"With all due respect to the gentlemen who have already named their posts they are subjected, as are we to the action of this caucus," he said. "We know positively that in due course of time those names will be used, at least to a certain extent, politically. Let us find some other way to honor these men and make it impossible for the people of this country to get the idea that this is a political organization." There you have it, the real reason. Delegate Harder was only one of the hundreds who not only wanted to keep the Legion out of politics now but for all time to come. Mr. McGrath of New Jersey also took an amusing fling at article six. As originally drawn it stipulated that the local unit should be termed a billet. "I object to the word billet," he said. "It has too many unpleasant associations as those men who slept in them in France will testify. A billet meant some place where you lay down and slept as long as certain little animals would let you, and the American Legion isn't going to do that." Just about this time the afternoon was drawing to a close. Everybody realized that a monumental task had been performed. Sleepless nights and nerve-wracking days had been endured. Many pocketbooks were running low. Everybody felt it was time to go home. General Hoffman of Oklahoma obtained recognition from the chair as some of the delegates already were rising to leave the theater. "I move, Mr. Chairman," shouted the General, "that we extend a vote of thanks to Colonel Roosevelt and Colonel Clark and other gentlemen who have been associated with them and to the chairman of this association and his able assistants who have brought this convention to such a happy and successful close." At the mention of Colonel Roosevelt's name departing delegates tarried and when Mr. Weinman of Louisiana moved adjournment, the house stood and with one accord began to cry, "We want Teddy," "We want Teddy." Colonel Roosevelt walked to the center of the stage and raised both hands seeking silence. "I want to say just one thing," he said. "I have never been so much impressed in my life as I have been by the actions of this caucus, actions of the various committees and in the way this caucus thought for itself and acted for itself. For instance it would receive resolutions from the Resolutions Committee, would think them over, would re-decide on them and would re-decide them right. I want to say in closing that the only thing I regret is that my father could not have been alive at this moment to see the actions of this body of Americans." Mr. Healey of the New York delegation obtained the attention of the chair. "I make a motion," stated Mr. Healey, "that before this great caucus adjourns we should remain standing in one minute's silence as a tribute to the greatest statesman that this nation has ever produced--THEODORE ROOSEVELT." CHAPTER XIII WHY THE AMERICAN LEGION?