...A CONVENTION NECESSITY! Post caps are now available in two A combination passport and grades —A and B. Detailed specifi- identification badge cations are set forth below. Legion caps are a real Convention necessity. Be sure you have yours— order it now! Specification! — GRADE A Material—14 oz. American Legion blue uniform Grade Style 1 lettering $2.25 A— cloth. Grade A—Style 2 lettering 2.50 Embroidery—All embroidery, including the emblem, Grade B—Style 1 lettering 1.95 which is reproduced in colors, is in pure silk. Grade B—Style 2 lettering 2.20 Trimmings—Genuine gold silk piping. Tan sateen Note: Special reduced prices in lots of 12 or more caps, lining. Genuine leather sweat band. Lettering —Two types of lettering available. STYLE 1 provides for the Post numerals only on the Emblem Division, American Legion, 777 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis, Ind. The right hand side, and state name in full only, on the left, directly beneath the emblem. No deviations or Here is remittance for , for one Post cap, my $ additions. STYLE 2 provides for the Post numerals only on the right hand side, and the town name in full as follows: size Grade , with Style..._ lettering with stale name abbreviated on the left. Additional or special forms of inscription extra. Prices upon application. (please print lettering instructions carefully) Delivery—Caps are not carried in stock, but made Name - only to special order. Two weeks required for delivery. Street GRADE B Same as for Grade A, excepting made without lining, City State and with less expensive sweat band. Note: Serge caps to match state uniforms available at no I am a member of Post No Dept. oj. extra charge. Be sure to specify material name, and weight. — — — J?11 Soon be FO RTY- O N E WERE sun- just whistling in the dark. Let WEning ourselves us see. on the float, I'm going to take inventory about a hun- for a while, and reach my own dred feet from shore. It was conclusions. Those seventeen early in the forenoon of a hot years since the war have August day. The beach was whirled by so fast, it is only still deserted, which left the when I pause to examine lifeguard to his own devices, them, that they show up in and he passed the time alter- their true light. Seventeen nately swimming and relaxing years! And how they did on the raft. rush along! Financially speak- We chatted for a while on ing, they had counted for the technique of swimming, quite a bit—the early ones. and such topics. Then, by But I never was one to count gradual stages, the conversa- money the main objective. tion became philosophical and There are other aspects. Phys- personal. The lifeguard made ical health is one. What do a remark which set me off on the records show on that a long train of thought. We score? Frankly, I had never had been discussing ages, and given health a thought until I mentioned the approach of I found myself in a badly run- my forty-first birthday. He down condition along about didn't answer right away. In- 1925. stead he stood up straight and I was then thirty-one. All took a beautiful dive. He was the usual symptoms of ex- nineteen, built like an ox, and haustion appeared. My pro- —it goes without saying fession, newspaper work, is an excellent swimmer. nerve-wracking at best, and Soon he climbed back, I now found myself facing a dripping wet, on the float. problem that demanded a He was still musing over my prompt solution. I saw vari- remark about being nearly ous doctors, and finally one of forty-one. them put me on the right "You're old, aren't you?" track. He recommended out- he said, thoughtfully. door exercise. So it came I don't remember what I about that, at thirty-two answered, and anyway it isn't the age when most other men important. What is impor- start to neglect their bodies tant, is the idea of a man I was starting to develop being old at forty-one. It was mine. And what a splendid a new thought to me, and it awakening that was! A new provoked all kinds of reflections. Old at forty-one? Great guns, world opened to me. I learned to swim, ride horses, row a boat. that was startling! And I began to wonder. I hadn't felt old But what has this to do with being forty-one? Everything, until he mentioned it. Indeed, the fact is, I had been looking as events proved. I ceased being a bookworm and turned to forward to my birthday with a good deal of zest. Now I found sport. Swimming gave me a new slant on life, a new philosophy. myself regarding the event with uncertainty. After all, perhaps Incidentally, I found myself with an entirely new type of people. this nineteen-year-old was right. Perhaps I should await my These were young-minded people—young-minded and young- birthday with dread and terror. Perhaps I should feel crushed bodied. There's nothing on earth better than sun and salt water with the burden of years. Perhaps I ought to be looking around to clear the brain. It makes for alert thinking. Which, in turn, for a nice cemetery. puts a very different complexion on this business of being forty- Well, if the lifeguard was right —then certainly I've got a lot one. It's not a matter of dodging the years—rather it's a matter of mental readjusting to do. Because, to tell the truth, my views of getting the most out of them. I'll be forty-one soon; nine have been exactly opposite. Old at forty-one! Rubbish! Why, I years after that I'll be fifty. Well, the one major rule is to have only just begun to live. I have just reached the point where keep a youthful mind. And the surest way to a youthful mind is I can capitalize on the things I have through a sturdy body. hij Cj rattan, learned. Brave words. Maybe I'm illustration Condon I've (Continued on page 39) AUGUST, 1935 n ; C^TorQodandcountry , we associate ourselves togetherjor thefollowing purposes:Oo upholdand defend the Constitution •~JoftheUnitedStates ofAmerica; to maintain law and order; tofoster andperpetuate a one hundredpercent Americanism to preserve the memories and incidents ofour association in the (freat'War; to inculcate a sense of"individual obligation to the com- munity,state and nation; to combat the autocracy ofboth the classes andthe masses; to make riyht the master ofmight; topromote peace andgood willon earth; to safguardand transmit to posterity the principles ofjusticejreedom and democracy ; to conse- cmte andsanctify our comradeship by our devotion to mutual helpfulness.— Preamble to the Constitution ofThe American Legion. August, 1935 Vol. 19, No. 2 Legion-w- Oil e JJmerica MONTH L Y Published Monthly by The Legion Publishing Corporation, 455 West 22d Street, Chicago, Illinois EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING OFFICES EXECUTIVE OFFICES WESTERN ADVERTISING OFFICE 521 Fifth Avenue, New York Indianapolis, Indiana 307 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago Editorial and Advertising Correspondence Should be Addressed to the New York Offices, All Other Mail to Indianapolis Cover Design: The Family by Paul Bransom "I'll Soon be Forty-one" by John Black Drawing by Grallan Condon Track. Slow by William A. Erskine Illustrations by Paul Brown That Next "Last War" by Wythe Williams Cartography by William Heaslip The Soul of Our Democracy by Irving Bacheller Drawings by Harry Townsend A Career on the Seven Seas by Willard Cooper Murder in Sunlight: Conclusion by Karl Detzer Illustrations by J. W. Schlaikjer The Doctor Follows the Flag by Robert U. Patterson The Strangest Post in the World by Sam H. Jones Illustrations by L. R. Guslavson Forever North, Forever South by Joseph Mills Hanson Editorial: Battle Summer Summer Afternoon by Wallgren Bursts and Duds Conducted by Dan Sowers The Known Soldier by Fairfax Downey Faster Yet, Farther Still by Alexander Gardiner Few Dollars, Many Bricks by Philip Von Blon Hostess to the Signal Corps by John J. Noll The Voice of the Legion News of Veteran Interest Six Weeks Ahead—The St Louis Convention THEY are coming by Mississippi River steamboat, up from the Southland past Baton Rouge, Natchez, Memphis and Cairo. They are coming in trans- continental air liners, looking down from the skies upon the wheatlands and the cornlands of the Middle West. They are coming in gleaming streamlined trains, faster than rail passengers ever traveled in other years. They are coming in giant Greyhound buses, unparalleled for speed and luxury in 1935. And they are coming, by tens of thousands, in automobiles, far travelers in a far- and fast-traveling age. They are all coming to St. Louis between September 23d and 26th for the home- coming national convention of the Legion. It's a convention you'll want to see and remember. The American Legion Monthly is the official publication of The American Legion, and is A. Stanley Llewellyn, Camden, S. C; Raymond Fields, Guthrie, Okla.; Frank L. Pinola, Wilkes- owned exclusively by The American Legion. Copyngnt 1935 by The Legion Publishing Cor- Barre, Pa.; Ed. W. Bolt, San Francisco; Perry Faulkner, Montpelier, Onio; Jerry Owen, Port- poration. Entered as second class matter Sept. 26, 1931, at the Postoffice at Chicago, 111., under land, Ore.; General Manager, James F. Barton; Business Manager, Richard E. Brann; the Act of March 3, 1879. President, Frank N. Belgrano, Jr., Indianapolis, Ind.; Vice-President, Eastern Advertising Manager, Douglas P.