The Story of the American Legion: The Birth of the Legion — John Shaqi
The Story of the American Legion: The Birth of the LegionWheat, George Seay
History
The Story of the American Legion: The Birth of the Legion
Wheat, George Seay
American Legion; World War, 1914-1918 -- Societies, etc.
It was the beginning of a cavalcade of noise that fairly made ear
drums ache, and, incidentally, proved a signal for the backers of
other candidates. Goerke soon was lifted aloft by a half dozen New
Yorkers; Chenoweth was exhibited to the general view from the section
of the orchestra occupied by his delegation, while Illinois paraded
up and down the aisles with Goldberg. Colonel Lindsley hammered the
speaker's table almost to pieces in an attempt to get order and then
gave it up for a few minutes as a bad job. Captain Boyce succeeded in
getting a semblance of it, when everybody got tired of carrying the
candidates and of shouting. Then the secretary again started taking
the vote by delegations. No one of the candidates received a majority
of the votes which was necessary under the procedure adopted at the
beginning of the caucus. Then began the withdrawals. This State
withdrew its vote from Goerke and cast it for Humphrey; Chenoweth
withdrew from the race and his vote went to Goerke, et cetera. A
similar situation resulted on the second count and finally Goerke
withdrew in favor of Humphrey. When Evans took the same action,
Humphrey (first name Fred), described as the "rough-riding sailor from
New Mexico," was elected.
Humphrey's speech of acceptance delighted the hearts of those who had
forced the would-be orator to sit down at the beginning of the
nominations.
"Mr. Chairman, gobs, soldiers, and marines," Humphrey said: "I am most
glad and gracious to accept this honorary position and I will do
everything that a deck-swabbing sailorman can do to fill it."
The first day's session closed with the appointment by the various
States of representatives on the following committees: Executive
Committee; Credentials; Temporary Name of Organization; Organization;
Resolutions; Constitution and By-Laws and Declaration of Principles;
Next Meeting Place and Time; Publication; Emblem; Permanent
Headquarters, and Finance.
The personnel of these committees will be found elsewhere.
Thursday evening and Friday morning were devoted largely to committee
meetings and different sections of the country came together to
discuss matters of particular interest to special localities. For
instance, the Western delegations discussed the question of
Bolshevism, because the symptoms of this mad disease had been more
apparent in that section of the country than in any other. The
question of color was practically decided in a meeting of the
Executive Committee and was ratified later by various delegations
representing the Southern States. Everybody was pleased. An attempt
was made by the leaders of each delegation to keep such questions as
might be "_loaded with dynamite_" off the actual floor of the caucus
so that those lacking in discretion might not have the opportunity to
throw the caucus into an uproar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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