rk,
temporary vice-chairman, Lt. Col. Wood, temporary secretary.

A sub-committee was appointed to receive from all the members of the
temporary committee the names of such individuals of combat divisions
and each section of the S.O.S. of the A.E.F., who were eligible and
suitable to be delegates to a caucus scheduled for March
15th-16th-17th in Paris. A similar sub-committee was appointed to
ascertain the names of men of the home forces in order that they might
be urged to attend a caucus in America on or about May 8th-9th-10th.

The work of the sub-committee of the A.E.F. was much more difficult
than would appear at first glance. It was easy enough to get the names
of leaders in the various outfits, both of officers and men, but to
get them to Paris! That was the job. Of course it was the ardent
desire of everyone that the new organization should eventually become
a society principally devoted to the interests of those who served as
enlisted men, for they bore the brunt of the fighting and the work and
were fundamentally responsible for the splendid victory.

But once the names of such men were in the committee's hands the real
work had not begun. There were mechanical difficulties in securing for
enlisted men in active duty leave to attend a caucus in Paris. In the
first place the enlisted men themselves, as indicated by several who
were consulted, were very diffident about accepting an invitation to
attend a caucus where they would be required to sit beside and debate
with and against generals and field officers to whom they owed
military obedience. Then again, there was the expense of travel in
France, as well as the high cost of living in Paris. At the outset
this raised the expense of a trip to the French capital to a sum
amounting to many months of an enlisted man's pay. Furthermore, the
sub-committee was face to face with the A.E.F. regulations providing
that except in the most unusual circumstances an enlisted man would
not be granted leave except in company with a trainload of his
fellows, and to a certain specified leave area.

But as has been said before the conclusion had been reached that if
the organization was really to become preeminently an enlisted man's
outfit, it would be absolutely necessary to overcome these
difficulties and by hook or crook to obtain the attendance of as many
privates and noncommissioned officers as possible who were leaders.
So, scarcely had seventeen of the twenty officers