rly, strong-bodied, clear-minded man. As we entered
the taxi he was telling me that he "intended to raise hell if they
didn't take some action against this blank Bolshevism, and furthermore
that this new Legion was going to be the most tremendous organization
that the U.S.A. had ever seen." If he had told me that Swinburne's
_Faustine_ was written in iambic hexameter it would have sounded more
like old times. But here was a new man, strong and virile, intensely
interested in the future of his nation.

What had happened to Bill? Eighteen months in the army was the answer.

The advanced delegation began to arrive in St. Louis, the afternoon of
May 5th. The Statler and Jefferson Hotels were packed because there
were two other conventions in progress. But our delegates needed no
badge to be distinguished from the others; there was a difference
between them and the other conventionites. There was the same
difference between the two as between the old Bill and the new Bill.
They too had had eighteen months in the army, and a coat of tan on
each one's face, his ruddy frame, and general atmosphere of a healthy
mind and a healthy body were unmistakable emblems.

This advanced delegation, two from each State, had been requested to
come beforehand to meet on the morning of Tuesday, May 6th, so as to
formulate a working order of business on which the caucus might
proceed as soon as it assembled. There was another reason for this
meeting also. The temporary committee wanted to avoid any appearance
of having "framed up the caucus." By this it is meant that the
committee wanted to be able to say to the caucus that its working
procedure had been determined by a thoroughly representative body, a
democratic, advanced delegation composed of men from every State in
the Union. There were those critics of the Legion, who, had the
temporary committee formulated the caucus procedure, would have been
only too glad to have attempted to make trouble by saying it was a
controlled and made-to-order caucus--controlled and made-to-order by
the men who had taken the lead in it. In fact, during the early
morning of the first day the advanced committee met one delegation
arrived with blood in its eyes determined to wage a fight against
universal military training. One of the stories circulated at the time
was to the effect that the entire Legion was nothing but a blind
whereby a mysterious "Military Clique" was to gain supreme power over
the Legion's