II ?
Plans for the 1939 American Legion Convention
In Chicago's Famed Coliseum Brings to Light a
1 New Chapter in Nation's Presidential History |
25 r V0U"T' w?ere "? American Legion 1939 national convention will open September
with the ln^.Tr??^ -!f Republican national convention ot 1912 when a plan to stampede the delegates
abandoned ? *22^"' who w*s Uter "med *? the National Progressive candidate, was
andoned. The plan to smuggle Teddy to the speakers' platiorm is told here for the first time.
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
(Released by Western Newspaper Union.)
THE work of preparing for the 1939 national convention
of the American Legion, which meets for the first time
in Chicago's Coliseum, scene of the nomination of three
Presidents of the United States, has brought to light a new
chapter in American presidential history. It is the story of a
plan to smuggle "Teddy" Roosevelt into the regular Repub
lican convention back in 1912, which, if it had succeeded,
might well have changed the course of events in this country
during the last 25 years. ?
The story was told for the
first time recently by Charles
R. Hall, veteran manager of
the Coliseum, while he and
vice president of the Legion
convention corporation, were
making arrangements for the
big gathering of thousands of
Legionnaiaes from all parts
of the country in that historic
convention hall on September
25. The incident has addi
tional interest because of the
fact that a prominent figure
at the 1939 session will be
'Teddy's" son, Col. Theodore
Roosevelt, who helped organ
ize the Legion just 20 years
ago. Bearing his credentials
as a delegate he will walk, un
hampered, into the very hall
which his father was kept
from entering by the use of
a i_ _ ? ?
Damea wire:
But, let Charles R. Hall,
who was one of the 1912 "plot
ters," tell the story himself:
"The Democratic party at Bal
timore already had nominated
Woodrow Wilson and Thomas R.
Marshall when the regular Re
publican convention opened in the
Coliseum on June 18. Although
the logical thing for the Repub
licans to do was to renominate
William Howard Taft, who was
just completing hi* term as Pres
ident, there was an undercurrent
of dissatisfaction with the record
which Taft had made in the White
House. And there was repeated
talk of 'Teddy' Roosevelt?still a
magic name for vote-getting. So
the sessions dragged along while
the delegates debated in their
minds whether or not to renomi
nate Taft.
"Whifc the convention marked
time, I was approached by the
late George W. Porter, a Chicago
capitalist, who was a strong
Roosevelt supporter.
" 'Roosevelt is in Chicago,' he
whispered to me. 'Could you get
him into the convention unseen?'
"My answer was: 'Of course!
I'll put him on the front of the
platform, right beside the chair
man of the convention.'
" 'What'll you charge?' Porter
wanted to know.
'"Hell's Bells!' I answered,
'You don't think I'd charge for
giving those convention delegates
the thrill of seeing Teddy, do
you?'
"But the very next day I found
out that news of our 'plot' had
leaked out. The sergeant-at-arms
of the convention ordered me to
stretch rolls of barbed wire along
the footlights in front of the
speaker's platform. I guess they
thought we were going to have
Teddy' planted on the floor of
the convention, start a demon
stration and then rush him up
the center aisle and on to the
platform.
"They didn't know that their
barbed wire wouldn't have
stopped T. R.' if we had gone
through with our plan. I was go
ing to admit him through a secret
outer door, rush him into a tunnel
entrance a few feet away and then
through the tunnel and up a short
flight of steps. When he hit the
top step, he would have been be
hind their barbed wire, directly
facing every delegate in the
building.
"If he had done that, it would
have stampeded the delegates,"
^H
declared Phil Collins, to Whom
Mr. Hall was relating the inci
dent. "I remember what hap
pened at that convention?a wom
an delegate mentioned Roose
onstration which lasted for two
hours before it could be
stopped."
"There's not a doubt about it,"
agreed Mr. Hall. 'Tve often
wondered why the plan was nev
er carried through. All I know is
that George Porter and his
friends dropped the matter. I
never asked him why and he nev
er volunteered the information.
. . . But I wish they hail gone
ahead. I was ready for my part
in it."
As the 73-year-old Coliseum man
ager fingered an old-fashioned
scarf-pin in his tie, he continued:
"Maybe if they had gone ahead I
wouldn't have had this pin. You
see, it was given to me by 'Ted
dy' himself. But that was six
weeks later when the 'Bull Moos
en' met in the Coliseum and
nominated Roosevelt and Sen. Hi
ram Johnson of California as
their candidates on the Progres
sive party ticket.
In addition to contributing this
"now-it-can-be-told" item to
American political history, the
veteran manager of the Coliseum
is also an authority on another
story which links this building
with another historic structure.
That was the famous Libby pris
on in Richmond, Va., of Civil
war days which was moved to
Chicago, piece by piece, SO years
ago, and rebuilt on the present
rite of the Coliseum.
During the Civil war Libby was
known as the "Palace Prison of
the Confederacy" where 40,000
Union soldiers, most of them offi
cers, were confined. The main
prison was originally a tobacco
warehouse, made of 13-inch
bricks which were brought to this
country from England. While
plans for the Chicago World's fair
of 1893 were under way, a move
ment was started to purchase
Libby prison and move it to the
city on the lake as a Civil war
museum. Prominent in this
movement was the Chicago his
torian and collector, C. F. Gun
ther.
The work of moving the prison
from Richmond to Chicago be
gan in December, 1888. Each
board, beam, timber, and block
of stone was numbered and let
tered and the task of transport
ing these and the 800,000 bricks
in the main structure required the
use of 132 20-ton cars by the Ches
apeake & Ohio railway. The pris
au was rebuilt nn the site nf {he?
present Coliseum, and re-opened
as a war museum on September
21, 1889 (just 50 years and four
days before the opening of thjs
year's Legion convention!) Ap
propriately enough, its first meet
ing was. a G. A. R. reunion.
Meanwhile a massive battlement,
which was designed to provide a
flashy "front" for the museum,
.was built along the Wabash ave
nue side of the transplanted pris
on from stone that was quarried
within the Chicago city limits of
that time.
Thousands of visitors, before
and during the 1893 World's fair,
were attracted to the museum
and its historical relics. However,
this old prison museum was
torn down in 1900 to make way
for the present Coliseum but the
stone wall which was its "front"
still faces on Wabash avenue.
Relics in the museum became
scattered, some of them being
given to the Chicago Historical
society where they are still pre
served.
"Bricks of the prison were dis
tributed to G. A. R. posts through
out the country and some of them
were sold for a dollar apiece,"
Mr. Hall recalls. "But even in
recent years, when we excavated
to provide a pool for the diving
hone of a circus or for other
purposes, some of those old
bricks from Libby prison came to
light. The floors and other fea
tures of the Coliseum have been
altered dozens of times to meet
the needs of special events. But
one distinctive feature remains
unchanged. Our outside walls,
with their turrets and observa
tion posts, today are exactly as
they were when they surrounded
the transplanted historic Libby
prison."
This year the American Legion
"comes of age"?in more re
spects than one. Not only is it
the organization's twenty-first an
nual convention, but, according to
National Commander Stephen F.
Chad wick, the 1839 assembly of
the veterans will have a more se
rious tone than ever before. It
will be provided by "American
Democracy," first convention
keynote in Legion history. More
over, convention program plans
call for large-scale participation
by the wives, sons and daughters
of the Legionnaires who will ac
company them to Chicago.
The history of the American
Legion goes back to the year 1919
and to Paris, France. That story
is told by Col. Theodore Roose
velt, one of its founders, thus:
"No one man can claim to be
the founder of the American Le
gion. I got the idea from a
wounded sergeant in a hospital.
He said we should form an organ
ization of veterans of the war,
adding, 'we have stuck together
in the bad times; let's stick to
gether in the good ones.'
"After that, I talked with num
bers of people, many of whom
had been thinking on these lines.
The problem was to get the or
ganization under way. The Arm
istice had been declared. I asked
some regular army friends at G.
H. Q. if soldiers from each of
the American divisions then in
France could be ordered to Paris
to discuss the idea. They told
me they could not do that direct
ly, but that they could order such
a group of men to meet in Paris
and discuss the morale of the
American troops.
"We held the meeting on mo
rale. Afterwards, at a dinner,
we discussed plans for a veter
ans' organization. All agreed on
certain principles. The first was
that no difference should be made
COL. THEODORE ROOSEVELT
between those who had served
overseas and those who had not
?as the desire to serve was what
counted. The second, that tha
Legion was to be a democratic
organization, in which there
should be no question of rank,
and privates would get a full
chance to tell the generals what
they thought of them. Third and
last, the organization should con
cern itself with policies, not with
partisan politics. Next an organ
ization committee was appointed.
Eric Fisher Wood was named
secretary, Bennett Clark, today
senator from Missouri, vice chair
man, and I, chairman.
"We decided to hold two meet
ings, one in Paris and the other
practically simultaneously in the
United States. Bennett Clark,
Eric Wood and a number of oth
ers took the responsibility for the
Paris caucus. I had been or
dered home, and agreed to ar
range the caucus at home.
"The Paris meeting went off in
splendid shape. Everyone was in
terested and enthusiastic. All
units were represented, and pri
vates as well as generals were
delegates. Incidentally, there was
no trouble in getting delegates to
go. Paris was a lodes tone This
group adopted the name, Ameri
can Legion. The name had been
used by my father before the
war, when he formed a group of
Americans who had experience
which qualified them to serve in
the *rmv in case of need.
"Meanwhile, I returned to thia
country, and with eome other vet
erans, arranged for a caucus We
rented an office in New York city
and got in touch with ex-service
men in every state, asking them
to organize the soldiers and sail
ors in their community, elect del
egates and come to St. Louis on
May 8, 1918.
"The first order of business
was the election of a permanent
chairman. We selected CoL Hen
ry D. Lindsley of Texas, a South
ern Democrat, thereby giving the
lie to those who said it was to be
a Republican organization. Next,
we confirmed the actions taken
by the Paris caucus, such as the
selection of the name, American
Legion, and adopted a declara
tion of faith and a temporary con
stitution. We provided an organ
ization to carry on until the fall,
when the first real convention
was called in Minneapolis. There
representatives of both Paris and
St. Louis meetings would be, and
the American Legion could take
final form.
"At Minneapolis on November
10 our convention assembled. We
elected as commander Franklin
JC D'Olier, of New Jersey, adopt
ed a permanent constitution, and
the Legion came into being."
Charles B. Hall, veteran manager of the CoUaeum, looks over the
official badges of some of the national nominating conventions held in
that building. He is wearing a scarf pin presented to him by Theodore
Roosevelt after the National Progressive convention in 1M2.
A President's Attendance Caused
Flurry of Excitement in Church
One Sunday during the summer
of 1917 the President suggested
that we drive quietly over to Vir
ginia and attend the service at the
Pohick church, which was the
place of worship'of George Wash
ington. When we arrived, the lit
tle edifice was well filled. Mr.
Wilson, my brother Randolph and
1 were escorted to the Washington
pew, given prayer books and left
to ourselves. The service over,
we were accompanied to the door
by a member of the vestry and
permitted to depart without any of
the crowding about which usually
attends the appearance of a Presi
dent in public. Also I was im
pressed by the large congregation,
for it was raining.
Afterwards Mr. Jervis, one of
the secret service men, asked:
"May I tell you a story?" This
is the story:
Knowing our plans, Mr. Jervis
had reached the church at 1:30,
finding it closed and not a soul
about. At the nearest house he
inquired whether there was to be
a service. The man did not know,
but said that the preacher was
holding Sunday school at his own
home and that Jervis might in
quire of him. At the minister's
house Mr. Jervis found a young
man instructing a group of bare
foot girls and boys. Jervis asked
the man whether there would be
a service at the church, because
the President had intended to
come. "The President of what?"
asked the clergyman. "Of the
United States," replied Jervis.
The minister looked at his caller
sorrowfully. "Young man, are
you ill?" he asked.
Jervis showed his badge, adding
that the President mid Mrs. Wil
son were due in ah hour. The
minister clapped his hands. "Chil
dren, Sunday school is dismissed.
All of you run home and tell your
fathers and mothers the President
is coming to church and I want
a good congregation to welcome
him." Then be turned to Jervis.
?1
Wire and Othenrite
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Womm em give oaiyrhiag wok m
mile emd teke everything beck with
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my Wk garden, every at ha ha
knight.
"Pernor ere often e hindrance to
children in e career" myt e judge
Perhapt?bet the children could
hardly rtert a career uitheut them.
A iwUt worker tell* wee ho mete
lis# ? day for poking up Una. A
tidy oaf '
Did the m ?bo aid -hooray it
da hat polity' oar try idling the
boa wha he rally thooghl el ha?
Bah toy* hit wife', new did ha
fairly look ha knoihh away!
"Young man, I most share. You
run over to the chinch and
tell the sexton to ring the bell?
vigorously." At the church Jenris
found ifpxtffli opening the
door. He gave the minister's nes>
sage. The sexton's month stood
open tor a minute. Then he said:
"Here, yon ring that bsfl. IT*
just outside in e tree.. I tf* t? go
borne and share."?Edith Boding
Wilson in The Saturday Earning
PoaL
"M" for Noon
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connection is an abbreviation of
"Meridiem," the accusative of the
Latin "meridies," meaning mid
day.
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