemned the formation of Nazi units in the U. S.

Advocated reduction of immigration quotas by 90%, and the immediate deportation of aliens "directly or indirectly beholden to the Third Internationale."

6) Disagreed with President Roosevelt's policy on Federal aid for veterans. The President had said that ex-service men who are ill or disabled from causes not connected with war service should seek aid from community and State before asking for Federal hospitalization. This the Legion loudly opposed, declaring that care and treatment of veterans no matter how disabled should always be the responsibility of the Federal Government.

7) Adopted a four-point "rehabilitation" program looking toward the restoration of service-connected disability payments as they stood before President Roosevelt's economy act of last March.

Small, lean Edward Arthur Hayes. 42. a Decatur, Ill. lawyer, was elected National Commander, succeeding Louis Johnson of Clarksburg. W Va. Son of an Irish immigrant Commander Hayes joined the Navy in 1917 as apprentice seaman, was soon commissioned an ensign. He served at Great Lakes Naval Training Station as aide to the late Rear Admiral William Adger Moffett. After the War he resumed his law practice, helped organize the Decatur Legion Post, became Illinois State Commander in 1929. An acknowledged authority on veteran affairs, he was made vice chairman of the Legion's Rehabilitation Committee, had a large hand in drawing up the four-point rehabilitation program. Hayes' opponents attempted to prevent his election as national commander with the cry: "Stop the king-makers!" The "king-makers," they asserted, were six members who have attempted to dictate Legion policies and were thumping for Hayes. They named them as Broker Philip Collins of Chicago; John D. Ewing, publisher of the Shreveport, La. Times; Ben Doris of Oregon; William Doyle of Massachusetts; Patrick Cliff of Minnesota; Edward Neary of New York. In his speech of acceptance Commander Hayes declared: "No one will direct the policies of your national commander except the rank and file."

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