Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 192, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1920 — INDIANA SENATOR PRAISES LEGION [ARTICLE]

INDIANA SENATOR PRAISES LEGION

Remarkable Tribute Paid Veterans of World War by Watson in Apostrophe. OTHER VETERANS HONORED Washington, D. C. —Special.)—High tribute to the American Legion and its members is voiced by Senator James E. Watson in an apostrophe to that organization made public here this week. Warm praise for the men who fought for liberty in the Revolution, for the Republic in the Civil war and for the freedom of foreign peoples in the Spanish-American war is also stressed in the pronouncement. “The American Legion! What thoughts arise when those words are presented to our minds. Legion in number and always American in purpose,” says the senator. **lt is truly a wonderful thing to be an American citizen, with all the privileges that flow from the fortunate possession of that name.” The apostrophe, continuing, lauds the heroes of 1776 and 1861 and speaks feelingly of the volunteers of ’9B who fought to free foreign peoples from the tyranny of despotic rulers. Lifted Banner Still Higher. “Now, the boys of 1917, catching the inspiration of all our mighty past, have lifted' still higher the old standard of the republic, for in the conflict just closed they contended for the liberty of all peoples, in all lands and under all flags.’’ Further, the senator sets out, "It is quite true that the American Legion has no monopoly on patriotism, because there are millions of people that just as dearly love the old flag and are just as sincerely devoted to its principles, but after all the. Legion may direct patriotism and, more any other agency of force here in our land, can insure law and order and stability and - the maintenance of orderly government, constitutional in form and representative in character.”

Room for U. 8. Flag Only. Concluding, the declaration states: “There Is room only for that same old and glorious flag that from Yorktown to the Argonne forest has been the inspiration of every lover of liberty and every lover of all his kind, and that is the old flag under which our boys marched to victory, and when they brought it back with no stain upon it, except the blood of the boys who had died to defend it, by common consent it was placed above all other banners, for it represented indeed the only nation which when liberty pleaded her cause, forgot horself and all her selfish aims and plunged into the most titanic strife of hum-- history in order that liberty mEa. . -tn and be universally respected among the sons of men.”