. The American Legion Weekly [Volume 3, No. 50 (December 16, 1921)]. to do; andyoure getting away to a bet-ter start than we did becauseyou can profit by our earlymistakes. What you have tolearn is to handle the politi-cians—not let them handleyou. Then you get some-where. These Grand Army men andothers with whom the reporter talkedafterward, related that after they ceasedas an organization to make direct nomi-nations for office, they did not cease tohave a chance to vote, if they chose,for ex-service men candidates. Thepoliticians saw to it that plenty of ex-service men got onto the tickets o
. The American Legion Weekly [Volume 3, No. 50 (December 16, 1921)]. to do; andyoure getting away to a bet-ter start than we did becauseyou can profit by our earlymistakes. What you have tolearn is to handle the politi-cians—not let them handleyou. Then you get some-where. These Grand Army men andothers with whom the reporter talkedafterward, related that after they ceasedas an organization to make direct nomi-nations for office, they did not cease tohave a chance to vote, if they chose,for ex-service men candidates. Thepoliticians saw to it that plenty of ex-service men got onto the tickets of boththe big parties. This for the simplereason that men with military recordsare highly popular vote-getters. Thusa kind of soldier preference in poli-tics works out without any legislationto that effect being written onto thestatute books. The ex-soldiers and sailors andmarines are only a handful of the popu-lation numerically, yet from that com-paratively small group are certain to bedrawn an extremely heavy proportion ofthe successful political The Presidency, as the highest ofthese political honors, is a token ofhow the public feels about the matter;and apparently, our non-militaristicnation holds in great esteem the typeof man who in wartime steps out totake the oath of allegianceand don a uniform. Note,for example, what happensafter the Civil War: In the forty years from1868 to 1908, only one Presi-dent of the United Stateswho is not an ex-service manobtains a residence in theWhite House. That singleexception is Grover Cleve-land, whose name was drawnfrom the draft wheel in ErieCounty, N. Y., in 63, butwho, for the best of reasons—that he had to stay homeand support his mother—chose to send a substitute tothe war. Two of his broth-ers were in service and thefamily council had chosen Grover toremain behind. It would appear, in fact, that littleas we Americans care for war, we de-mand that every man do his bit in timeof need; and it might be safe to dec
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