Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 299, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 December 1920 — BAKER BRANDED BY LEGION POST [ARTICLE]

BAKER BRANDED BY LEGION POST

COLORADO POST DENOUNCES WAR SECRETARY FOR FREEING SLACKER. The following article is taken from the Denver Post under date of December 11, and was sent to us by Henry Nevill, a former Rensselaeran, but now of Limon, Calo.: Secretary of War Baker was branded by Leo Leyden post No. 1, American Legion, Thursday night as “disloyal to the men who fought the war and too all other loyal citizens of the United States and therefore unworthy of arty public office or trust! Adoption of scathing denunciation of the secretary of war was the answer of the ex-service men to Baker’s action in releasing Ben Salmon —Denver’s yellowest slacker—and thirty-two other slackers who had been imprisoned for their refusal to serve their country in time of war. The resolution follows: “WHEREAS: The gross inefficiency displayed by Newton D. Baker, secretary of war, in his conduct of the war department before, during and since the World war, has resulted in great financial, moral loss, and, “WHEREAS: The secretary of war has now released the notorious slacker, Ben Salmon and others, while men who served their country and were sentenced for minor breaches of discipline are kept in prison and, . “WHEREAS: Leo Leyden Post, No. 1, American Legion, considers that the secretary of war has offered a direct insult through this action to every man and woman who served in the military forces during the World war, “BE IT RESOLVED, that the Leo Leyden post condemns’ and denounces Newton D. Baker and brands him as disloyal to the men who fought the war and to all other loyal citizens of the United States, and therefore unworthy of anv public office or trust. “BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be sent to the secretary of war, the president of the United States, our | representatives in congress, „the American Legion and the press.” Henry Ford I« Denounced. Resolutions also were authorized denouncing Henry Ford for his recent attack on the Jews and deploring the war record of his son, Edsel Ford; urging the authorities not to permit William D. Haywood, I. W. W. leader, to visit Colorado; urging the school board to establish a branch of the Opportunity School in North Denver for the Italian colony; indorsing the action of the American Legion Denver central committee in efforts to have the Fitzsimons general hospital transferred to the public health service; urging the adoption by every American Legion post of resolutions making Armistice day a real holiday. Howard G. Wade suggested that the legion invite Haywood to speak at its smoker to be given in the Charles building next Thursday night, assuring him he would receive the warmest reception he ever experienced and that all funeral expenses would be paid, but the motion was turned down.

A committee was appointed to take charge of a new .membership drive. z The committee is composed of Mr. Wade, chairman; F. H. Talbot, E. R. Moylan, Rebecca Kelley, Lawrence Lewis, Henry Schultz, M. Packman, Harry Sullivan, D. J. Spahr, Capt. W. H. Smith and Henry A. Cowan. Not only American legion posts, but ex-service men individually, are denouncing the release of Salmon and the other slackers. “Whl put up the money to buy Ben Salmon and his bunch of yellow slackers out of prison?” demands L. E. Brundage of Norwood, Colo . in a letter to The Denyer Post. “Where is American patriotism going? What did the ex-ser-vice men do to have such an insult handed them after they had given up thsir hftmes and all to make this a decent place to live in? Took Up Arms. When War Broke. v “When Uncle Sam declared war on Fritz a bunch of us boys left here to take up arms; we didn’t wait to be punched into service. We slept in wet dugouts, crummy barracks, built bridges, wire entanglements, roads, waded knee deep with heavy packs over half the soil of ‘sunny France’ and helped to knock hell out of Fritz besides. Then, to have a bunch like that handed us in return.

“After we got home we found all our worldly possessions had been stolen and carried off by the Ben Salmons left at home. Some of them went so far as to haul away the cabins- the boys had on their homesteads. I guess it’s all true what General Sherman said about war.” \ H. J, Black, formerly of Battery C. Eleventh Field artillery, Six division, who lives in • "Englewood, Colo., characterizes Salmon as “the lowest yellow-backed cfir whom “Secertary of War Baker has honored by giving him freedom and good American cash.

“The Bible says, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do. unto you.” The question occurs to me, what is Baker planning on doing to need the support of Ben Salmon? Salmon’s business which is detaining him in Washington had best last for some time. I shall add to, the statement of an unknown man that ‘Ben Salmon had better not show around Denver or the ex-service men are going to make his life miserable.’”