he power of the United States of America. This great
power and position was gained primarily by one motive--unselfishness.
Just so long as it is our dominant trait will we retain what we have
gained. Just so long as we remain true to our innate principles, to
the tenets of our constitution, will we retain world importance and
world influence.

There is a wolf at the gates of civilized Europe. If he gets inside
nothing can stop him from ravishing us. This war has bound us so
closely to Europe that we are, in a sense, one and the same. He who
strikes our brother strikes us, even though he be so far away that the
distance is measured by an ocean. We must get over the idea that
distance makes a difference. The Atlantic ocean has just been crossed
in sixteen hours. Remember, thought travels even faster.

The wolf that I mentioned is a Mad Thought. He is Bolshevism. He has
the madness because of hunger, a hunger not only of body but of mind;
the century-long hunger of the Russian peoples for Freedom. Russia has
run in a circle. From the autocracy of the classes it has arrived at
the autocracy of the masses.

Then, too, all our European brothers are war worn; tired, tired nearly
to death with struggle and sacrifice, and this is not a frame of mind
calculated to help reseat reason in the world.

Why the American Legion?

One of our great bankers recently returned from an intimate study of
affairs abroad. His name is Frank A. Vanderlip. In an address before
the Economic Club in New York City he said that Europe is paralyzed
and that our task is to save.

I give the introduction to his address as it appeared in the New York
_Times_:

"Frank A. Vanderlip, who spoke last night at the Hotel Astor, at a
dinner of the Economic Club, which was held for the purpose of hearing
his story of conditions in Europe, whence he has recently returned,
said that England was on the verge of a revolution, which was narrowly
averted in February, when he was there, and the conditions on the
Continent of Europe are appalling beyond anything dreamed of in this
country.

"He said that the food conditions in Europe would be worse instead of
better for a year ahead, because of the dislocation of labor and the
destruction of farm animals, and that the industrial and economic
outlook, generally, points to a period after the war, which will
equal, if not exceed the war period in suffering and misery.

"He said that Italy was afraid to disband her