ves together ... to consecrate and sanctify
our comradeship by our devotion to mutual helpfulness_."

This is the way the last purpose of the preamble reads.

The men who framed this constitution certainly did not believe that
comradeship would be consecrated and sanctified by anything of a
selfish character under the guise of mutual helpfulness. Certainly not
the _comradeship_ that made bearable the zero hour in the trenches or
the watch in a submarine infested sea.

To go a little in advance of the story and speak practically, mutual
helpfulness has meant so far voting down a pay grab from Congress; a
get-together spirit to foster the growth of the Legion; a purpose to
aid in the work of getting jobs for returning soldiers, and the
establishment of legal departments throughout the country to help
service men get back pay and allotments. Mutual helpfulness in this
case would seem to make Uncle Sam as much a partner in it as are the
Legion members. Because, for every job the Legion gets an unemployed
man, and for every dollar Legion lawyers help collect for back pay and
allotments, a better citizen is made. And better citizenship is what
the Legion most wants.

So here seems to be the place to make the patent observation that
_mutual helpfulness_ will in future years mean just what it means
to-day--doing something for the United States of America.

At the present time the Legion might be compared to a two-headed
American eagle--one looking towards France and the A.E.F., and the
other homewards to the service men here. The two are a single body
borne on the same wings and nourished of the same strength. They are
the same in ideal and purpose but directed for the moment by two
different committees working together. One committee is the result of
the caucus at Paris in March, when the A.E.F. started the
organization, while the other was born this month in St. Louis, Mo.,
for the men here.

GEORGE S. WHEAT.
NEW YORK May, 1919.

CONTENTS

I.--LATTER WAR DAYS IN FRANCE

II.--THE PARIS CAUCUS, MARCH 15-17, 1919

III.--PRE-CAUCUS DAYS IN AMERICA

IV.--THE ADVANCE COMMITTEE

V.--THE ST. Louis CAUCUS, MAY 8, 9, and 10

VI.--THE LEGION AND THE BOLSHEVIKI

VII.--THE LEGION WON'T MEET AT CHICAGO

VIII.--THE SILVER LINING

IX.--OBJECTORS--CONSCIENTIOUS AND OTHERWISE

X.--THE REEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM

XI.--THE DISREGARD OF SELF

XII.--THE CLOSING HOURS

XIII.--WHY THE AMERICAN