"Give the man a hearing," echoed Colonel Roosevelt, who sat with the New York delegation. "Yes, give him a hearing." shouted the majority of the delegates and when the chair had procured order, Curtin made his plea. "I wish to say, by way of introduction, that though I come from the State of Washington, I am not a member of the Washington Delegation," he said, "I say that out of deference to the members from that State for the reason that I wish to prejudice nobody here against the Washington Delegation. I am not an I.W.W. I never have been and I never intend to be I never have shown any Bolshevik tendency and I defy any man present to prove to the contrary. If you've got proof that Sherman H. Curtin ever was an I.W.W. or made a Bolshevik statement, say so?" He paused here but none answered him to the contrary "It is true that the organization which I represent has had in the past some I.W.W.'s, and it is true that there are some I.W.W.'s in it now," he continued; "but I am in that organization for the purpose of throwing those I.W.W.'s out. I got in there for the purpose of kicking them out and I want your help." Here he was interrupted by applause. "At the present time, we (when I say we, I mean the particular conservative element which I represent in that organization) have control of the Board and practically all except one office of the organization. We are doing everything in our power to make that a one hundred per cent. American organization, and one of the things that I came down here for was to see that the Legion had in its constitution as a preamble that we pledge ourselves to the principles of democracy as set forth in the constitution of the United States of America. "I, personally, was the man who rewrote the constitution of the Soldiers and Sailors Council. It was written wrong when I got in there so I changed it. I want you men to stand behind me and help me make this fight. My organization did not give me permission to come here and join this, just as I presume some of your organizations did not give you permission, for the reason that they did not know what this was going to be; but I can see from the spirit that this organization has, that so far, it is on the right path and I am with it and I want you with me. "I am already only and wholly for the purpose of doing what good we can for the elimination of I.W.W.'s and Bolsheviki. If you are against that, I am with you and if you are with me, I am with you. George Pratt of Louisiana rose. "With your permission," he said to the chairman, "I would like to ask the gentleman one question." "Sir," turning to Curtin, "is it or is it not true that you re-wrote the constitution now in effect for your organization, and is it not true that it is so worded that American Army and Naval officers or former army and navy and marine officers of the United States are not eligible? Is that true?" "I will answer that question and I will answer it in a fair way," Mr. Curtin replied.