The American Legion Magazine Magazine Editorial & Advertising Offices 720 Fifth Avenue New York

THE AMERICAN 2 O c » M A Y 1 9 O 9

MAGAZINE

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Amazing rose discovery soars up to 40 ft. high — spreads up to 20 ft. wide — spreads across bare walls like wildfire with blazing color from spring to frost.

You're looking at the amazing new climbing rose developed by the Rev. W. W. Bunge of Minnesota that has been called "a phenomenal rose factory". Imagine the glory of a rosebush that streaks skyward 18 inches in a single week — and once established reaches fantastic heights of 20 feet in a single season — spreads 40 feet along walls, fences and trellises. Imagine the glory of a rosebush that bursts Into gigantic blossoms up to 5 inches across — roses so eager to bloom the entire plant is covered with hundreds of lavish flowers at one single time — roses that burst into fiery masses of bloom again and again in June, July, August, September, October— until snow starts to fly.

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sunlight produces ravishing masses of bloom.) : planting — or return them within 3 months for full replacement. So order This is the wonder rose that Rev, Bunge has now without risk. finally perfected and patented after 32 years @ Copr., Lakeland Nurseries Sales

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the world's greatest Ship CCD. I enclose $1 deposit and will pay post- everblooming rose man balance plus postage and CCD. fees on delivery. spectacle. We ship Save postage and CCD. - enclose full payment in CHECK HERE cash, check or money order. top-quality, top- UKEUND'S graded 2 year old Name New, big. Ml color field grown plants only. Address GARDEN SUPPLIES STRICTLY LIMITED^ state Zip CATALOG We can make this offer ONLY ONCE THIS SEASON! ^ I The American MAY 1969

Volume 86, Number 5

CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Notify Circulation Dept., P. O. Box 1954, Indianapolis, Ind., 46206 using Post Office Form 3578. Attach old address label and give old and new addresses with ZIP Code number and current membership card number. Also be sure to notify your Post Adjutant.

The American Legion Magazine Magazine Editorial & Advertising Offices 720 Fifth Avenue New York. New York 10019

Publisher , James F. O'Neil Contents 1969 Editor for May Robert B. Pitkin

Art Editor Al Marshall

Assistant Editors A LOOK AT ATLANTA, GEORGIA John Andreola Mario V. Lubrano BY R. B. PITKIN Associate Editors A preview of the city where the Legion will hold its Roy Miller 51st Annual Convention this August 22 to 28. James S. Swarti Assistant Art Editor Walter H. Boll

Production Manager HOW PURE IS OUR FOOD? 10 Art Bretrfieid BY RAYMOND SCHUESSLER Copy Editor Even though more of us are growing fat than thin on American food Grail S. Hanford today, the purity of our food is in question on a wide Circulation Manager variety of fronts. Here's a look at some of them. Dean B. Nelson Indianapolis, Ind. Advertising Sales Representatives New York—Chicago DO WE NEED A NEW SYSTEM FOR Hubert Redden Associates, Inc. Ill West 57th Street NOMINATING PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES? 16 New York. N.Y. 10019 TWO SIDES OF A NATIONAL QUESTION 212-246-2546 pro: sen. GAYLORD NELSON (D-WIS.) California con: rep. HENRY C. (R-WIS.) SCHADEBERG JE Publishers Represenlive Co. 8380 Melrose Avenue

I, Oft Angeles, California 90069 420 Market Street THE GREAT SAN FRANCISCO FIRE AND QUAKE—1906 18 San Francisco, California 9-1111 BY THOMAS A. HOGE The American Legion An account of three days in April 1906, when a great American city Publications Commission: James E. Powers, Macon, Ga. (Chairman); was so gutted by quake and fire that it had to start over. Benjamin B. Truskoski, Bristol, Conn. (Vice

Chairman } ; Jarnes R. Kelley, Radnor, Pa.

(National Commander' s Representative ) • Lang Armstrong, Spokane, Wash.', Charles E. Booth, Huntington, /T. Va. Adolph F. Bremer, THE STORY OF SAMUEL F.B. MORSE ; Winona, Minn.; Clevis Copeland, Little Rock, AND THE TELEGRAPH 24 Ark.; Raymond Fields, Guymon, Okla.; Chris Hernandez, Savannah, Ga. Mylio S. Kraja, BY ROBERT SILVERBERG ; Youngstown, Ohio ; Russell H. Laird, Des A bit of the history of a versatile American genius who Moines, lotva; George D. Levy, Sumter, S.C.; Frank C. Love, Syracuse, turned from oil painting to science—to perfect the N.Y.; Morris Meyer, Stnrkville, Miss.; J. H, Morris, Baton Rouge, telegraph 125 years ago this month. La. Harry H. Pittsburgh, ; Schaffer, Pa. ; Stephen F. Steele, Faribault, Minn.: Bradley

J. Stephens, Los Altos, Calif. ; George B. Stover, Jonestown, Pa.; Wayne L. Talbert, Gl BILL Delphi, Ind.; J. Cornelius Tromp, Manhattan, SOME AUTHORS TODAY 33 III.; Robert H. Wilder, Dadeville, Ala.; E. Meade Wilson. Mulberry, Fla.; Edward Mr- Eight members of the original Legion team that drafted Sweeney, New York, N.Y. (Consultant) the WW2 Gl Bill of Rights met in Washington The American Legion Magazine ii published on March 14 to fill in some of the history. monthly at 1100 West Broadway. LouiBville. Ky. 40201 by The American Legion, Copyright 1969 by The American Legion. Second-class postage paid at Louisville, Ky. Price: single

copy, 20 cents ; yearly subscription, |2.00. Order nonmember subscriptions from the Cir- Departments culation Department of The American Legion. P.O. Box 1954, Indianapolis, Ind. 46206.

Editorial and advertising offices: 720 5th Are EDITOR'S CORNER 2 LIFE IN THE OUTDOORS 48 New York. N.Y. 10019. Wholly owned hv LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 4 PERSONAL 54 The American Legion, with National Head- quarters at Indianapolis. Ind. NEWS OF THE AMERICAN LEGION 46206. William 34 LEGION SHOPPER 59 C. Doyle, National Commander. DATELINE WASHINGTON 44 PARTING SHOTS 60 NONMEMBER SUBSCRIPTIONS Send name and address, including ZIP num- Manuscripts, artwork, cartoons ber, with $2 check or money order to: submitted for consideration will not be returned unless a self-addressed stamped envelope is included. Circulation Dept., P. 0. Box 1954. Indian- This magazine assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material! apolis. Ind. 46206. POSTMASTER: Send Form 3579 to P.O. Box 1954 Indianapolis, Ind. 46206

THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 1 THE REMARKS OF REP. BRAY To maintain law and order. PRESENT a "guest editorial" this WE This is one of the eternal truths of our month in the form of a speech given EDITOR'S American Republic, and it was cited in in the House of Representatives on March President Thomas Jefferson's eighth an- 4 by the Honorable William G. Bray, of CORNER nual message to Congress when he said: Indiana, to note the 50th Anniversary of "Love of liberty, obedience to law, and The American Legion. It follows: support of the public authorities, a sure Mr. BRAY. Mr. Speaker, March 15-17, guaranty of permanence of our republic." 1969, will mark the golden anniversary had smashed themselves to bits against of the founding of the American Legion. McAlexander's 38th Infantry Regiment. To foster and perpetuate a 100 percent Americanism. On those dates, 50 years ago, in Paris, Soissons lay gloomy and gray under the last few weeks the winter. France, a caucus of World War I veter- of French This idea is one often scorned in some July 1918, the French ans, responding to the idea of Col. Theo- On 18, General circles. It is charged that there is no such Magnin had wired the troops dore Roosevelt, Jr., met and laid the American thing as Americanism, let alone "100 per- that "You rushed into the fight as to a foundation for what is now the world's cent," but to those who carp, and mock, fete." largest veterans organization, with 2.6 mil- and criticize, I would respond in this fash- American and air- lion members in 16,300 posts scattered An Army American ion: It is true that our country is a melting power throughout the United States and 28 for- had been born at St. Mihiel. As pot, of all races, creeds, and nationalities. the first caucus got down to business in eign countries. A special commemorative But it is also true that this has been dis- Paris, the rusting wreckage of Lt. Frank stamp is being issued by the Post Office tilled into something found only in Amer- Luke's Spad still marked the spot where Department to mark this event. The Le- ica; it is a national will, a national ethic, the Arizona Balloon Buster, who had gion itself is giving, as a gift to the Nation, a national goal. It shows itself in a country racked up 14 victories in 8 days, and five a permanent lighting system for the Tomb that goes all out and at the expense of of them in 8 minutes, had made his last of the Unknowns in Arlington Cemetery. much blood and treasure to defeat its en- stand. Shot down and confronted by a What is that mystical thing, that special emies, then turns right around and feeds German patrol, the wild and undisciplined bond created among those who have worn these same one-time enemies and helps flying genius had shot it out rather than their country's uniform? What drew those them regain their place in the community be taken prisoner, and died with a Colt men together in 1919? Shakespeare's of nations. It is manifested in that country .45 in his hand. Henry V, exhorting his soldiers before whose citizenry gives voluntarily more of The Meuse-Argonne was quiet that the battle of Agincourt, spoke what were their private time and resources in at- March of 1919. Hill 223 had been a wasp's probably the noblest words ever written tempts to do good for others than any nest of machineguns, but "every time a to describe it: other country on earth. Yes, it is real, and, head came up, I knocked it down," said yes, certainly, it is worth fostering and He that outlives this day, and comes safe corporal, later sergeant, Alvin York. Re- perpetuating. home turning from the hill with his bag of Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named, German prisoners, York's battalion com- To preserve the memories and incidents of

. . . he'll remember with advantages mander ordered him to report directly to our associations in the Great Wars.

What feats he did that day . . . we in it the brigadier. "Well, York," said the as- shall be remembered: "We band of brothers." That mystical tounded General Lindsay, "I hear you We few, v\e happy few, we band of brothers: bond and kinship felt among men who have captured For he today that sheds his blood with me the whole damned Ger- have worn their country's uniform, and man army." "No, sir: I only have 132." Shall be my brother. . . have borne the weight of its battles, is like The men who met in Paris in 1919 to So the "band of brothers" met in Paris nothing else on earth. Those who have found the American Legion could not in March 1919. The guns of "the war to seen the face of war are also those most foresee that within 50 years the ranks of the end all wars" had been silent for only eager and dedicated to preserving their Legion comrades would be swelled 4 months. Less than 2 years before, on peace they have helped to secure. by veterans of three more wars. Their June 13, 1917, a grimy English Channel sense of individual obliga- love for their country, their belief and To inculcate a steamer had landed the first of what were tion to the community, State and Nation. faith in its ideals, and their hopes for its to be 2 million American soldiers in future had been forged and strengthened "Individual obligation"—something all France: 177 men, headed by a tall, slim, in the fiery crucible of World War I that too often cast aside today, trampled in the cold-eyed major general named John J. had dragged the United States for all time dust by the new theories that the individual Pershing. into the position of major world power. is neither responsible for nor owes his March 1919 the first year of what all — Whether they knew the direction their community, State, and Nation anything, hoped and, at that time, had reason to country would take in the years to come, but that society collectively both owes the assume was perpetual peace, but no man no man knows. But we can be sure that individual all, and is morally guilty of that it knew was only the beginning of a they knew of the latent potential strength whatever transgressions the individual 20-year armistice. Behind the "band of and possibilities that lay within the "band commits. This is a sentiment totally alien fields brothers" were the green around a of brothers" and, so, as the preamble to to all enlightened concepts of human na- sleepy little village in Picardy called the Legion constitution states, they deter- ture. Restoration of this sense of individual Cantigny: the surrounding plots of forest mined that "For God and Country we as- obligation is what the country needs now had sheltered 90 German artillery bat- sociate ourselves together for the follow- more than at any other time in its history. teries. On the night of May 3, 1918, the ing purposes." Let us reflect on this pre- To combat the autocracy of both the classes 18th Infantry of the American 1st Divi- amble, for within its phrases and what and the masses. sion, soon to get its immortal name of they mean lie the objectives and forces 1," despotism, like "Big Red was hammered with 15,000 that have made the American Legion the Dictatorship, can come banners that rounds of artillery. Two hundred died; powerful and moving force for good that thieves in the night, under 600 were or gassed; long lines proclaim, falsely, equal justice and liberty wounded it has become. of Doughboys stretched back to the rear, and prosperity for all. It is not restricted uphold and defend the Constitution of led like blind men, hands on shoulders To to one certain political creed, this danger; the United States of America. of the man in front. is not confined to one social or economic At Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood What could be more fitting for an open- class alone, and not to be found in another. the French were just beginning to dig up ing phrase? Our country stands upon its The danger is demagoguery in all forms, the first of thousands of brass machine- Constitution, that document termed by that rends a nation, divides its people, fills gun cartridge cases from their fields and the great English statesman Gladstone "the them with fear and foreboding, and then orchards; they would swear the metal most remarkable work known to me m sees them turn to the first mountebank and tainted the fruit for years afterwards. The modern times to have been produced by charlatan who promises them relief from grass was soon to come up again on hill the human intellect, at a single stroke—so their troubles. All have a role to fulfill; 231, overlooking the Marne at Varennes, to speak—in its application to political none has a right to impose tyrannical rule where the German 5th and 6th Grenadiere affairs." on the rest.

2 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 . . —

To make right the master of might.

None need fear the power of another if

those who wield it do so only in the name of what is right, and at the call and plea of those who are oppressed. When a The country is granted power, it also takes on

the solemn obligation to use it only for honorable causes and in defense of the rights of free men. DunkTest. To promote peace and good will on earth.

No nobler objective could be cited, and,

sadly enough, at times it seems that nothing can be farther from achievement by mankind than good will among all and the

blessings of peace. But it is a goal to be kept eternally fixed and worked for, and never to be forgotten.

To safeguard and transmit to posterity the principles of justice, freedom and democracy.

If these principles, strong and un- tarnished and shining, can be passed on to future generations, then that genera- tion which has gone before will know their work was well done, and their duty to those who come after them has been faithfully and conscientiously carried out. If these principles endure, then so does the Nation and its people. If they fail, then the Nation and people decline and ultimately fall. And a sacred trust will have been betrayed.

To consecrate and sanctify our comrade- ship by our devotion to mutual helpfulness.

When men band together, no matter what the reason and no matter what the bond, they take upon themselves responsi- bilities and duties that make this very association an outstanding and special thing. "Mutual helpfulness" is a simple term, but as is so often the case with simple and uncomplicated statements, it speaks more truth than volumes of empty rhetoric. Fifty years have gone by, and the men of three more wars—World War II, Korea, and now Vietnam—have joined the ranks begun by their comrades-in-arms who went "over there." Cantigny, Soissons, the Marne, Chateau-Thierry, the list has lengthened to include Pearl Harbor, Guad- Dunk an unopened Kentucky Club pouch into a tank full of water and what alcanal, Halfaya Pass, Anzio, Salerno, happens? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Because the pouch is sealed! Omaha Beach, St.-Lo, Okinawa, Tarawa, Water can't seep in. So obviously air can't get in, either. And freshness Pusan, Inchon, the Chosin Reservoir, and can't leak out. Now you know how we can guarantee you fresh tobacco: the newest additions of the Rock Pile, Da 48% fresher than any brand in ordinary pouches. Because we're the only Nang, Khe Sanh, Plei Me, and the Me- ones who seal a pouch. Try a free package of ours and see for yourself. kong Delta. Just send us the coupon and an empty pouch of what you're now smoking The American Legion represents some (any brand but ours). We think you'll agree your taste never had it so fresh. of the finest of America's sons; its ideals, goals, and objectives reflect the highest —— FREE OFFER TO PIPE SMOKERS ——— strivings of our Nation; its role in our r Republic's life has a value that can never Mail to: Fresh Tobacco, Box R, Wheeling, W. Va. 26003 be calculated. With its first 50 years of Gentlemen: Here's my ordinary pouch. Now I'd like to try a full-sized service "to God and Country" behind it, package with that sealed-in freshness you promised me. the American Legion and the country it serves can look ahead with confidence to many more years of the Legion playing a Name. significant and important role in the life of the Nation. the end Address CHANGE OF ADDRESS Notify Circulation Dept., P. O. Box City. 1954, Indianapolis, Ind. 46206, using Post Office Form 3578. Attach old address label and give old and new state addresses with zip code and current membership card number. Also be Zip. sure to notify your Post Adjutant. Offer good in U.S.A. only. Sorry, only one to a customer,

THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 ,

Gl BILL OF RIGHTS sir: If the majority of non-Legion vet- LETTERS TO THE EDITOR erans were able to read "How the First GI Bill Was Written" (January, Feb- ruary 1969) and grasped the great amount of time, labor and money that it Letters published do not necessarily ex- ing £Uid retesting every square foot. Al- cost The American Legion to put through press the policy of The American Legion. Keep letters short. Name and address miist though Paul Ditzel, your author, doesn't the bill for the sole benefit of the vet- be furnished. Expressions of opinion and mention it in his article, Dr. Reed told erans of WW2, Korea and Vietnam, then requests personal services are appreci- for "layers ated, but they cannot be acknowledged or us that the basic armament was a vast number of them would, I feel, be- answered, due to lack of magazine staff for of railroad rails strapped and bolted to come members. You have done a very these purposes. Requests for personal serv- the sides of the ship" and then covered ices which may be legitimately asked of great service. The American Legion should be made to with iron plates. Dr. Reed was my earli- Charles R. Harvey your Post Service Officer or your state (Department) American Legion Hq. Send est link with history and many of us will Castleton, Vt. letters to the editor to: Letters, The be forever grateful to this great gentle- American Legion Magazine, 720 5th Ave- man for taking the time to talk to us. nue, New York, N.Y. 10019. sir: I would like to suggest that the two- Patrick Beville part article on the GI Bill of Rights be THE BLOOD SHORTAGE Huntington, W.Va. printed in some form, such as a booklet, sir: I must congratulate Mr. Tom Ma- that can be sent to our yoimg veterans. CORRECTION honey for his excellent article, "Why is it It could very likely bring in many new Tough to Get Blood?" (April). It reads sir: Past National Commander O. L. Bo- members. Also, such a booklet would denhamer (1929-30), of Arkansas, is well; it is full of information and it help Legionnaires, myself included, manifests a good understanding of the given the first name of Oscar in the when these young men ask why they complexities of the problem. March issue. His name was Ossie Lee should join The American Legion. They James M. Stengle, m.d. Bodenhamer (though I am not sure I can be shovm why and told how the Chief, National Blood have spelled the first name correctly) . I Legion worked for them while they were Resource Branch served with him at Camp Stanley, Texas, in the service. National Heart Institute and nominated him for National Com- Sam Katz Bethesda, Md. mander at San Antonio in 1928, a year New York, N.Y. before he was actually elected. I cherish THE EMBLEM'S MEANING the memory of his friendship. Otherwise, sir: a big mystery to me, a 50-year sir: Thank you for the article, "The the March issue rekindled fond memo- Legionnaire, is why many of the men Meaning of The American Legion Em- ries, and I wish you could have printed who served in World War Two do not blem" (March). I have been a Legion- many more pages and photos of early join the Legion. Most of them today are history. naire for 24 years and I can't recall ever Legion in positions that can be directly credited Raymond L. Olson seeing before any explanation of what to the GI Bill of Rights' education pro- in Denver, Colo. the different symbols the emblem visions. In my office, from which I re- mean. cently retired, there are five men, all Harold F. Waters The late Past National Commander Bo- WW2 vets and all benefitting from the Manchester Depot, Vt. denhamer used the initials O.L. offi- GI Bill, yet not one is a Legionnaire. cially, and his first name is not carried Ross L. Perryman very in Legion records. Some years ago, his sir: We wish to thank you for the New Orleans, La. interesting article concerning The Amer- first name appeared as Oscar through ican Legion Emblem. Very few of us some error now uncheckable, and our Let's hope it's not for lack of being March issue repeated the error. Who's really knew the true thought behind the invited emblem, which embodies the knowledge Who in America listed him as Osee Lee and spirit of what we believe in. Bodenhamer in 1923. sir: I would like to take the opportunity Members to pay a special compliment to you and THE POST OFFICE (Cont'd.) Canisteo Post 846 your associates for publishing "How the Canisteo, N.Y. sir: I was intrigued by your article First GI Bill Was Written." I wonder "What's Wrong With the Post Office?" what effect it would have if this item

(February) . I was surprised to learn TESTING THE MERRIMAC were to be republished and distributed that a special commission had to be ap- sir: "The Fantastic Struggles of the among the various posts. I think it could pointed over million Monitor and the Merrimac" (March) and spend a dol- be valuable from a public relations point lars to tell things that anyone was a first-class story, and I would like us who of view. to add a little extra story to the one you has worked in the Post Office for many Samuel M. Hollander told. In my hometown of Blackstone, Va., years has known for a long time. How Livingston, N.J. from about 1916 until his death about can new ideas or procedures work when 1935 at close to 90 years of age, our most the "head," the Postmaster General, is sir: I suggest that the article on the distinguished citizen was retired Metho- changed so often, at least as often as a writing of the GI Bill be published in dist Minister Dr. Jesse Reed, older new Administration is brought in? The pamphlet form and made available to aU brother of Dr. Walter Reed, the con- best solution is to allow the Post Office posts for their membership drives. queror of yellow fever. In my days in to be run by experienced men who have Wallace D. Simpkins school there, Dr. Reed, as a guest teacher, learned the business over the years and Greenhills, Ohio made history, especially the Civil War, have their heart in its problems and come alive for us. He was tall and progress. sir: The article on the GI BiU was a straight with thick white hair and had a Thomas J. Condon most appropriate Legion 50th Anniver- big, booming voice. Hingham, Mass. sary Feature. Looking back on our One of his lectures was the part he Legion history, I cannot doubt that the played in getting the Merrimac ready for sir: The article was no less factual than country has been most fortunate in the battle. Dr. Reed was an Arty. 1st Lt., and enlightening. Improvements within the very high ideals that our Fotmders lost an arm early in the war. He was Post Office are imminent, and career brought to bear in establishing The kept on active duty. One of the assign- postal workers will be among the first American Legion £ind in those men re- ments his Arty. Battery had was to test to applaud beneficial changes. sponsible for originating this Bill and the armaments on the raised and re- John L. Albright staying with it to its becoming the law stored Merrimac (Virginia) . He told us United Federation of Postal Clerks of the land. that for weeks his artillerymen fired Local 120 Tom B. Watkins point blank at the sides of the ship, test- Akron, Ohio Fredonia, N.Y.

4 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 GIFT TO THE NATION activated on Sept. 25, 1967, as the AMER- penditures of large sums of money aren't sir: Both my father and brother receive ICAL, received our colors in Oct. 1967 as the answer to the gun traffic," he said. the Legion magazine every month and the AMERICAL and publish our official One important step toward a solution two copies are most welcome. Since my orders, correspondence, daily bulletins, would be for Congress to ban import of newspapers and historical documents brother and I both teach school, we quite all hand guns and all other non-sporting under the In fact, often are able to use articles in our name AMERICAL. types of firearms. Another solution very few of our soldiers know there is a classrooms. In addition, my class col- should be better enforcement of existing number connected with the division. laws against criminal lected a sum of money for the "Gift to use of firearms. These future members of The American Once these steps are taken the much the Nation" drive. We want to be a part Legion will be quite confused if you advocated gun-registration laws will of the permanent Legion Archives. be mention the 23rd Infantry Division, since Colette Wallace non-essential. they will never have heard of it. How- Austin, Minn. Hugh D. Adair ever, at some high level they do think San Antonio, Tex. we are 23rd Inf Div (Americal). sir: My contribution to "Gift to the Na- You are entirely correct about the tion" in DONATION IN LIEU OF FLOWERS was made grateful apprecia- mistaken identity, but you didn't go far sir: We contribute a floral piece at fu- tion for what our men have sacrificed enough. The AMERICAL has achieved nerals of departed comrades. More and their lives for—our country and our flag. the most outstanding combat record in more it is becoming the custom to sug- May all of us always be so willing to Vietnam, having a highest overall kill gest a cash donation to a personal char- defend our country's honor! ratio and physically controlling or ity in lieu of flowers. Accordingly, it was Patricia L. Searles patrolling the largest area. But it re- voted at a recent meeting to contact the Schenectady, N.Y. ceives little publicity in the U.S. press next kin because when typesetters see "Ameri- of of any departed comrade and in accordance with their desire, either AMERICAL VS. 23RD DIVISION cal Division," they change it to "Ameri- to send a floral piece or in the sir: In the January issue of the Americal can division." We don't object to being a check Newsletter, several letters received by called Americans, but wish they'd quit departed's name to our local Veterans your magazine and your reply regarding knocking the L out of us, since two NVA Hospital's Recreation or Donation Fund. Americal versus 23rd Division were re- divisions and numerous VC haven't been The past month we lost two comrades. In produced. I am sure you received your able to do it in IV2 years. each instance the next of kin expressed a information from some official source, Maj. Paul B. Parham, FA desire to have a contribution in lieu of but it brings to light a battle of tradition APO San Francisco flowers made to our local VA Hospital. and pride versus the computer age. Perhaps Legion Posts might want to give You state that the Americal "has been FOREIGN HAND GUNS INFLUX this some consideration. It would afford serving in Vietnam as the 23rd." At De- sir: In a recent speech, James E. Bar- additional pleasure to our sick and partment of the Army level this may be, low, District Attorney in San Antonio, wounded veterans, as well as showing since our name will not fit on punch pointed uot the evils done by the influx our respect to the departed. cards. But in Vietnam, we are the of cheap foreign hand guns. "Appoint- HoLLis E. Dudley AMERICAL Division. We were officially ments of study commissions and ex- Swampscott, Mass.

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THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 5 A Look

By R. B. PITKIN

SOMEONE HAD proposcd 20 ycars IF ago that the Legion hold its Na- tional Convention in Atlanta, Ga., he'd have been met with a scornful, "Where on earth would they put us?"

And that would have been the end of it.

This year, the Legion will hold its

5 1 St Annual Convention in Atlanta. Even though the Legion's convention is bigger than the Republicans' or the Democrats', Atlanta will have no problem at all in hosting its people and their activities in clean, modern, ample, cen- trally located, air-conditioned comfort. Most Legionnaires will be housed well, along about a IV2 mile stretch on, or within a few blocks of, Peachtree Street. The Legion's main activities will occur along that same stretch, some closer to one end of it, some closer to the other.

The big, brand new Municipal Sta-

dium is home for the major league base- ball Braves, the major league football Falcons and the major league soccer

Chiefs, and is rated at 57.000 capacity. But the Legion will actually use Georgia Tech's Grant Field for its big show on the night of Sunday, August 24. Grant Field holds 59,000. and locals say this

will be the first time it hosted anything but football. If cabs are short, traffic crowded or parking space tight on the night of the big pageant, you could stroll to Grant Field in 20 minutes from the The Marriott Motor Hotel, official headquarters for the American Legion Auxiliary. eye-catching Regency Hyatt House (which will be the Legion's headquar-

ters hotel). The field is only a few blocks from some of the other hotels and motels the Legion will use. The Regency Hyatt House Hotel, officia Legion headquarters hotel in Atlanta. When in Atlanta, do not ask if Grant Field is named for Ulysses S. Grant, if But if a big turnout should require hous- you are a friendly sort. John Thomas ing some conventioneers further out, Grant and his son, William D., were they might cry all the way to the swim- business and industrial leaders who ming pool. Overflow motels are available played a leading role in rebuilding At- at the airport south of town on Inter- lanta to commercial prominence again state 75 and 85, and northeast of town after the Civil War. on Interstate 85. These are among At- Atlanta has two brand new meeting lanta's newest, finest, guest facilities, halls only a few yards apart, either of while the freeways lead from them to which could hold the convention's busi- the center of Atlanta in 10 to 12 minutes. ness sessions. They are the Auditorium Atlanta has two big stadia, each capa- and the Exhibit Hall at the city's new ble of holding 50,000 or more people for Civic Center. Either is as sparkling, cool the Legion's great annual pageant, the and comfortable as any in the land, and national junior and senior drum and they are backed up by a huge parking Inside of the Regency's 21-story-high bugle corps championships, or Parade lot. The Legion will hold its public lobby, or Inner court, with balconies in of Champions. onto which all guest rooms open. Memorial Service the Auditorium on

THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 —

ivention this August 22 to 28.

^ NORTH ST.— , ^ , ,

Atlanta's freeway-fed downtown area. Most features are new.

Sunday afternoon, August 24. This event gency, and it will house some 700 distin- overflowed a fairly large hotel ballroom guished guests, national officials and na- PINE ST. in New Orleans last year, but the Atlanta tional committee and commission mem- Civic Center Auditorium has 4,600 seats. bers. The Legion will hold its three-day busi- The Regency, of course, is the Atlanta iuj CURRIER ness sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday hotel you've seen pictures of. With its and Thursday, August 26, 27, 28 in the 21 -story-high lobby (or inner court) it's /b^RRESrsf adjoining Exhibit Hall, which cati hold the eyestopper among eyestoppers of 10,000. The Civic Center fills the space American hotels. The guest rooms aren't between Forrest and Pine Streets on on halls, but on balconies overlooking PARAD r^„,— BAKER ST. Piedmont, where a rundown neighbor- the inner court-lobby (and each has an ROUT QETH^REGENCf] J hood was ripped out recently. It is only outside balcony, too) . On the three outer ' HARRIS, ~Zi , a few blocks walk from either the Re- sides of a vertical, rectangular column : do _D gency or the Marriott Motor Hotel. that stands out from one side of the CAIN ST. , ^ The excellently-appointed Marriott lobby, five gold trimmed, glass elevators .HjHEMARRjOTT will be the Auxiliary's official head- ride up and down in full view or disap- quarters hotel, and the site of the Auxil- pear into a hole in the 22nd floor en iary's annual giant social function. The route to the mushroom-shaped skytop States Dinner. The big Phoenix Room Polaris restaurant and observation in the Regency will take on the National lounge. In the lobby, trees grow; tropical Commander's Dinner to Distinguished birds squawk in their aviary; the Parasol Guests. Most of the Legion's committees cocktail lounge rises on a stem, again and commissions will meet in the Re- mindful of a mushroom—with a spiral '/y/v/y/y/- staircase up its stalk. In the lobby center stands a four-story high, glass-contained water fountain. It's all sort of the Arabian Nights of modern American Map. Just northeast of downtown Atlanta, the main Legion hostelry. There's a point near the en- convention activities and many of the hotels and motels used trance called "profanity corner." That's will be concentrated in the area shown in detail. Grant Field, first the lobby at Georgia Tech, will host the drum and bugle corps champ- where newcomers see and ionships. Parade route moves down Peachtree to disband on say: "Well I'll be a so-and-so." Marietta in downtown area. Convention sessions and Memorial The general area of the Legion activi- Service will be at Civic Center. Legion headquarters hotel is ties is just north of downtown Atlanta's the Regency, where most commissions and committees will central Points." in meet. Marriott is Auxiliary hq. "Five There, 1836, railway builder Col. Stephen H. Long had a stake driven in sparsely set- tled north central Georgia near the Chat-

THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 7 —

Then, imperceptibly, Atlanta grew old CONTINUED A look at Atlanta, Georgia and out of date in everything but its business activities, until—in the last 15 tahoochee River, below Peachtree Creek, confound any Northerner who may have years, and especially the last five or so not far from an Indian village called depicted Atlanta as a sleepy old mag- the city turned to the Phoenix again.

The Standing Peachtree. Colonel Long nolia and mint julep town that had In the 1960's it has torn itself apart announced that his stake would be the yawned its way through many a yassuh and rebuilt itself at a pace exceeding

end of the Western and Atlantic Railroad since ole marse Oglethorpe done set it that of any city in the land. Today it out of Tennessee, and the center of a up right after De Soto. It's a new city can boast of its ultra-modernity, while spiderweb to which rails from west, by American historical standards, a cen- the process of ripping out and rebuild- east and south would connect. tury and more younger than Richmond, ing still goes on, unabated.

Today, freeway exits off of Interstate Savannah, Charleston, Augusta or New The city is, for all that, a terrible place

Entrance hall to Atlanta's new Memorial Arts Center on Peachtree St. N.E. near 15th Street.

85 and 75 (they merge) at either Cain Orleans. From its beginnings it was for a stranger to find his way around. or Peachtree Streets turn you loose within more like Dallas than Deep South. Busi- But don't tell that to Mayor Ivan Allen. a couple of blocks of the chief conven- ness—rails, factories, commerce, insur- He said it before you, and other natives tion activities. Back in Long's day the ance, banking, wholesalers, traveling said it before him. He said, in fact, that area was very much a wilderness. They salesmen—was always at its heart. It has Atlanta must build an underground built a railway town around his stake and never bragged of anything more than transportation system because all the

called it Terminius. that it was and is the true commercial money in the country couldn't straighten It was a rough, construction-gang heart of the Southeast, a boast that the out her streets. (That is how the National town, chiefly inhabited by railway labor- U.S. Commerce Department backs up Geographic magazine quoted him in an ers and their auxiliary services and para- with figures. It had few slaveholders be- excellent piece on Atlanta in its Fdiu- sites. fore the Civil War, and its sentimental ary issue this year). In 1843 the name was changed to and emotional ties to the Old South were The little map we publish with this Marthasville, and in 1845 to Atlanta (as forged more in passion and blood than should help you find your way around the feminine of "Atlantic," out of the in its origins. the main areas of Legion activity this name of the Western and Atlantic Rail- The battles that raged around and in August. But you will find such things as road). The rail construction suffered the Atlanta in the summer of 1864, and its West Peachtree Street paralleling Peach- usual financial delays. By 1850 the town virtually complete destruction that No- tree Street N.E. a block away and joining

still wasn't much. Nearby Decatur was vember, made it Southern in its memories with it at both ends sooner or later. Sun- more of a place. During these years, At- and outlook far more than any cultural dry other Peachtree circles, places, lanes lanta went through a history we more tradition could have done to this frontier or courts intersect or lie nearby. There often associate with the west. The para- town turned commercial. And in spite are, in fact, 15 streets, avenues, places, sites of the rail camps—the gamblers and of its Deep South tradition, so stirringly etc., with the word Peachtree in them in toughs—lorded it over the more peace- told by Margaret Mitchell in "Gone the city proper. There are numerous ful folk. Finally, a good guy was elected With the Wind," Atlanta has always Ivies, Mariettas, Howells, Hollies, Glen- mayor. He declared violent war on the been more cosmopolitan than sectional. woods, etc., among the profusion of bad guys and brought law east of the Almost 30 years ago, Georgia's Gover- streets bearing similar names. Chattahoochee. Thus ended the 1850 nor Ellis Arnall noted that only 25% Atlanta needs more street names than struggle of Mayor John Norcross and of the people of Atlanta were natives. many other cities. They say the cows laid his "Moral Party" vs. the "Rowdy The predominance of its businesses and out the streets in the old days. In any Party." schools attract people from all over. The event, so many streets start, go a few It was only in the 14 years between city is hustle and bustle, growth and blocks and stop or change direction, that 1850 and November 14, 1864, that At- progress, today. It is reliving its life as names were needed in abundance. Then lanta grew to such importance that Union a Phoenix, in the 1960's, as it did origi- again, early whim dictated that many a General William Tecumseh Sherman nally after the Civil War. perfectly straight street should change its

elected to destroy the city on the latter They rebuilt Atlanta after Sherman name before it should go too far. Thus,

date as a strategic blow to the Confed- burned it, as fast and as jerrybuilt as Courtland turns to Juniper before you

eracy in the Civil War. Strategic it was. they could, to keep out the snow and know what happened. Atlanta isn't alone

By then the spiderweb of rails had made rain. Then they tore it down piecemeal in this bit of whimsey. But having

Atlanta both the transportation hub and and built it better in the late 1870's and adopted it, it did it up brown. It still isn't

the industrial and commercial center of 1 880's. And they chose as their symbol as hard on a stranger as Washington, the South. the Phoenix, the bird that rose from its D.C., where the street you're driving

Even this little history is enough to ashes. turns to something else even though you

8 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 space for Legionnaires who stay there, except one. Of course ail the new ones make sure to build in parking for guests, but the old ones have added it." The ex- ception is the snazzy Regency, which has plenty of parking space but makes a small

daily charge for it.

The food situation is excellent, as it is in most highly commercial cities that need eating facilities for large numbers of traveling businessmen on expense accounts and white collar workers downtown. Atlanta has more than one of that fairly new institution, the comfortable restaurant and lounge atop a skyscraper.

The Top O' Peachtree is a high class restaurant and lounge on the 30th floor of the National Bank of Georgia build- WIDE WORLD

Civic Center, wliere main Legion convention sessions will be held, is in foreground.

Grant Field, at Georgia Tech, site of drum and bugle corps championships.

ing, right at the Five Points, even as the Polaris dining facilities atop the Regency overlook the city. Stouffer's "Top Of The Mart" looks out from the 22nd floor of the big, new Merchandise Mart downtown. Good steakhouses and other high- class restaurants abound downtown and for a considerable distance out Peach- tree Street, as well as in many other areas of the city. They exist separately, and in the hotels and motels. Cafeterias and luncheonettes are at hand for the quick snack, the weight watcher or the budget eater. When we found crowds standing in line for breakfast at the Regency, we

beat it across the street to the older Henry Grady Hotel. There we ate well and fast and were back before our turn Stone Mountain, 16 miles east of city, with Civil War carvings started in the by 1920s would have come to be seated at the Gutzon Borglum, and now being finished. Stone Mountain has many tourist attractions. Regency's Kobnhaven "Sidewalk Cafe."

know it continues under its own name we could do it right. What do you think?" (It's not a sidewalk cafe, it's in that same somewhere. No question. Almost all the facilities fabulous lobby with afl the other eye- course, it's Of the fantastic job At- the Legion will use or need are either stoppers. ) lanta has done in recent years to rebuild brand new or rebuilt (or don't need re- On the recommendation of a native, itself that accounts for its sudden capac- doing). Not only are many of the avail- we went out West Peachtree to about ity to hold the Legion's convention with able hotels and motels brand new, but 5th street to lunch at Fan and Bill's. We ease, comfort and convenience. Ten many of the old ones have remade them- came away full and happy, with a sense years ago it couldn't have done it. Five selves. The huge old Sheraton-Biltmore of having done something in style. We years it ago might have tried, but left was a mass of plaster dust and workmen confess that we only looked at many of something to be desired. George Os- when we inspected it in February, it's the other class restaurants and night borne, the Georgia American Legion's whole insides being made over for sum- spots—the 7 Steers at 689 Peachtree; able Adjutant—and President of its Con- mer occupancy in the modern hotel con- Ruby Red's nightclub on Ellis near the vention Corporation—told us this win- cept. Said Osborne: "Every hotel or Marriott; the El Morocco nightery at ter: "We didn't put in a bid until we felt motel we'll use has free auto parking (Continued on page 54) THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 9 By RAYMOND SCHUESSLER

easy to trip over the title of this It's article. Common sense says that our How Pure food is pretty good, so why question its purity? The American people probably eat considerably more than a trillion items is Our Food? of food a year, counting each thing eaten by each person at each meal as one item. We are the best nourished nation on Even though more of us are growing fat than thin on earth, and perhaps in all history. Our

life span is increasing all the time. More us suffer from eating too much than of American food today, the purity of our food is in too little. En masse we are certainly well fed, and our food, by the trillions of items, is good nourishment up to the question on a wide variety of fronts. point where we eat too much of it. Meanwhile, our food industries are stuff- ing us with goodies from the greatest national pantry ever known. not a food poisoning. In a 1964 message tion and Environmental Health Service, By most standards, there seems little to Congress, President Johnson said: has said that every American may suffer question about the purity of our food. "Thousands of common household items at least a mild food poisoning each year. But.

are available . . . which contain poten- This because many discomforts that we But most standards don't apply to tially harmful substances. Hundreds of attribute to something else may be food food. One confirmed food poisoning in new uses of such products as food addi- poisoning. The Public Health Service has a million servings is too much, even if tives, food coloring and pesticides are noted that many minor cases of upset it reads like a wonderfully small number. found each year, adding new potential stomach, thought perhaps to be a virus Nobody is supposed to get anything but hazards." "Potential" is a key word, infection going the rounds, or some such good from the food he eats. there is so much worry today that "safe" thing, may actually come from "food- Yet if we count all the little tummy- food additives and contaminants aren't borne microbial germs." It cited scien- aches and upchucks, as well as the far safe as a steady diet, however harmless tific investigations which, it said, left "no fewer headlined cases of acute or deadly they may be during a short test. This has doubt" about it. So, in spite of all our food poisoning (ranging from botulism often been found to be true in the past. goodies, the question of the purity of our to salmonella), some experts have it that Some public health authorities put food is very much alive. millions if not all of us suffer some sort actual American food poisonings loosely It is alive in old ways, with the per- of food poisoning each year. at between 200,000 and 1,000,000 a sistence of filth and foreign matter in Such estimates differ chiefly because year. Others don't hesitate to put it at some of our food and of unsanitary con- of uncertainty about what is and what is 2,000,000. Dr. John J. Hanlon, Deputy ditions that still escape policing. Administrator of the Consumer Protec- It is also alive in new ways. Mass agriculture: mass food processing; mass food preserving; mass milk, cheese, meat

C PESTICIDE pert) ( HORMONE LAB ANTIBIOTIC DIV.)

Mass food growing, preparing, preserving and marketing have introduce

10 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 Hi and egg production, and mass food Zi marketing to get the yummies onto your supermarket shelf have changed so many practices that questions about food purity exist today that never were before. Today we even have "unsafe food" problems that are nobody's fault because they are everybody's. One of the forms of pollution you may not have read

about is "nitrogen pollution." We are loading our soil, air and water with nitrogen compounds at a faster rate than nature does. Sewage, auto and factory fumes, and fertilizers are the chief sources of the growing overdose of nitrates in our total environment. The basic nitrate ion is NO3—one atom of nitrogen and three of oxygen. It is being fed into foodplants and washed out of the air and soil into our streams, lakes and underground water at a rate called dangerous.

In ponds it feeds some algae so well that they choke the water and take all its oxygen. In the human body, the NO3 (which is fairly harmless) may break

new practices whose long-range effects on the eater are still unknown.

THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 H cause of spoilage by rats, birds, insects, ;ONTINUED How Pure is Our Food? chemicals or disapproved artificial additives. down to NOo (nitrite). NO, interferes are plenty of them. Why? The very size A well-known cola company pleaded with the abihty of the red blood cells of our food industry (and, say some, the no contest not long ago to three counts to handle oxygen. An excess of it is espe- inadequacy of our pure food laws) is that charged it with shipping its product cially bad for children in their first three a culprit. The industry is so huge and in dirty bottles. A national donut chain years. A French pediatrician has set 300 complex that the ability of the federal was fined and put on probation for three parts of nitrate per million in foodstuffs Food and Drug Administration and state years because the flour it used had been as the limit of safety for children (he agencies to police food purity is rated stored in a building that was exposed may or may not be right). Recent in- low by their critics. to living and dead insects. A producer vestigation found much more than that In ordinary matters of food purity, the of canned sauerkraut had its product in some baby foods, and as much as big brand name companies and other removed from the marketplace because 1,200 parts per million in baby food members of food and grocery chain as- it contained parts of maggots and other spinach tested. sociations are more concerned than any- vermin. Nobody has an answer to nitrogen one else that nobody should suffer food Other examples: metal fragments in pollution today. It is just being watched poisoning. They are the first to be hurt chocolate bars; rodent filth in 143 tons with alarm. So far, actual human harm after the victim. Leaders in the food in- of spices—mostly black pepper; bird ex- has been observed more in Europe than dustry shudder at the memory of what creta in canned coffee; insects in canned here. happened to the sale of tuna fish (it col- green beans; rodent excreta in packaged Fertilizers are producing perhaps lapsed) after food poisonings in Detroit flour. most of the excess nitrates in our food in 1963. But there's a diTerence between poi- and water. Stop using them? Many a The big food companies have set up soning and filth. Filth may be repulsive pantry would be empty if we did. Fer- rigid quality controls. The food industry but harmless, while poisoning may be tilizers are the key to the quantity of trade associations bombard their mem- deadly. food to which we are now geared. Some- bers with whole alphabets of precautions Nobody knows how much acute food thing (nobody knows what) will have to that they should take and standards that poisoning Americans suffer. The Na- give, because the quantity of nitrates in they and their employees should follow. tional Research Council has ventured a our environment is going nowhere but Yet the industry is so big and varied that startling guess that it might be as high as up. it still needs more policing. 7 to 10 million cases, though no such How about avoidable practices that That's not to say that federal and local large figures can be confirmed. may stick you with impure food? There governments don't regularly seize and Confirmed deaths from food poison- destroy carloads of polluted foods. ing are not in the field of large numbers. In any one month, more than a mil- Total dysentery deaths run about 100 a pounds of food are confiscated be- year in the United States (not all from American food); botulism, chiefly from

spoiled foods, is as rare as it is deadly. But these, along with salmonella and the

still unknown cumulative effects of some food additives or pesticide residues are areas of great concern. Except for botu- ILLUSTRATED BY JAMES FLORA lism, they lie very largely outside the field of cleanliness and care in food handling. In spite of voluntary efforts by the food industry and intensive study and control by the Food and Drug Adminis- tration, salmonella defies efforts to eradi-

cate it. It's a bacterial disease which manages to get around in a large variety of foods and medicines. In Feb. 1968, the FDA reported that

L iUs^!^ [T^

Congress is looking into the adequacy of the present policing of our

12 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 —

there had been 85 instances of recalling nated products is a goal our industry is pesticides, misuse of them in the field foods and drugs from the market in 1967 striving hard to attain." A host of food under existing standards, and warnings because of salmonella contamination. In industry associations, universities, other about lack of standards. Sweden, 202 cases of acute infection had federal agencies and state agencies have In Sept. 1968, the U.S. General Ac- been attributed to consumption of thy- joined with the FDA in attempts to make counting Office let loose a blast, in a roid tablets contaminated with salmon- salmonella say "uncle." report to Congress, against weak en- ella before the pills were recalled. If salmonella is the bad boy among forcement of pesticide laws by the Ag- The U.S. National Communicable unconquered infectious agents in food ricultural Research Service of the De- Disease Center reported more than 20,- (there are others), the things that are partment of Agriculture. The GAO said 000 known cases of human salmonella intentionally and unintentionally added that the Pesticide Regulation Division of infection in 1966, while the FDA re- to foods draw a whole spectrum of criti- the ARS had not been aggressive at all

ported 69 known deaths from it in 1967. cism these days. in protecting the public from the resi- (It can range from mild malaise to seri- Unintentional additives would include dues of "misbranded, adulterated or un- ous illness.) The FDA added that the the familiar pesticides of the DDT fam- registered" bug killers that are sprayed figures were probably much too low, be- ily, and the less-familiar nitrates. Rachel on food crops. It said that in the fiscal cause only a fraction of the cases are Carson's book "Silent Spring," with its year 1967 the division had not taken any recognized and reported. imaginative end of the world, set off the action to prosecute violators of the pes- A recent classic outbreak of sal- current outcry about pesticides. Nobody ticides control law. monella gave support to those who urge knows the seriousness of the problem. In fact, said the GAO, "there have that all states should meet at least the Those who felt that Miss Carson's pre- been no actions by the ARS to report same food standards as the federal gov- diction of doom was fact, rather than violations of the law for prosecution in ernment requires in interstate trade. fiction, are already convinced that our 13 years." The GAO went on to report Some 14 different salmonella outbreaks, use of modern pesticides will wipe us out that of 2,751 pesticides tested in the involving 1,800 known cases of illness, one day. DDT and the insect killers that fiscal year 1966, 750 were found to be were traced to a frozen dessert and followed it have been used so widely to in violation of the law, and of these blamed on salmonella-bearins egg yolks eradicate crop pests that they are now 562 were major offenses. In the next used in it. The FDA projected a figure a part of our total environment. Each year, the GAO stated, 4,958 pesticides of between 9,000 and 21,000 unreported of us is building up a residue of pesti- were tested, of which 1,147 were in vio- illnesses that might have been traced to sides inside him which our bodies do not lation. It said that ARS didn't have the same course. The egg yolks were pre- eliminate. The average American's body enough data to track down defective pared locally, and not in interstate trade, fat is said to contain about 12 parts per products. and escaped the FDA regulation that million of DDT today. There is no sure In a spot check a few years ago, Food this they be pasteurized. proof that is hurting us now. Tests and Drug Administration officials seized Salmonella is most often traced to ani- on chemical workers in California who two carloads of lettuce which were found mal foods—eggs, meat, milk, etc. The had handled pesticides for up to 20 years to be dangerously contaminated with problem of controlling it is especially showed that they had built up far bigger pesticides. In California, a shipment of complex because cattle, swine or poul- pesticide residues than anyone else now contaminated mustard greens was con- try whose own food carries salmonella living is apt to accumulate, without no- fiscated after a number of people who ticeable harm. may transmit it to humans. Further, the But the cumulative effect cooked and ate them became violently bacteria have been found in various can- on us over generations—let alone what ill. On another occasion, 83 of 140 sam- does to the wildlife dies, chocolate, yeast, etc. No control DDT population ples of frozen vegetables were found to efforts have yet been successful. An is an unknown quantity. Some think it be seriously contaminated with "highly in that may have genetic effects our off- FDA paper 1968 could only say on toxic" residue. As a result, 190,000 spring, of course "it appears we are still engaged in iden- and the continued use pounds of frozen broccoli and kale were tifying the extent of the problem" and of such pesticides over the decades will destroyed. "consistent production of non-contami- only increase the total dosage to which One survey indicates that at least 60% all of us are exposed. Meanwhile, there have been charges of lax enforcement of existing rules on

jwi^^t p™' tool miPa-^gJS^:^t^JgMfl^gal Ojooi Ironi tronil tjrT)i

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foods to make sure they're pure and safe, and finding many experts with serious doubts.

THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 13 intervals that they alter insects' growth and keep them from maturing and re- CON TiNUED How Pure is Our Food? producing. A little initial work has had some limited success in this direction, of the milk sold in this country contains Soon a tolerance of 1.25 parts per but far more must be done if synthetic significant amounts of DDT or similar million (already quoted here) of DDT hormones may ever replace our present chemicals. As many as four diflferent in milk was allowed by the FDA. But, bug killers. Meanwhile, there remain the pesticides were found in one milk sam- by 1967. dairy associations advised the nagging doubts that the present toler- ple tested. FDA that "the legal limits could not be ances for pesticides may be dangerous The FDA reports that: "Residues do met unless restrictions were placed on dealers and or harmful to humans over untested pe- exist in most milk samples, even in areas pesticide manufacturers, pesticides on crops which riods of time. where the use of DDT is strictly con- those who used study that was said to have been is might become food for dairy cattle." In A trolled . . . Pesticide-free raw milk oflf premises of "suppressed" at a scientific meeting in a practical impossibility at the present short, DDT from the Williamsburg, Va., this spring is sup- time because of the wide usage of DDT dairy farms was forcing milk above the million tolerance. In July posed to have indicated an increase of and its chemical stability." 1 .25 parts per 1967, Rodale's Health Bulletin noted cancer in mice that were given much DDT may be found in butter, cheese that "The Food and Drug Administra- larger doses of some pesticides than the and egg yolks bought in New York, or tion last week quietly approved a 20 public is exposed to. in meat bought in Texas supermarkets. per cent increase in tolerance for DDT Serious doubts surround many "safe" The FDA once told this writer: "We residues in milk." It was raised to 1.5 food additives. In passing judgment on rarely find milk or dairy products which parts per million. any food additive the door to trouble contain residues in excess of the safe tol- is always open and can't be closed. If erance of 1.25 parts per million in a fat you put an additive to every imaginable basis. This amount is tolerated only if test for safety, and it passes, time and it results from DDT in the general en- use may reveal a danger that hadn't been vironment and is not due to misuse on imagined. dairy feeds or around dairy farms." Nobody guessed that the drug tha- You can't clean all of a pesticide from lidomide would cause women to bear fresh foods. Washing fruit removes limbless children until it happened, and about a third of the chemical, but as the history of prepared or preserved or much as two thirds penetrate the skin or "beautified" foods has its own examples. pulp. While confirmed poisoning of peo- Millers bleached and aged flour for 30 ple from the usual intake of DDT is lack- years with nitrogen trichloride. Then it ing, there is widespread medical opinion was fed to dogs and found to be toxic. that it is a health hazard. There is no Eventually, it was proved harmful to hu- question about heavy DDT dosage. The poultry desexer, was ruled Stilbestrol, a mans. So the FDA clamped down and Public Health Service says it can be out for making capons, but cattle get it. now millers are using chlorine dioxide, harmful to liver, spleen, kidneys and In short, the tolerance is being moved which has caused no trouble. spinal cord. Dr. Malcolm Hargraves, of up because it can't be kept down by Twenty years ago the chemical sor- the Mayo Clinic, believes that heavy dairy farmers. At some point the un- bitan was used as a bread "softener." in may induce leukemia, dosages humans head on avoidable tolerance may meet Years later it was discovered that sor- aplastic anemia, Hodgkin's disease, jaun- with a level of DDT that is either un- bitan was poisonous to laboratory ani- dice and other blood ailments. reasonable or unsafe or both. Before mals, causing such effects as retarded Dr. Richard Welsh, a biochemical then, we must either decide to revert growth, severe internal hemorrhage and Burroughs-Well- pharmacologist at the that to the huge loss of crops to pests acute liver damage. It was then banned come Research Laboratory in Tuckahoe, we suffered in the years before DDT, or for use in bread. N.Y., in testimony before the Depart- get cracking on new kinds of pest con- For 75 years, coumarin, which tastes ment of Natural Resources on a petition trol that are harmless to other organisms. to ban the use of the pesticide in Wis- There is some small hope for this in consin, stated that traces of DDT in the the use of synthetic insect hormones, bodies of rats break down sex hormones. applied in such doses or at such time The word "tolerance" has a special meaning when used in the enforcement of food purity. "To tolerate" means to endure, or put up with something im- perfect, and a tolerance is an exact measure of an accepted imperfection. Generally, any officially allowed tolerance implies a degree of imperfection

that is reasonable and safe. There was once no tolerance allowed with respect to pesticides in milk. Farmers weren't allowed to use DDT on feed they grew for their dairy cattle, and no DDT was legally allowed in milk. Then it started showing up in milk from dairy farms that used no DDT. Will our pesticides get us, as well as the bugs, in the long run?

14 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 Because food selling is competitive, a part in the destruction of vital or- anything to beat your competitor in taste gans of the body. Other health experts

or appeal is desirable, and if some chemi- simply warn that a large percentage of cal can outdo nature to make food ap- the chemicals now used to preserve and pealing, that's a marketing advantage. condition food is an unknown health Chemicals to make livestock or poultry factor. They point out that there is no or plants yield more food faster have precise knowledge as to how much of obvious economic advantages. These are some food additives can be safely in- some of the factors that lie behind the gested over a span of years. rather large list of chemical substances As the FDA has admitted, many food you may find listed on any given food additives have not yet been sufficiently package in small type. They also explain tested. Some geneticists are expressing some unlisted materials eaten by, or in- deep concern about this situation. jected into, cattle, swine or poultry. For example, there is some question On top of that, there seems to be some as to whether the cyclamates used to sneaky business. George P. Larrick, sweeten diet drinks and foods are en- former FDA Commissioner, has pointed tirely safe. Doubts have arisen as a result out that some chemicals (not necessarily of preliminary FDA studies of the effects harmful) are used solely to "disguise these chemicals have had on animals. faulty processing and handling tech- A chemical produced by the sweetener niques, uses that would deceive the con- cyclohexylamine is suspected of causing sumer, and uses that would result in a genetic damage and might be a factor in Medics offer a list of food-borne ailments, substantial reduction in the nutritive birth defects. This April 3, our Food some actual and some at least potential-. value of food." and Drug Administration adopted a Some of the chemicals and their uses tougher labeling rule for drinks contain- and smells like vanilla, was used to flavor that he listed were: ing cyclamates, including a statement of ice cream, chocolate, beverages and the maximum daily consumption con- many other food products. In 1955, its sidered safe—3,500 milligrams for use was prohibited when it was found adults. 1,200 for children. to cause serious liver damage to animals Another type of chemical danger was fed with large doses of the chemical. stressed by Dr. Leon Goldberg of An ever-growing number of additives Albany, N.Y.. in an address before the are going into our foods today for an Annual Association of Clinical Scien- ever-growing number of reasons, some tists. He noted that many safe chemi- good, some not so good. They are being cals in our environment may interact added to make food-processing cheaper, with other chemicals to produce danger- to make food look more attractive, to ous results. He said that certain food ad- preserve it in packaged form, to enhance ditives now being used can become toxic Sodium nitrate is one of the food additives its taste, or to fortify it with dietary re- when they come into contact with other that's harmful if you get too much of it. quirements. During processing, foods chemicals in the human body. Certain may be preserved, bleached, colored, • Boric acid or borax in codfish and natural acids found in the body may in- flavored, deodorized, moistened, dried, whole eggs as preservatives. teract with pesticide chemicals to pro- thickened, sweetened, emulsified, neu- • Chrome yellow on coffee beans to duce a third substance which can be tralized, acidified, anti-caked and anti- make them look better. harmful. foamed with chemicals. • Copper in canned peas to make The problem of chemical interactions Since WW2 the number of chemicals them appear perfectly ripe. in the environment is so great that, ac- added to foods has risen to about 700, • Flourine compounds in wine and cording to one scientist, it may be in- many of them untested. The FDA says beer to stop fermentation. surmountable. Dr. Don Wood, who is that "perhaps 550 have been adequately • Formaldehyde in milk to kill bac- head of the Department of Research at tested and we regard them as safe. We teria. Providence Hospital, in Portland, Ore- don't know whether the other 150 are." • Hydrogen peroxide in ice cream gon, points out that the FDA is bogged Many of the additives are necessary. and milk as a preservative. down with investigations, policing and

Others are demanded by public prefer- • Salicylates in shrimp sauce to slow paper work and is therefore unable to ence in taste or color. With a nation de- down decomposition. look into the dangers posed by environ- pending on packaged foods more than • Sodium nitrate in fish fillets as a mental chemical forces. fresh foods, preservatives become a preservative and in hot dogs and sau- Now the heat is on for more legislative must. Sometimes packaging or preserv- sages to redden their color. controls, tougher standards and more ing alters the color, or the best vegetable Some of these are harmless only adequate policing by enlarging the en- for canning doesn't match the best fresh in small doses. It is possible for one forcement agencies and strengthening vegetable in appearance or taste. Chemi- processor to use "safe" levels without their powers. Just the size and com- cal additives may then restore it to con- reference to how much one might get plexity of the food industry, and the form to popular standards. If perfectly in his total diet. number of practices that are surely un- wholesome beans turned a little gray According to some health authorities, safe unless rigidly controlled, offer per- when preserved, they'd meet buyer re- there is increasing medical evidence that suasive arguments for more effective sistance unless someone turned the beans the cumulative eff'ects of a steady diet controls—even if willful violations were back to a fresh green again. of food containing some additives plays {Continued on page 57)

THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 15 WASHINGTON Opposing Views by Congressmen on The Question PRO & CON DO WE NEED A NEW SYSTEM

RESTORE COMPLETE public Confidence in the office primary in which anyone To are gen- of President and to bring our young citizens back can vote and they of into full participation in American society, we need a uinely representative in most new and better system for nominating Presidential the people. But candidates which will command the total respect of states this is not the case. the public. Delegates are selected by committee of party loyal- This is a job which Congress should tackle at once. a We cannot wait for the political parties themselves to ists, by the party's state reform the ancient tribal rituals through which we chairman or by the Gover- often secret. now select our Presidential candidates. That is why I nor, in have introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate to set The professional poli- ticians get high caliber, broadly representative commission could away up a Sen. Gaylord Nelson with this system for gener- of 30 people to make a comprehensive study of the (D-Wis.) Presidential nominating process and propose the best ations simply because the public rarely saw it in action. But now millions of new system that human intelligence can devise. the conventions through the pitiless eye Reforming an institution as old and entrenched as a people watch of television. Nationwide polls indicate that the public national party convention is not an easy task. The only overwhelmingly favors a new and better system for way this battle can be won is for the public to become picking candidates, v/ith delegates chosen in the proper aroused, to demand sweeping reform of the conven- and with conventions operated under recognized, tion system and to refuse to take "no" for an answer. way democratic rules of procedure. To justify the present conventions, supporters of the This is not a partisan issue. The President of the status quo love to attack the most frequently men- United States, regardless of party label, is the most tioned alternative—a nationwide primary. It is easy important political official on earth. He carries on his to find flaws in a nationwide primary. Many worth- the world's hope for peace. He can never while candidates would not have the financial re- shoulders achieve the full measure of respect to which he is en- sources to enter a nationwide primary. If dozens of titled as long as a cloud hangs over the political process candidates chose to run, it might well prove difficult to by which Presidential nominations are obtained. select a nominee with anywhere near a nationwide majority. But discrediting a nationwide primary does not justify the present convention system. We need some reliable, democratic system for choosing convention delegates. In some states, such as Wisconsin, the delegates are chosen in a statewide

Iff you wish to let your Congressman or one off your Senators know how you ffeel on this big

16 THE AriERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 FOR NOMINATING PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES?

"NO" No, WE DO NOT need to such as a political convention, the voice will, 99 times change our political out of 100, ring strong and true. convention system of The wolf cry against national political conventions nominating candidates for is that they are controlled. Anything to be orderly has the Presidency of the to be controlled to a certain extent. But at conventions United States. the control is visible, out in the open and, today, The system has worked practically on every television tube in the world. By without disaster to the na- any other means, the selection of a Presidential candi- tion or political parties date would be far less open, far less an expression of since its inception and the will of our people in making known their political those urging its elimina- preference. tion may well be doing so Let's not stick the stifling hand of government con- Rep. Henry C. Schadeberg as a result of the acute trol into the excitement and fun of national conven- (R-Wis.) (1st District) embarrassment suffered tions. They may not be tea parties, but they serve their in 1968 by one of the political parties. purpose. Had they not done so in the past, or should Politics is people and has been known to be fun, they not continue to do so in the future, the vengeance exciting and useful. Conventions are the culmination from the voters would be swift and deadly. The proof of a lot of work on the part of a lot of people—people that Presidential conventions work is the Presidential selected by their friends and co-workers in hometown ballot box. Each Presidential election finds a higher political organizations for the purpose of gathering percentage of voters casting their ballots for the can- once every four years for the serious business of nam- didate of their choice. What additional proof is needed ing their choice for the Presidency of the United States. that Presidential nominating conventions are the What's wrong with that? Nothing, as far as I have choice of the people? observed. Any convention, Presidential, state, district or county, is a slice of political America in action. And lest we forget, politics is government in action, so any effort to deprive our people of an expression of that action is just another restriction of their freedom of choice. When restrictions of this nature are piled one 7i on top of another, freedom will collapse, whether it is freedom of political action or freedom to speak and live and work as we wish. Let the people speak! Let the people be heard! And when they are, via an orderly expression of their will

I have read in The American Legion Magazine for May the arguments in PRO & CON: Do We Need A New System For Nominating Presidential Candidates?

IN MY OPINION WE NEED A NEW SYSTEM DO NOT NEED A NEW SYSTEM FOR NOMINATING PRESIDENTIAL CANDI- DATES issue, fill out the "ballot" and mail it to him.< SIGNED. ADDRESS.

TOWN STATE.

You can address any Representative c/o U.S. House of Representatives, Wash- ington, D.C. 20515: any Senator c/o U.S. Senate, Washington, O.C. 20510.

THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 17 BROWN BROS.

The Great San Francisc

An account of three days in April 1906, when a great

American city was so gutted by quake and fire that it had to start over.

By THOMAS A. HOGE mated at up to $ 1 billion. With the supply mains smashed, the city went for AT 5:13 A.M., ON April 18, 1906, three days with hardly any water to fight /\ the earth shuddered, then shifted the spreading mass of flames. Fire / \ along some 270 miles of an an- fighters used dynamite, wine-soaked cient ground fault on North America's blankets and even their bare hands to West Coast. In one minute and five sec- beat back the blaze as block after block onds the wrench shattered much of the went up in smoke. Finally, as the world

BROWN BROS.

The remains of San Francisco's City Hall, a $6-million stone-and-brick building. It resembled a bombing-raid target after the quake and fire had swept past. lusty, prosperous city of San Francisco watched transfixed, they put out the fire. and touched off" a fire storm that left it a Then, almost without pause, they began smoking ruin. the task of rebuilding San Francisco.

The quake struck with a force that The devastating quake and still more would dwarf that of the first atom bomb; ruinous fire brought home a lesson that Fire followed the tremors. On the second day, Sa a cosmic force that toppled tall build- insurance companies had been trying to ings, ruptured gas mains and twisted get across for years. Most of San Fran- many on land reclaimed from swamps. steel trolley tracks like spaghetti. cisco's buildings were of such unsubstan- In retrospect, the 1906 quake should The fire devoured property at the rate tial material and the city's fire fighting have come as no surprise. Scientists were of $1 million every ten minutes and gen- equipment so inadequate that any violent well aware of the San Andreas Fault, erated heat of 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit act of nature was bound to bring on dis- an old fracture of the earth's crust run- that melted steel bars and turned window aster. It seems strange that San Francis- ning from California's Cape Mendocino glass to liquid. cans did not learn this lesson long before for 600 miles to the Colorado Desert, Together, the twin disasters caused 1906. They had lived through half a and, for many years, they had noted 452 known deaths, leveled 500 city dozen quakes in the 19th century and ominous stirrings and tremors along the blocks and demolished 28,000 buildings. had seen their city gutted six times by walls of the Fault. More than four square miles in the heart fire in the Gold Rush days, yet each time Faults are believed caused by the of the city lay in ruins with damage esti- they had put up flimsy homes and shops, stresses imposed on the earth's crust by

18 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 shifted the opposite way, tearing a 270- mile wound in the earth and sending forth a thunderous noise that has been likened by survivors to the roar of a thousand lions or the broadside of a thousand guns. Actually, there were two shocks ten seconds apart and they snapped chimneys, crumpled walls. and Quake-1906 BROWN BROS.

The 18-story Call building, the city's greatest skyscraper at the time, becomes a giant torch as fire sweeps its top floors. Flames, pulled up elevator shafts, burned downward.

brought down houses and buckled side- walks from one end of San Francisco to the other. The first tremor lasted 30 seconds. Then, after a brief lull, came a

still more intense shock that endured for 25 seconds. It was an experience that

those who lived through it never forgot. "Our house bent to the right. It bent to the left. It tossed about crazily with a tremendous swirling roar," Bertha Nienberg recalled half a century after the event. "I came out of a thick slumber with the confused notion that I was on a buck- ing horse," said Charles Caldwell Dobie, a young insurance clerk who later wrote a book about his home city. "The plunging continued, followed by a deafening roar. I jumped out of bed to go down Fransciscans, above, watch their city burn while flames shoot thousands of feet into the sky. the hall to my mother's room. But the swaying of the house flung me from one the intensely hot mass of molten metal on meterologists' seismographs. Scien- wall to the other, very much as a pas- at the core of the earth. The stress, ac- tists say that 95 out of every 100 quakes senger aboard an ocean liner would be cumulating slowly, eventually becomes occur in the Pacific off the west coasts flung by a heavy sea."

so great that it can no longer be with- of North and South America and the Many inhabitants fled from their stood and the rocks break, and a fault is rim of the Mediterranean. Unlike hur- homes in night clothes, only to be felled created. When the rock crust, many ricanes and other forces of nature, earth- by showers of rocks when they reached miles thick on either side of the fault, quakes strike without warning. the street. Tramps sleeping on the steps shifts in position, a quake results. There Certainly nobody expected trouble of City Hall were buried deep in rubble

may be as many as a million quakes a that spring morning in 1906 when it as $6 million worth of stone and brick- year, big and small, in earthquake zones suddenly happened. In a massive jolt, work shook off the great building, leav- around the world, but nearly all occur one wall of the San Andreas Fault moved ing the frame standing. Buildings listed under the sea and pass unnoticed except in one direction and the other wall at crazy angles along many streets, and THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 19 CONTINUED The Great San Francisco Fire and Quake— 1906

the Spanish Tower atop the Ferry Build- at the sight of the broken, bloody bodies. pleaded for a proper plant to draw on ing shuddered and seemed about to top- Seventy-five dead were taken from a the salt water of the Bay in case of a ple. The hands on the big tower clock rooming house at Fifth and Minna major fire. Sullivan knew that the great froze at 5:13 a.m., the moment the Streets. Another 150 were dug out of iron pipes carrying the city's water sup- quake struck. the rubble of the Brunswick Hotel at ply ran directly over the San Andreas The impact was felt miles away from Seventh and Mission. Fault and that a severe shock could easily San Francisco in areas beneath which On 18th Street, an entire row of frame rupture them, leaving the city virtually the Fault ran. houses was twisted completely around without water. But his warnings went Far outside the city in the Coast Range by the wrench. In the debris, rescue unheeded by citizens who had survived canyons, 500-year-old giant redwoods teams found the body of a man. Clasped several quakes without too serious after- effects. swayed wildly in the still morning air in his lifeless arms was a cooing baby and crashed to the ground. girl, apparently unharmed. No one paid much attention, in fact, Miles off shore, the freighter John A. The massive earth jolts produced when the first yellow flashes began to Campbell trembled violently and began some incredible results. One account tells twinkle on rooftops as fire burst from dragging her keel. Fearing that she had of an eyewitness seeing a private home broken gas jets, and severed electrical rammed a half-sunken wreck or struck rise several feet off its foundation, then wiring sent up showers of sparks. San their fire de- a reef, the terrified crew swarmed up on hop like a wounded rabbit along the Franciscans took pride in deck and prepared to abandon ship. But ground for a few seconds. The spinster partment and felt secure, even though billowing in a a moment later, the trembling stopped who dwelled alone in the house said she smoke was now skyward and the vessel sailed smoothly on. felt like "corn in a popper" during her score of neighborhoods. Among the distinguished guests in the bizarre ride. Brig. Gen. Frederick Funston, acting beautiful Palace Hotel on Market Street The quake also showed the true commander of the Army's Pacific Divi- the so lightly. was Enrico Caruso, the world's most fa- strength of some of the city's modern sion, did not take flames mous tenor. The previous night he had buildings. Steel-frame skyscrapers stood Running down California Street until he fire pulling in front of thrilled a San Francisco audience with up well in general, even though they found a wagon up his rendition of the role of Don Jose in the New York Metropolitan Opera Com- pany's production of Carmen. Now the singer stood ashen-faced in the lobby, clad in a fur coat with a bath towel wrapped around his throat. Sighting Alfred Hertz, one of the Metropoli- tan's conductors, wandering dazed into the lobby, Caruso ran over to his friend. "Alfredo," he gasped, "we are lost." (Caruso, vowing he would never return, left San Francisco the next morning, the earliest he could get transportation out of the stricken city. He arrived in New York six days later. When friends asked him about his impressions of the quake, flooded marshes outside the city he replied curtly, "Give me Vesuvius.") Thousands of gallons of desperately needed water 30-inch pipes leading from reservoirs were broken by the wrench of the quake. The experience of others was far more tragic, especially in the artificial land swayed during the tremors. But the $6 a burning bank, he started to give a hand reclaimed from Yerba Buena Cove and million City Hall, which had been the when he noticed the firemen dragging along the swampland, lagoons and creek pride of San Francisco, proved anything their hoses feverishly from one hydrant beds south of the Market and Mission but solid. After it was all over, some tax- to another. Each time only a trickle came districts. There dwelled mill workers and payers demanded to know why its ma- out of the nozzles. factory hands in their ramshackle huts, sonry slid to the ground like the top- "Where's your water?" Funston de- immigrants from Ireland, Sweden and ping on a sand castle. Their wrath may manded. half a dozen other lands. Death struck be partly responsible for the sturdy "The quake must have broken all the with a vengeance, as cobble streets caved buildings that stand in San Francisco to- mains," said one of the firemen. in and tenements collapsed, pinioning day. In the lowlands south of the city, the the dwellers beneath the rubble. The roar of falling bricks from a shat- 30-inch pipes were split wide open and At least a score of tenants perished in tered hotel turret next to his home on 100,000 gallons of desperately needed the flimsy Valencia Hotel as its founda- the third floor of the Bush Street fire- water from the reservoirs was gushing tion gave way and the rickety building house awakened Fire Chief Danny Sul- over the marshes. slowly sank to the ground. Those dwell- livan. He jumped from bed and rushed Within an hour, a dozen major fires ing on the top story emerged unscathed, to his wife's room. An avalanche of were blazing in the heart of San Fran- stepping out of their fourth floor win- bricks smashed through the ceiling cisco. Nine of them sent flames dancing dows at street level. as he entered, plunging the fatally in- into the sky south of Market Street. The crowds that turned out after the jured couple all the way down to the first Three more ate their way along narrow waterfront. quake were in a carnival mood, but it floor. streets toward the didn't last long. A chill swept the by- Ironically, Sullivan died moments be- What has been described as the great- standers as the first corpses, piled high fore a prediction he had made to the city est conflagration in modern peacetime in open automobiles, began to pass fathers came true. For years, he had was actually 52 known fires of varying the first through the streets. Many turned away ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN RUGE size that roared unchecked for 20 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 through Hayes Valley and razed more an exhorbitant sum in those days, the than 20 city blocks. Mayor acted swiftly. At this point a hero emerged from an "Tell your men," he said to General unlikely source. Bearded Mayor Eugene Funston, "to seize all the wagons of such E. Schmitz, a onetime musician who had would-be extortionists and make use of gone into politics and now faced an in- them. The question of recompense will vestigation on graft charges, suddenly be seen to later." took control with a display of courage The assertive stand taken by the and cool authority that amazed those Mayor boosted sagging morale and prob- who knew him. Organizing an Emer- ably averted panic, but still the lovely gency Committee of prominent citizens, city seemed doomed. many of whom had openly despised him, South of Market Street, well-known Schmitz drummed out a series of orders. landmarks were being consumed by the Informed of the water shortage, he advancing flames—Metropolitan Hall ordered General Funston to send troops and the Emporium, biggest department in with dynamite to blow up buildings store west of Chicago. that were doomed anyway and try to Across Fifth Street, the three-story form fire breaks to keep the blaze from granite United States Mint, with $220 spreading. Soldiers were ordered to pa- million in its vaults, was surrounded by trol the streets and the sale of all liquor a sea of fire. For seven desperate hours, was forbidden during the crisis. For loot- Frank A. Leach, the mint superintendent ers. Mayor Schmitz had the most drastic and some 50 employees fought the answer of all. flames. Luckily, the Mint had tanks atop "The Federal Troops, the members of its roof fed by an artesian well, and the the Regular Police Force and all Special fire was finally beaten back. Police Officers," read the mayoral proc- On Market Street, the 18-story Call lamation, "have been authorized by me Building, San Francisco's greatest sky- to KILL any and all persons found en- scraper at that time, stood in the path of gaged in Looting or in the Commission the flames which had just gutted the The city asleep at 5:13 a.m., when the first was of Any Other Crime." Grand Opera House next door where tremor struck. Frantic citizens, shocked and con- Caruso had sung the night before. Sud- fused, evacuated their homes in nightclothes. The order was timely, since police had denly, the fire jumped across the alley behind the blazing theater and forked into the Call's power shed. There was a titanic stuttering roar as 18 floors of windows shattered in machinegun suc- cession, and a great draft drew the fire up, the Call's elevator shaft. In seconds, the skyscraper was a giant torch. Soon the $4 million Palace Hotel on Market Street, center of San Francisco night life, was an inferno. Not far off, the famed Bohemian Club, gathering place of some of America's most famous writ- ers and artists, was blown up by dyna- miters trying desperately to stop the advancing blaze. Few disasters have been chronicled by such an illustrious panel of eye- witnesses. Jack London, famed adventure writer, sat atop Nob Hill and watched "two

mighty walls of flame advancing . . . from east and south" to consume the mansion of railroad magnate Mark Hop- kins. Author Gertrude Atherton also watched from Nob Hill as the Fairmont Hotel burned. "The new marble hotel on the highest hill poured up volumes of white smoke from the top alone," she Drastic measures were imposed to curb the spread of the fire and to halt the sacking said, "while hundreds of windows were of private property. Troops came in with dynamite to blow up buildings to form like plates of brass." firebreaks; they also carried orders to shoot on sight anyone engaged in looting. Many of the palaces that crowned Nob few hours as firemen desperately sought already reported cases where looters had Hill, homes of the Central Pacific rail- a remedy. cut off the fingers of the dead and even road barons and Comstock silver kings, Some fires had freak origins, such as slashed off ears to get jeweled rings and had been hit by the quake and now lay in the modest jet a housewife lit to cook earrings. the path of the fire. Among them were some ham and eggs for her family, un- When word reached the Mayor that the French chateau of Claus Spreckels, aware that she had a broken gas main. cartmen were charging $30 to haul the with its Algerian marbles, gold-plated The roaring inferno that resulted swept furniture of people fleeing their homes. faucets and frescoed ceilings; the man-

THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 21 BROWN HROS. CONTINUED The Great San Francisco Fire and Quake— 1906 sion of former Mayor James D. Phelan, and the house of mining-tunnel millionaire Adolph Sutro, with its library of 200,000 volumes. As the fire spread, hordes of dazed citizens poured through the streets blindly seeking safety. Many carried dogs, canaries and other pets. Some were weighted down with boxes of jewels, silverware and other valuables. Some obviously had no idea of what they were doing. One woman carried a clothes basket filled with iron stove lids, according to eyewitness Charles Dobie. And one vacant-eyed man wandered across Jefferson Square lugging two huge jars filled with peppermint sticks. Gongs echoed forth in the Street of A Thousand Flowers and other narrow alleys that made up San Francisco's famed Chinatown, warning the inhabitants to flee. Chinatown, with its little

shops displaying colorful silks, its pot- bellied lanterns with strange inscriptions in red ink and the haunting odor of musk and incense, had been a tourist's Eden.

It had also been a hotbed of drug ped- dling, gambling and prostitution. An aura of mystery had always surrounded Chinatown, whose inhabitants rarely ventured forth into the rest of the city, keeping instead to their dimly lighted dens and cellars. Now China- town's residents were fleeing like everyone else as the temple gongs rang out and the sobbing moon fiddles wailed their warning. It was a strange procession: San Francisco, after the quake. The disaster caused 452 known deaths, leveled 500 blocks ot coolies carrying live ducks perched in pole-slung baskets; fat merchants wad- dling along with heavy wooden chests on In one encampment, the already terri- With all the horror there was a strange their backs, their wives teetering along fied fugitives were startled when a wild- kind of beauty; the sight of a great city beside them in their pinched shoes and eyed man, his face seared by fire, ran burning to death, sending a lurid glow colorful satins. Last of all followed the past, shouting, "The Lord has sent it! high into the night sky. A young journal- "golden girls," the famed crib dwellers The Lord!" ist, Mary Edith Griswold, who had taken of Chinatown who had lured generations The tragic figure would ordinarily refuge in one of the impromptu camps, of tourists to their scented brothels with have been ignored or pitied, but there gave her impression of the flaming me- the plaintive singsong cry: "China girl was a growing fear among the distraught tropolis. nice." citizens that San Francisco actually was "It was a wonderful sight!" she wrote. During the first two days of the fire, being punished for its sins. This suspicion "Many miles—a limitless space of blue surprisingly few of the people had was heightened by a strange phenom- flame with the last red glow of big tim- seemed aware that there was a narrow enon. In many instances, tall buildings bers between—dancing, palpitating, liv- but safe route around to the Ferry Build- burst into flames at the top while the ing light." ing where the boats crossed the Bay to lower floors appeared unscathed. There On the third day, the flames reached Berkeley and Oakland. But, finally, they were plausible explanations for this that 'Van Ness Avenue, setting for some of began pouring down to the docks, which would have been apparent in calmer the city's most stately homes, and the by some quirk of fate had been spared, times. sparks licked at the bell tower of St. and clamored for passage aboard any For one thing, the inside of these sky- Mary's Cathedral. As the gilded cross

outgoing vessel. Before it was all over, scrapers usually did catch fire on a small atop the church caught fire, the parish about 50,000 people were shipped across scale at ground level. Then the flames priest, the Rev. Charles Ramm, climbed the Bay to Oakland and thousands more were sucked up elevator shafts and burst into the tower. Grabbing an ax. he were lodged elsewhere in the Bay area. forth in full fury at roof-top level. And hacked at the blazing timbers. Stub- Other thousands fled south along the there were the broken gas mains all over bornly. Father Ramm extinguished every Peninsula carrying wailing children and town which sent up inflammatory vapor burning spark and saved the church. dragging trunks with their few remain- that suddenly ignited at the top of a It was on the broad boulevard of Van ing belongings. Many spent the night in building. But in their unnerved state, the Ness that the firemen decided to make the parks or any other open place that citizens were becoming convinced that their stand. Here, they decided, they seemed far enough from the raging hell they had witnessed an omen, a warning would stop the fire, or the city would that San Francisco had become. of worse to come. perish altogether. Scores of mansions

22 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 speaking before a vast audience in Car- negie HaU when the call for help went out. He cut short his lecture and said to the audience, "Remember San Francisco, the stricken city." Financial aid soon began to pour into the city in a golden tide. More than $185 million was received from 5,411 cor- porate and individual subscriptions. The government, at the prodding of President Theodore Roosevelt, sent $2.5 million in emergency aid and later contributed another $22 million for reconstruction. Thousands of insurance policies were burned to a crisp in the fire, leaving San Franciscans with no record to back up their claims. To complicate matters further, many branch offices of the insurance companies were also leveled and their records destroyed. With their home offices spread all over the country and communications with the outside world

still spotty, insurance agents faced a mammoth problem assessing the claims and notifying their headquarters.

It is to the credit of these companies that most of the claims were met promptly and in full wherever possible. According to the records, insurance companies paid out a thumping $163,713,- 330. Perhaps the most memorable aspect of the catastrophe was the pride and courage displayed by San Franciscans, many of whom were homeless and financially ruined. Hardly had the rubble cooled when the citizens pulled up their sleeves and began clearing away the debris to build anew. Five days after the catastrophe, a sign heart, demolished 28,000 buildings. Altogether, four square miles lay in ruins appeared on an office door in one gutted building that reflected the dauntless along Van Ness were put to the torch blankets and sheets they slowly drowned spirit. "Don't talk earthquake," it to form a firebreak. Scores more were out the flames. stated. "Talk business." blown up. The fire had begun to advance on the "I have never known anything more tugs psychological result One of the houses marked for dyna- waterfront, but nearly three dozen interesting than the blaze Gertrude Ath- miting was the home of Rudolph Spreck- lashed to the piers were dousing the of this earthquake," said from the harbor. created a new, capable and els, the sugar king. But the troops were with salt water pumped erton. "It has told not to light the fuse for a while. In- Finally, before the fire fighters fully experienced set of pioneers." resurgence gave mean- side, Mrs. Spreckels, with an Irish mid- realized it, the great fire of 1906 sput- This spirit of Franciscans wife in attendance, was giving birth to tered and died. There were a few feeble ing to the symbol that San after an earlier the awaited heir to the Spreckels fortune. cheers from weary crowds, then quiet, as had chosen for their city beautiful bird of With Gaelic wit, the midwife looked the citizens trudged off to their homes, fire: the Phoenix, the death, then heavenward as she gave the infant a or, if they were homeless, to the tents of mythology that burned to ashes and gentle pat. "God sends earthquakes and the refugee camps that had sprouted all emerged reborn from its own babies," she commented, "but He might around the city. rose triumphantly into the sky. after the catas- in His mercy cut out sending both of Friends from all over rallied to the aid In 1956, half a century Harris told them together." of San Francisco. E. H. Harriman, the trophe, author Lawrence W. Society: "San As the houses were brought down by transportation tycoon, placed all his rail the California Historical earthquake as a torch and powder keg, the advancing fire lines and steamships at the city's disposal. Francisco shook off the then buried all hesitated for lack of anything to fuel it. John D. Spreckels offered the use of the dog with a bone and Then the wind shifted and the onlookers steamer Breakwater to any coastal city thought of it." quake groaned as the flames skirted along Fish- willing to send supplies. And the great Mr. Harris had witnessed the verse erman's Wharf and began advancing on French actress Sarah Bernhardt, then and is still known for a jaunty little that Telegraph Hill, where a colony of Italian touring America, gave at least three ben- that he wrote in its wake; a poem Franciscans took fishermen dwelled. efit performances for the city she loved. reflects the pride San after quake and fire The blaze climbed higher and the area Henry Miller, the millionaire cattleman, in their city, even expressed it: appeared doomed. Then, suddenly, a ordered his butchers to hand out all had leveled it. One couplet Ness, group of Neopolitan residents rolled available meat for seven straight days for "From the Ferries to Van Godforsaken mess. forth barrels of red Chianti that had been the homeless and the hungry. you're a {Continued on page 53) aging in their cellars. With wine-soaked In New York City, Mark Twain was THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 23 — The Story of Samuel E B

A bit of the history of a versatile American genius who turned from oil painting to science—to perfect the telegraph 125 years ago this May,

By ROBERT SILVERBERG Morse, who told the government, in ef- ancient Greece. Smoke signals also came fect, to forget the whole idea. Visual into use in antiquity; and Cyrus, King of used relay towers manned by ASKING Congress to put up money telegraphs were inefficient, he said, be- Persia, had for fantastic projects is nothing cause they couldn't be used at night or men with mighty voices who shouted news from one to another. The Romans L new. Among tiie many schemes in bad weather; and in any case they that the 24th Congress was invited to would soon be obsolete, for he, Morse, sent news via flashing mirrors. In 1793, built underwrite in 1837 was a proposal for was working on a way of telegraphing by a French engineer named Chappe a telegraph line from New York to New electricity which would function at any a system of semaphore towers on which Orleans. This was not quite what you hour and in any weather. coded messages could be sent by pulling ropes attached to pivoted wooden arms. might think it was, for "telegraph" in Congress was sufficiently impressed by France's Chappe telegraph had 1837 meant a system of semaphore- his claim to scrap the idea of a sema- By 1844, stations spanning 3,000 miles. Eng- signal relays, using flags, long wooden phore telegraph, and soon Morse was in 533 also set up a visual telegraph system poles or other methods of sending visual Washington to ask for a federal ap- land first one in the United messages from station to station. The propriation to subsidize his invention. soon after. The States was built in 1800, running 60 New York-New Orleans line would have But the visionary, hot-tempered artist miles from Martha's Vineyard to Boston. placed stations eight miles apart, each from New York had to wait until 1843 operators could achieve high equipped with huge rope-operated signal for his grant, and not until May 1844 Skilled speeds on these lines: signals sped over arms atop a tall mast. On a clear day it 125 years ago this month—was he able the British system at 170 miles a minute would have transmitted news at a speed to make good on his boast to sweep the on a good day, with each alert "tele- of about ten miles a minute. visual telegraph out of existence with graph captain" needing just three sec- The House of Representatives asked his own device. The famous Washington- onds to receive and transmit. the Secretary of the Treasury if such a to-Baltimore message, "What hath God It was the discovery that electricity system would be a good investment for wrought!", fulfilled one of man's most could be made to travel great distances the government. The Secretary in turn fantastic dreams, that of virtually in- at truly astonishing velocities that led to sent a circular around to various scien- stantaneous long-distance communica- the quest for an electrical telegraph. tists and military men requesting opin- tion. Samuel F. B. Morse was very much a ions and suggestions. Among the replies The first attempts at fulfilling that latecomer in that quest. He was not really he received was one from a New York dream had been the relaying of signals a pioneering inventor working along the professor of art, Samuel Finley Breese by means of blazing beacon lights in frontiers of knowledge; rather, he was the man who drew together the ideas of many other men, and, supplying the per- sistence and insight that they had lacked, created a system that worked. Nothing in his early life indicated that Morse was going to win scientific fame, or lasting fame of any other kind. Born

near Boston in 1791, one of 1 1 children of a Congregationalist minister, Morse entered Yale at the age of 14. (There was nothing unusual about such early admissions in those days.) He studied science there, including the primitive science of electricity, but he was an in- different scholar, preferring to spend his time sketching and painting. After his graduation in 1810, he announced, to his parents' dismay, that he was going to make art his profession. From 1811 to 1815, he lived in England, mastering the specialty of historical painting. Return- ing to the United States, he found little demand for such work, and was forced to enter the more lucrative but less stim- ulating field of portrait painting. In 1818, he married Lucretia Walker, of Concord, May 24, 1844. Morse sends first public telegram. The message, "What hath God wrought!", went from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore.

N.H., whom he had met while working tion in the art world through this post. In 1832, he came home aboard the in that city as a portrait painter. During these years, Morse retained a packet ship Sully. One of Morse's fellow As a painter, Morse is still renowned lingering interest in electricity, and, in passengers was Dr. Charles T. Jackson, as one of our early portraitists, though 1827, he studied the latest developments of Boston, a chemist as well as a medical his work in other areas of art shows a in that science at Columbia College. man, who maintained his own scientific lack of versatility. For a while, he painted Perhaps at this period he also wondered laboratory. Jackson, keen witted but sly, the great and the near great, producing if electricity could be used for rapid com- later was nicknamed "the scientific octo- canvasses that still enjoy a place of munication. (In one of his letters home pus" because he tried to claim the credit honor. They include several former from England in 1811 he had expressed for so many important discoveries ac-

Presidents and a group picture of 80 impatience with the time it would take tually made by other men. According to members of the House of Representa- the letter to reach his family.) It was at Jackson, it was he who put the idea for tives. Getting such commissions often this time, too, that Morse played a major the telegraph into Morse's head. depended on knowing the right people. role in founding The Journal of Com- Jackson had been in Paris, where he Morse—a genial, sociable man—ob- merce, a business newspaper that sur- had witnessed electrical demonstrations tained entry to the best homes and at- vives to this day. But painting remained staged by the scientist Andre Marie tained a certain place in society despite his main interest. Unable to make a living Ampere. In 1820, the Danish physicist his lack of wealth. He helped found the in the United States, Morse went back Hans Christian Oersted had shown that National Academy of Design, and, in to Europe in 1829 and spent the next the electric current from a battery pro- 1826, became its first president, a post three years as a vagabond artist, tour- duces magnetic effects, and, two months he held for 16 years. Long after he had ing the museums of the continent and later. Ampere had worked out the prin- ceased being an important painter, Morse turning out an occasional painting to pay ciples by which artificial magnets could continued to maintain an influential posi- his way. be made by sending a current through a THE A ERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 25 METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART—BEQUEST OF SIR HERBERT PRATT (1945) SY SEIDMAN

Morse was one of America's most distinguished portrait painters. This full-length portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette is con- Above, a portrait of his daughter (1837), his last major worl<. sidered Morse's best. Its owner: N.Y. City. Its value: $250,000.

CONTINUED The Story of Samuel F. B. Morse and the Telegraph coll of wire wound on an iron core. Am- with him and rapidly jotted down in was sent through them. The receiving pere thought it might be possible to trans- sketches and words the ideas as they operator spelled out the words by watch- mit signals over a line with this "electro- rushed from his brain." ing the bobbing balls. In 1798, a Span- magnet," switching the current on and Jackson always insisted that Morse iard named Salva built a telegraph of off to alter the magnetic field at the other merely copied Jackson's own sketches some sort that carried messages 26 miles end of the line. Jackson had brought a and notes, and that everything Morse by electricity, but little is known about small electromagnet back with him from knew about electromagnets he learned it. After the development of the storage France, and one night aboard the Sully from Jackson during that voyage. Per- battery by Alessandro Volta at the end he began to discuss it with Morse, show- haps so; but this does not provide much of the 1 8th century, new schemes for ing him how breaking the circuit pro- substance for Jackson's claim that Morse telegraphy multiplied rapidly. vided a way of communicating informa- stole the idea of the telegraph from him. One of them was the work of a Rus- tion. In fact, a good many other men had sian. Baron Paul Ludovich Schilling, Morse insisted later that what Jackson already experimented with electrical te- who based his device on Ampere's re- told him instantly awakened his own legraphy. Long-distance transmission of search in electromagnetism. In 1823, dreams of high-speed communication. electricity went back to 1729, when an Schilling produced a model that used Morse's son, Edward, who was the editor Englishman named Stephen Gray suc- electricity to operate magnetized pointer of his letters and journals, wrote: "Morse ceeded in sending an electrical impulse needles, which, by combinations of move- was naturally much interested, and it was through 293 feet of wire. The invention ments, indicated letters and numerals. then that the inspiration, which had lain of the Leyden jar, a device for accumu- Czar Nicholas was interested in having dormant in his brain for many years, sud- lating electricity, had permitted trans- Schilling set up a full-scale telegraph in- denly came to him, and he said: 'If the missions of current (not messages) as stallation across Russia, but this was still presence of electricity can be made vis- much as four miles by the middle of the in the planning stage when Schilling died ible in any part of the circuit, I see no 18th century. In 1753, a Scottish maga- in 1837. In Germany, Karl Friedrich reason why intelligence may not be trans- zine had printed a suggestion that mes- Gauss and Wilhelm Weber of the Got- mitted instantaneously by electricity.' sages could be carried between distant tingen Observatory designed a similar

. . . He withdrew from the cabin and points by using electricity to activate a "needle telegraph" in 1832, and the fol- paced the deck, revolving in his mind the signal bell. The first electrical telegraph, lowing year set up a line to transmit various means by which the object it seems, was built in Switzerland by scientific information between the ob- sought could be attained. Soon his ideas George Louis Le Sage in 1774. He rigged servatory and a university building two- were so far focussed that he sought to little globes, each bearing one letter of thirds of a mile away. give them expression on paper, and he the alphabet, and hooked one trans- Morse and, apparently, Jackson as drew from his pocket one of the little mission wire to each globe. The globes well were ignorant of nearly all of these sketch-books which he always carried would bob when an electrical impulse endeavors when they discussed telegra-.

26 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 phy aboard the Sully in 1832. But the artists, he issued a volcanic public state- around his workroom in September idea took immediate possession of the ment announcing his retirement from 1837 included the symbols VV-V- painter, and, though he was virtually a painting. He kept his word, and rarely VVVVV, or 2-1-5. To decipher this, one complete innocent in electrical matters, approached his easel again. would have to look in Morse's code he resolved at once to find an effective Luckily, he was able to win appoint- chart, which assigned one number to way of sending messages over wires. He ment in 1835 as Professor of the Litera- each syllable; 2-1-5 came out "suc-cess- could scarcely think or speak of any- ture of the Arts of Design at the newly ful." thing else after his fateful conversation founded University of the City of New But there were problems. A minor one with Jackson. Morse's brother Richard, York, now New York University. was that the code of numbers for syl- who was at the pier to meet him when Though the salary was small, the post lables was too cumbersome to be prac-

the Sully reached New York on Novem- carried with it the use, at low rent, of tical. A major one was that Morse's ber 15, 1832, stated: "Hardly had the an apartment that would serve for living equipment was too feeble to transmit a yards. usual greetings passed between us . . . quarters and also for his electrical re- more than few before he informed us that he had made search. Late in 1835 or early in 1836, he He turned for help to a colleague at during his voyage an important inven- completed his first working model of the the university, Leonard D. Gale, pro- tion, one which had occupied almost all telegraph. fessor of chemistry. Gale politely pointed his attention on shipboard—one that would astonish the world. ... He took

from his pocket and showed us from his N Y. I'LIBLIC LIURAKV CORNELL UNIX . sketch-book, in which he had drawn them, the kind of characters he proposed to use. These were dots and spaces rep- resenting the ten digits or numerals, and in the book were sketched other parts of his electro-magnetic machinery and ap- ." paratus. . . For the next three years Morse brooded over the problems of telegraphy, evidently without trying to find out what Leonard D. Gale Alfred Vail Ezra Cornell other men in the field had accomplished; he worked from scratch, thinking he Morse's colleagues. Each played a large role in telegraph's birth. was the first to enter this field. He made little headway, for his scientific skills

were unequal to his soaring visions. It consisted of an old picture frame out to the art professor his elementary Meanwhile, there was the problem of from the top of which was suspended a errors in wiring, and told Morse of the earning a living, harder than ever now, triangular wooden pendulum with a pen- work in electromagnetism that had been for Morse's style of art was out of date. cil point at its base. An iron bar con- done a few years earlier by the physicist Commissions were scanty, and, in 1834, nected the pendulum to a small electro- Joseph Henry, of Albany, N.Y. In 1830. when he applied to Congress for the as- magnet. When Morse closed the circuit, Henry—strictly a theoretical researcher signment to decorate one of the blank the electromagnet moved the pendulum, who did not pursue practical applica- panels in the rotunda of the Capitol pulling the pencil to one side and tracing tions of his work—had devised the most Building, he was turned down. Morse's a "V" on a strip of paper running over powerful electromagnet yet known. A reaction to this disappointment was ex- rollers. By varying the electrical im- year later, he built what amounted to a

plosive. Feeling that he had earned the pulses it was possible to create spaces simple telegraph by stringing a mile of Capitol job through long experience and between the "V"s, allowing a code to be copper wire around a classroom in a his high standing among professional employed. A message that Morse sent circuit between a battery and an electro-

SY SEIDMAN SY SEIDMAN BETTMANN ARCHIVE

The circuit-breaking device which activated recording instrument shown at left. CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Morse's first electromagnetic recording A more sophisticated model that followed Morse in workshop at Alfred Vail's iron- telegraph instrument, used in 1837. the principles of Morse's 1837 machine. works, where parts for telegraph were made. THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 27 —

CONTINUED The Story of Samuel F. B. Morse and the Telegraph magnet. When he turned on the magnet, the alteration in magnetic field caused a rod attached to it to strike a bell. On Morse's behalf. Gale journeyed to Princeton, where Henry now was teach- ing, to learn the details of Henry's work. Henry was most cooperative. Only years later did he comment mildly that he could well have patented his device, except that "I considered it incompatible with the dignity of science to confine the benefits which might be derived from it to the exclusive use of any individual. In this, perhaps, I was too fastidious." With the direct help of Gale and the indirect help of Henry, Morse was able to redesign his apparatus to better effect. On September 2, 1837, he gave a demonstration at the university in which he sent a message through 1,700 feet of wire strung around the walls of one room. Among the spectators was Alfred Vail, son of the proprietor of an ironworks in New Jersey. Vail was so ex- cited that he asked to become Morse's partner and offered him the use of the ironworks for the manufacture of parts. A month later—on October 3, 1837 Morse filed a tentative patent application, declaring that "the machinery of his new invention is not yet completed, and he therefore prays protection of his right till he shall have matured the machinery." In England at this time a young man named William Fothergill Cooke was also working on a telegraph, using the needle design suggested by the Russian Baron Schilling. Like Morse, Cooke had to call in a scientific expert. Professor Charles Wheatstone of Kings College; and Wheatstone, too, consulted with Joseph Henry, who visited London in April 1837. Two months later, Cooke Inventor Samuel F.B. Morse in his beardless earlier years. and Wheatstone obtained their first tele- A tireless and determined visionary, he doggedly turned a dream into a reality. graph patent in England. In July 1837, CULVEF they strung a mile-long line, using five in 1837 disparaging the visual-telegraph magnetized needles to point to the let- scheme. In November 1837, Morse re- ters of the messages being sent. The ported to Woodbury the successful trans- Great Western Railway thereupon commission of a telegraph signal over ten missioned them to install a telegraph line miles of wire at Vail's ironworks. Morse running from Paddington Station, Lon- and Vail now had built an improved in- don, to West Drayton, about a dozen strument which no longer used the swing- miles away. It went into operation on ing pendulum or the V-shaped symbols; July 9, 1839, and later was greatly ex- the new machine had saw-tooth type that panded. Cooke-Wheatstone needle tele- marked out dots and dashes which cor- graph lines eventually covered thousands responded to the letters of the alphabet, of miles in Great Britain and remained according to a code Morse had devised. in use in isolated places into the 20th With this it was possible to send 20 century. words a minute, twice as many as before. Morse, in 1837, paid no heed to what Soon Vail, who had much more mechan- Cooke and Wheatstone were doing. He ical skill than Morse, discarded the continued to strive to perfect his own saw-tooth type and invented a spring- device and to get financial backing from mounted circuit-closer, the familiar tele- the government. He was now in contact graph "key" on which generations of with Secretary of the Treasury Levi telegraphers were to tap their messages. Morse, late in life, poses with his invention Woodbury as a result of his letter earlier (Continued on page 49) and medals bestowed by grateful nations. 28 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 .

Devine Brandon Kelly Atherton McCurdy Waldrip Kraabel Sisson

Some GI Bill Authors Today

THE EIGHT MEN in the photo above are Colmery, who was delayed en route from struggles since 1919 to arrive at a better seen as they met in Washington, Kansas and arrived at this year's March system. D.C., on March 14, this year, during meetings later. Past National Com- Q. Was the WW2 GI Bill then simply the Legion's 50th Anniversary Washing- mander Colmery was a member of the a consolidation of Omaha Convention ton Conference. special GI Bill Committee in 1943-44 mandates?

All eight were on the original Legion and was responsible for drafting the A. Far from it. The mandates were team that drafted the first of the GI Bills, actual words of the WW2 GI Bill. broad and general. The Bill needed them 25 years ago, to create a progressive rev- Some other members of that team still in detail. No such program had ever been olution in the history of the readjustment survive, but in poor health. worked out in detail before. of war veterans to civilian life. Here is a sample of some of the GI Between December 15 and mid-

This year they met to fill in, from their Bill history that those shown filled in January, 1943-44, the special committee. recall, missing details of the passage of this year, none of which appears as Legion staff members, many other Le- the first GI Bill for the Legion's national clearly on the written record. gionnaires who were called in, and not archives. Q. By what authority was a special a few enthusiastic supporters from the From left to right, they are: Legion GI Bill Committee named, and outside thrashed out the details in the Maurice Devine, New Hampshire, a decision to seek all of the GI Bill pro- Legion's Washington office. chairman of the Legion's Legislative visions in a single bill arrived at? Chairman Stelle acted as "teacher" at Commission in 1943-44. A. As Nat'l Commander, Atherton a big blackboard. Everything anyone had

Lyon Brandon, Mississippi, a member did it on his own authority. "I was fear- to suggest (chiefly our staff experts) of the Legion's special GI Bill Commit- ful of delay if I sought to subject it to went on the blackboard, where it was tee of 1943-44. debate. Consultation with our staff and kept, revised or erased after prolonged Pat Kelly, Georgia, also a member of friends in Congress affirmed that a sin- discussion and debate. the special GI Bill Committee. gle bill, with all its dangers, was the We went through a similar process Warren Atherton, California, who ap- only way to get the job done fast and with members of Congress, VA Admin- pointed the special GI Bill Committee thoroughly. Thousands of WW2 veterans istrator Gen. Frank Hines and many and, as National Commander of the Le- were already discharged, disabled. The others, even after the first draft of the gion in 1943-44, led the Legion in its Normandy landings were a few months bill had been introduced in Congress. efforts that year. off. I resolved in the fall of 1943 to seek The Bill was continually revised for Robert McCurdy, California, also a a single bill, and on November 30 ap- several months. Our good friend in the member of the special GI Bill Commit- pointed the special committee with the Senate, Sen. Bennett Clark, held hearings tee. late John Stelle, dynamic former Gov- promptly and the House veterans com- W. Bea Waldrip, Michigan, also a ernor of Illinois, as chairman. 1 simply mittee moved as fast, at first. Members member of the special GI Bill Commit- used my authority as National Com- of other Senate and House committees tee. mander to carry out our mandates." who operated in the various fields T. O. Kraabel, North Dakota, Di- Q. What was the basis of the content touched by the Bill also contributed to rector of the Legion's Rehabilitation of the first GI Bill? the constant reshaping of it. Commission in 1943-44. A. The direct basis was the content Q. What help did you get from the Robert Sisson, Texas (then of Arkan- of various resolutions adopted by the outside in specialized areas of the bill, sas), the Legion's Rehabilitation Com- Legion in its 1943 National Convention such as loans and education? mission chairman in 1943-44 and ex at Omaha, Nebr. But these, in turn, had A. Many bankers and educators were officio secretary of the special GI Bill antecedents in the experience of all of skeptical of the bill. Organized educators

Committee. us in the miserable years for war vet- supported it strongly, while some indi- Missing from the photo is Harry W erans after WWl and in the Legion's (Continued on page 59) THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 33 —

President Nixon and Cmdr Doyle watch TV monitor screen as tiiey press switch lighting Tomb of the Unknowns. (See opp. page.)

THE WEEK OF March 10-15 has to rank as one of the most the lights will go on automatically and imperceptibly at dusk.* momentous in the 50-year history of The American A plaque will be placed in the Trophy Room behind the Tomb Legion. describing the circumstances of the Legion's Gift to the Within that short period of time—among other things Nation. the Legion simultaneously held its 9th Annual Midwinter President Nixon's appearance was brief. He explained he'd Washington Conference, its 46th Annual National Rehabilita- already had a prior commitment to attend another banquet, tion Conference, the 50th Birthday Celebration of its Paris agreed to many months earlier. But he said he would attend Caucus, presented a Gift to the Nation and had a 6-cent next year's Legion Banquet. U.S. commemorative stamp issued in its honor. High point of the Golden Anniversary Celebration was the BANQUET GUESTS also heard the new march. The American Legion's Gift to the Nation which took the form of a per- Legion, composed especially for the 50th Anniversary by manent lighting installation at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Meredith (76 Trombones) Willson. The composition was Arlington National Cemetery. Until then, the Tomb had not played and sung by the Washington Redskins Show Orchestra been lighted. and Singers. Close to 3,000 guests at the Legion's Banquet to the U.S. When the President flipped the switch, donations from in- Congress in the Grand Ballroom of the Sheraton Park Hotel dividual Legionnaires, Auxiliares, Legion posts. Auxiliary in Wash., D.C., saw President Richard M. Nixon accept the units, departments and interested persons had come close to gift on behalf of the American people. As the President and meeting the total cost of the lighting project which includes Legion National Commander William C. Doyle (N.J.) jointly perpetual maintenance of the system. Full-color picture post- pressed a remote control switch to actuate the lighting system, cards with acknowledgments to donors and bearing First Day the delicately balanced floodlighting system at the Tomb and cancellations of the Legion commemorative stamp were being on the Temple facade dramatically brightened. The lighting is balanced so that the Tomb and the Temple complement *Two prominent Louisiana Legionnaires—Al LaBiche, Nat'l 50th Anni- each other. versary Chmn. and Raymond Hufft, Nat'l Cmdr's Representative to Security Commission eager to be among the first to visit Via the magic of closed circuit television, guests at the the Nat'l — the lighted Tomb after the President pulled the switch, raced over to banquet got a rare nighttime view of the perpetual honor Arlington following the banquet, presented their credentials and per- suaded the Sergeant of the Guard to give them a guided tour of the guard pacing off his traditional beat. Each day from now on, lighted "Tomb area. 34 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 NINTH ANNUAL WASHINGTON CONFERENCE

46th NATIONAL REHABILITATION CONFERENCE

50th ANNIVERSARY OF LEGION'S PARIS CAUCUS

celebrate 50th Anniversary events. Legion's leaders gather in the nation's capitol to conduct business and

(photo, left) and with the Temple facade behind it. The illuminated Tomb as it appears at night looking toward Washington

addressed and mailed. Names of the donors were also being assembled for permanent record in a 50th Anniversary Roster of Honor at Nat'l Hq in Indianapolis. It will take many weeks yet to complete a full accounting of the thousands of small gifts to the Gift to the Nation Fund and perhaps months to complete the Roster of Honor, which may contain close to 80,000 names. Besides regular radio and television news broadcasts, the ceremonies were carried to U.S. servicemen and women sta- tioned throughout the world via the Armed Forces Radio Network of 375 stations. The Gift to the Nation Dedication and other activities of the week-long Washington Conference were filmed and will form a 14V2 minute color motion picture jointly sponsored by The American Legion and Pan American World Airways. This film will be available for television use and by Legion posts and other units. If completed in time, a copy of the film was scheduled to be buried in a time capsule at St. Louis on May 10 during 50th Anniversary of St. Louis Caucus Cere- monies.

ANOTHER FEATURE during the conference was the issuance by the U.S. Post Office on Mar. 15 of a 6-cent commemorative postage stamp in honor of the Legion's 50 years of service to community, state and nation. Legionnaires and stamp collectors purchased over 82,000 Legion stamps at the First Day Ceremonies, one of the largest commemorative first day sales ever held. (See pages 38-39.) Elsewhere around the country, thousands of Legion posts Legion Founders Levi M. Hall (Minn.) (left) and Joseph A. and Auxiliary units were celebrating at 50th Anniversary proudly pose with Legion's 50th Anniversary Bernard (Mo.) birthday banquets and balls. Some posts and departments Birthday Cake at Conference. Judge Hall is current President monuments and others erected and lit perpetual and Mr. Bernard current Sec'y Treasurer of Founders Society. dedicated THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 35 CONTINUED LEGION'S WASHINGTON CONFERENCE. which jammed the hearing room in the Longworth Building to hear Nat'l Cmdr Flame of Freedom Torches in tribute to gates to the Conference were housed at Doyle present the Legion's legislative America's war dead at state capitol the Sheraton-Park Hotel. Most business program in the field of rehabilitation to buildings, county courthouses, city halls sessions were conducted there with other the House Committee on Veterans Af- and other public sites. meetings held at the Pentagon, the State fairs. Newspapers in hundreds of towns and Department and NASA's Goddard Space They heard him praise the Congress cities across the land carried stories of Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. for its foresight, responsibility and con- the Legion's birthday and its first half- Additional highlights of the big week: cern over the affairs of the nation's vet- century of service to the nation. Mayors (1) The appearance by Nat'l Cmdr erans. He noted among other things that and governors proclaimed March as William C. Doyle before the House Com- 1969 was the 25th Anniversary of the American Legion 50th Anniversary mittee on Veterans Affairs to present the original G.L Bill of Rights, the most sig- Month and the week of March 15 as Legion's veterans legislative program. nificant single piece of veterans legisla- Legion Week. (See below.) tion ever adopted by any nation. On Mar. 9, millions of Ed Sullivan's (2) The presentation of the National Enunciating the Legion's mandates, television fans witnessed a tribute to the Commander's Award at a Public Rela- Nat'l Cmdr Doyle called for: an amend- Legion's 50th year as the National Cham- tions luncheon to Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., ment to provide $30 monthly for each pion Senior Color Guard of First Na- star of the television series, "The FBL" child under the dependency and indem- tional Bank Post 985 of Chicago, 111., and a preview of the color film, "An nity law's provisions for widows of vet- went through its faultless routines on American Legend," an account of the erans who died of service-connected nationwide television. Televiewers also Legion's first 50 years with Zimbalist as causes and an increase to $75 monthly in saw Nat'l Cmdr Doyle present a 50th the narrator. This film is available in Die for widows in need of regular aid Anniversary Medallion to Ed Sullivan in 16mm at $75.00 per copy from The and attendance. appreciation of his efforts on the Legion's American Legion, Public Relations Di- He called for laws to ( I ) create a

National Commander Doyle (center) presents Legion's legislative mandates at House Committee on Veterans Affairs hearing.

50th Anniversary Entertainment Advis- vision, 1608 K St., N.W., Washington, coordinated national cemetery system ory Committee. (See page 41.) D.C. 20006. (See page 41.) with jurisdiction and responsibility for And the Congress of the United States, (3) A reception for the Legion's For- all such matters vested in the VA Ad- which originally chartered The American eign Relations Commission at the State ministrator, (2) establish a commission Legion a half-century ago, rendered a Department hosted by State Department on national cemeteries to advise and

50th Birthday tribute on Mar. 1 1 as both Post 68. Secretary of State William P. recommend to the President, the Con- the Senate and the House of Representa- Rogers received a 50th Anniversary Me- gress and the Administrator with respect tives unanimously passed separate reso- dallion from Nat'l Cmdr Doyle. (See to the cemetery system's administration lutions commending the Legion and vow- page 40.) and selection of cemetery sites, (3) as- ing continued cooperation with the or- (4) The Legion's 46th Annual National sign jurisdiction over national cemeteries ganization in the furtherance of its pro- Rehabilitation Conference. (See page to those committees of Congress which grams of service to the nation. 37.) have legislative responsibility over vet- (5) A special 25th Anniversary Re- erans affairs and (4) amend the eligi- BIG WEEK union Meeting of some of the original bility criteria to provide that those proven

All in all, it was a big week for the Legion GI Bill Committee. (See p. 33.) guilty of mutiny or treason or of offenses Legion. It was the usual standing-room-only against the security of the U.S. or of

Nearly 1 ,000 Legion leaders and dele- audience of Legionnaires and Auxiliares advocating the forceful overthrow of our

36 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 regular and recurring basis; an increase in the educational assistance allowance for Vietnam-era vets; an increase in DIC to widows and children and provision for payment of transportation allowance for veterans dying in military hospitals similar to that now provided for veterans in similar situations in VA hospitals. SPECIAL SESSION The Legion's Nat'l Executive Com- mittee in special session on Mar. 15, adopted one strong resolution which cas- tigated the willful, lawless and violent groups who disrupt the order of Ameri- can society and the foundations of its educational system. It noted that the Legion will encourage and give active, open support to public and private officials who persevere in efforts to: "expose and put down organized an- archy; preserve pithlic and private institutions from usurpation or destruction by mob rule; insure the safety of all citizens from willful harm; stand firm against threats and

Oliver E. Meadows, Staff Director, House Vets Committee, addresses Reliab Conferees. criticism in performing their duties to protect arid promote the public in- government, would be denied the privi- terest; lead our country to rational lege of burial in a national cemetery. and peaceful solutions of our ever- Congress was also asked to increase changing problems and instill in the the maximum Servicemen's Group Life American people a new growth of Insurance coverage from $10,000 to civic responsibility, love of country $30,000; and allow sufficient funds for and faith in God." the VA to administer its benefit pro- Other resolutions commended Presi- grams. dent Nixon on his decision concerning a SPADE WORK modified anti-ballistic missile system, called for the U.S. to make an "appro- Not all the time was taken up with priate response" to Viet Cong attacks on birthday celebrations, Congressional South Vietnamese cities while "peace hearings or social events. Sen. Talmadge Sen. Cranston talks" were in progress in Paris, called As usual, the Legion got some spade Senate Vets Affairs Subcommittee Chmn. for the upgrading of college ROTC pro- work done in the nation's capitol. Its committees and commissions met with government leaders and military officials in round after round of panel discussions, seminars and speeches. Biggest of the meetings and longest- running was the 46th Nat'l Rehabihta- tion Conference under the chairmanship of William F. Lenker (S. Dak.). From Mar. 12 to 14, the conferees (most of them veterans' service officers) met with a whole corps of VA representatives and officials led by VA Administrator Wil- liam J. Driver, Deputy Administrator A. W. Stratton, Dr. H. M. Engle, Chief Medical Director and A. W. Farmer, Chief Benefits Director. They discussed the myriads of subjects that Veterans Ad- ministration personnel and Legion service officers are faced with each working day. The Department of Defense and the Social Security Administration also sent its representatives to discuss mutual problems. The Legion's regular Rehabilitation Commission met during the week. Among its recommendations: training sessions for post service officers on a Mel Dixon, Florida Dep't Service Officer, queries VA panel at Rehab Conference. THE AM ERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 37 First Day Issue of The American

Over 1,500 attended stamp ceremony. Each got a program containing a First Day cancelled stamp and details of its creation.

CONTINUED LEGION'S WASHINGTON CONFERENCE

grams, thanked the Congress for its reso- Dep't Cmdr Al Swiderski presented a the homebuying veterans a total of $72 lutions of commendation on the Legion's check which brought his department's billion dollars. At the end of 1968, 47% 50th Anniversary and authorized a tem- total up to $14,382. There were also of the total loans guaranteed had been porary charter for Saigon Post 34 in some smaller checks from other depart- repaid in full. Only 3.3% have had to be South Vietnam. ments. foreclosed. In the Direct Loan Program The Committee also authorized the since 1950, we have made to veterans in NOTES National Commander to form a com- QUOTES AND rural areas and small cities and towns mittee to study U.S. military manpower Here are some brief quotes and notes not near metropolitan areas a total of needs as they relate to ( 1 ) Selective Serv- from some of the experts speaking at 292,700 loans worth $2,748,000,000. ice and its possible inequities (2) pro- meetings during the week. Only 2.9% of these loans have had to posals for a "volunteer defense estab- Economic Commission: From Robert be foreclosed." lishment" and (3) to make recommenda- E. Hampton, Chairman of the U.S. Civil From Anthony S. Stasio, Director, tions on all manpower needs of the na- Service Commission: "I can put your Company Assistance Program, Small tion with regard to national security and mind at ease ... we have no intention Business Administration: "Every SBA defense. of amending the Veterans Preference Act office in the country has appointed from Two large donations to the Gift to the or entertaining notions to do so, unless it within its ranks a special SBA/ American Nation Fund were announced at the strengthens it." Legion Liaison Officer. Of these men,

Nat'l Executive Committee meeting. From John Dervan, Director, Loan 90% are active Legionnaires . . . SBA N.Y. Committeeman Lou Drago pre- Guaranty Service, VA: "Last winter we officials have contacted at least 2,000 sented a check for $2,000 which filled guaranteed the seven millionth home Legionnaires so far in advising them of out the balance of the Department of loan to a veteran. The private lenders our services." New York's pledged $17,000. Illinois who made these loans have advanced to {Continued on page 40)

38 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 —

tendance. The stamp went on sale na- Legion's Commemorative Postage Stamp tionally on Mar. 17. First printing to- taled 120 million stamps. Over 1,500 Legionnaires and other in- BOUGHT 12 sheets the first time And so it was. terested people filled the hotel's Cotil- I around and then went back for 12 Legionnaires and stamp collectors at lion Room to hear U.S. Postmaster Gen- more!" the First Day of Issuance Ceremonies eral Winton M. Blount deliver the dedi- "Who's got some extra cachets to sell? snapped up over 82,000 of the Legion's cation address. Rep. Thaddeus J. Dulski I don't want to lose my place on the Commemorative 6-cent U.S. postage (N.Y.), Chmn, Post Office and Civil stamp line to go back on that one." stamps like proverbial hotcakes as they Service Committee, House of Represen- "I don't see why you want the num- crowded around the temporary post tatives, also spoke. The Postmaster is a bers in the corner. What value can that office booths set up at the Sheraton Park member of Montgomery Post 2 of Ala- possibly have?" Hotel site of the ceremonies. bama and Rep. Dulski is a member of "Look, honey, that's called a plate Post Office Philately Division people Adam Plewacki Post 799 of Buffalo, ." block and. . . said they never expected such a huge N.Y., which has a large stamp collect- "I ran out of pocket money and I've sale and were totally unprepared for the ing group in its midst. got to buy some more serviced covers deluge of requests. They also thought The Official Legion First Day Cover for the guys in my post. Who can lend the Commemorative Ceremony was one (in philatelic terms, an envelope with me $10 bucks until this afternoon? This of the finest they'd seen in a long time a special design, or cachet) also sold is like a fever!" with one of the largest crowds in at- well. Over 12,000 moved while the Le- gion was in conference, with 5,500 of those selling on First Day alone. By Mar. 15, over 62,000 cachets had been sold far exceeding Legion expectations—and an order went out for 25,000 more. Legionnaires who want a fully serviced cover (that's the official Legion First Day envelope with Legion stamp cancelled "First Day of Issue") can still get them. They're $.50 for one; $.90 for two; $1.30 for three; $1.65 for four and

Legionnaires crowd temporary post office booths to buy Legion commemorative stamp.

Auxiliary President Mrs. Arthur B. Hannell gets Presentation Album from Postmaster.

$2.00 for five. Beyond five, it's $.30 each additional cover. Send along a stamped, self-addressed return envelope so that the cover can be mailed back to you. Also included will be a card containing a brief Legion history. In addition, the Legion also made available a limited number of First Day of Issue Ceremony Programs. These contain a First Day of Issue cancelled Le- gion stamp and information about the design of the stamp and the ceremony.

(Story of the design on p. 42.) These are available while they last at $1.00 each; two for $1.80; three for $2.50; four for $3.20 and five for $3.75.

At stamp ceremony. From left: Mrs. William F. Hauck, wife of the Nat'l Adjt; Mrs. To purchase any of the above, de- Jim Whitfield (partly hidden) wife of Legion Hq. Executive Director; Mrs. William scribe your needs, enclose check or Galbraith, wife of Past Nat'l Cmdr Galbraith; Mrs. Ray Steffensmeier, whose husband money order and write: First Day is on Nat'l Finance Comm'n and Nat'l Convention Comm'n Chmn Jim Demarest (N.Y.). Cover, American Legion, 1608 K St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006.

THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 39 —

Lt. Gen. A. O. Connor, Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, on manpower needs: "Our toughest problem in any expansion is meeting officer and noncommissioned officer requirements—because of the lead time involved. During peacetime the majority of our officers come from ROTC, which has the second longest lead time—about two years. The U.S. Mili-

tary Academy has the longest . . . OCS has been the primary source for the ex- panded officer corps. Even here the lead

time is about one year ... In fiscal year 1967 we produced about 19,000 officers with about the same figure for 1968. This fiscal year, OCS will decrease as ROTC increases ... To produce the necessary number of additional NCO's and senior specialists, we have accelerated promo- tions and have introduced a new training concept aimed at producing NCO's.

much like the OCS program. We call it the Skill Development Base Program. It provides advanced training for selected individuals who show leadership and

Legion Founder Tom Miller recounts Paris Caucus facts to Nat'! Executive Comnnittee.

CONTINUED LEGION'S WASHINGTON CONFERENCE From page 38 From Fred McGhee, Information Of- some four million housing units in rural ficer, Farmers Home Administration, areas that need to be replaced or sub-

Dep't of Agriculture: "One-third of our stantially rehabilitated. . . . The 1970

nation's people live in small towns and Budget estimates provide $ 1 ,258,800,000 in the open country—rural America in insured rural housing loans—more and it is here that one-half of all sub- than double the current year's figures. N.Y. National Executive Committeeman standard housing can be found. There are . . . While the big interest is in housing Lou Drago (I) holds up check represent- loans, we are still in the farm loan busi- ing $17,000 N.Y. Dep't contribution to ness. We made more farm loans to vet- Gift to the Nation Fund. Huge check be- erans last year than housing loans. All hind Illinois Cmdr Al Swiderski repre- told, in fiscal 1968 we made nearly sents his Department's $14,382 donation. 39,000 loans to veterans totaling $312 promotion-potential in basic training.'" million. Since WW2 more than 850,000 Foreign Relations/ National Security loans have been made to veterans—about Joint Meeting: Vice Admiral Francis J. $3.5 billion." Blouin, Deputy Chief of Naval Opera- From Richard Overath, Deputy Direc- tions, discussed the U.S.S.R.'s naval and tor, Office of Veterans Re-employment maritime might. He noted the growing Rights, Dep't of Labor: "Complaints Soviet presence on the high seas, stating against employers unwilling to give re- that it appears determined to achieve a turning veterans their jobs back are about leading position, if not the leading posi- three times what they were two years tion, among the maritime powers of the ago." State Dep't Post 68 tiosts reception for Legion world. Foreign Relations Commission at State Dep't. National Security: From U.S. Army He made these points: Russia's fleet presents a quality of design that com- pares favorably with any fleet afloat, 58% of our total combatant tonnage is from WW2—99% of Soviet tonnage went into commission in the last 20 years; Russia has about 375 submarines, all built since 1948—as were her conven- tional destroyers, 90% of U.S. destroyers were built before 1948; Russia outnum- bers us in cruisers, 19 to 13; Russia has over 460 large surface ships and subs, about 2,700 small types—auxiliaries, special purpose ships and various small At annual State Department Reception National Commander Doyle presented Secretary craft; U.S.S.R. recently had about 450 of State William P. Rogers (no cap) with a Legion 50th Anniversary Medallion. merchant ships under construction while Then they posed for pictures with Legion Hq. Executive Director and Mrs. James S. Whitfield (left), Mrs. Hauck and (far right) National Adjutant William F. Hauck. the U.S. had only 62. Their fishing fleet 40 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 treaties, possible sites for a new canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and the uses and limitations of NATIONAL COMMANDER'S nuclear excavation on such a project. PUBLIC RELATIONS AWARD The two Senators who chair Senate Subcommittees on Veterans Affairs spoke to the Nat'l Rehab Conference. Sen. Alan Cranston (Calif.), Chmn of the Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, told the group: "The op- portunities in housing, medical care, etc., m.ust match the sacrifices the returning men and women have made. They must receive the fullest information — on streamlined forms—about what they're entitled to. We intend to work with Sen- ator Talmadge's subcommittee to handle veterans legislation and with the Senate Interior Committee." Sen. Herman Talmadge (Ga.), Chmn of the Subcommittee on Veterans Af- Doyle Bill Hendricks Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. Cmdr and fairs of the Senate Finance Committee, impressed conferees with his knowledge "Frankly, I wish that all citizens luncheon on Mar. 14. of the history of veterans benefits. shared the honor and respect which Zimbalist, a Legionnaire and the star Arts At a Child Welfare Foundation meet- Legionnaires have for Old Glory . . . of the Warner Bros. -Seven TV wounded in ing, officers gave approval to a special the uniform of our Armed Forces . . . show, "The F.B.L," was proposal submitted by Nat'l Cmdr Doyle our country's solemn national holidays. action as an infantry lieutenant in Eu- for the underwriting in the amount of I wish also that every citizen shared rope during WW2. support for the equipping of a the Legion's dedication to the American William Hendricks, also of Warners, $15,000 children's hospital in South Vietnam. ideal—the ideal of liberty, justice and received a Commander's award for hospital is being built by the per- opportunity for all." producing the documentary film "An The The remarks were among those American Legend," which depicts some sonal contributions of U.S. servicemen the area. made by Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., as he of the highlights of the Legion's first in also approved three accepted the Legion's Public Relations 50 years. The Foundation Legion grants totaling $29,500. A grant Award from Nat'l Cmdr Doyle at a Zimbalist is narrator on the film. of $15,000 was approved for use by the Berkshire Farm Institute for Training and Research, Canaan, N.Y., to record of interviews with youngsters who is the largest and most widely deployed Col. John T. Sheffey, Executive Direc- tapes to provide the in the world. In oceanography, the Sov- tor, Atlantic-Pacific Interoceanic Canal are in trouble in order better communication and iets are active and determined with about Study Commission (a government body), basis for adults young- 70,000 scientists and technicians as- discussed the Panama Canal as it relates understanding between and signed to this area and more oceano- to the present political situation in Pan- sters. graphic vessels than any other nation. ama, the 1903 Treaty, the pending An $8,500 grant was approved for use > CONTINUED LEGION'S WASHINGTON CONFERENCE.

City, for a technical information and consultation center to bring together the knowledge and experience of those working on the problem of illegitimacy to

create a resource to fill the needs of community planners and agencies. George Ehinger (Del.) was elected president of the Child Welfare Founda- tion; Dr. Almo Sebastianelli (Pa.), vice president; David V. Addy (Mich.), secretary and William H. Christotfersen (Utah), treasurer. Among other Legion groups conduct- ing business during the week, some of Legion Publications Comm'n in action at them with government and military of- Conference. Standing: James E. Powers (Ga.), Chmn, and James F. O'Neil, Legion ficials: 50th Anniversary Committee hard at work. Magazine Publisher. Its next big project takes place in St. • Legislative Commission 6-10 Louis, May at 50th Anniversary of • 50th Anniversary Committee St. Louis Caucus. • Task Force for the Future Committee by Illinois State University, Normal, 111., • Publications Commission for the systematic examination of the • Public Relations Commission relationships between youngsters from • National Cmdr's Advisory Committee broken homes and their ability to cope • with academic and social situations as Subcommittee on Problems of the opposed to those same capabilities among Aged & Aging youngsters from normal family situa- • Reorganization Subcommittee of the tions. Nat'l Executive Committee A grant of $6,000 was made to the • Resolutions Subcommittee of the Nat'l National Council of Illegitimacy, N.Y. Executive Committee Task Force for the Future Committee seeks directions for the Legion's next 50 years. Its report due at Atlanta Nat'l Con- vention, Aug. 22-28. DESIGNER EXPLAINS MOTIF OF LEGION COMMEMORATIVE STAMP

In a letter to Warren MacDonald, and the letter forms conveying the

Director of Research in the Legion's message. I trust that the millions of

Washington office, artist Robert people who see it will appreciate the

Hallock, of Newtown, Conn., has American Legion and its long his- explained what he had in mind in tory of dedicated involvement." The Legion's Dep't Service Officers Ass'n designing the current U.S. postage The motto for the stamp, "Vet- held its annual election. Harry Sawyer c.) Other stamp commemorating the Legion's erans As Citizens," was established (Mont., was elected Pres. officers: (I to r) Walter Hyde (R.I.), Sec'y- 50th Anniversary. In brief, the spUt as suitable to Legion officials the and Treasurer; Frederick Heinle (Wis.), Sgt-at- eagle goes with the motif of "Vet- Post Office's citizens committee on Arms; George Shehane (Ga.), Vice Pres.; erans as Citizens," by showing that commemorative stamp design be- Robert C. MacFarland (Me.), Chaplain. half of the national eagle which fore Hallock created the final form. bears the olive branch of peace in Legion's Police Recognition its talons, while the lightning bolt of war (in the undepicted talons) is 7(ie M.'^ynerican something which veterans, as citizens, have hopefully left behind Legion

them. Hallock put it this way: "The accepted design for the

American Legion stamp is based on the theme of the Legion—'Veterans as Citizens.' It seemed important to Post 263, New York, N.Y., gave convey this as a patriotic symbol, awards to the New York City Fire Dep't using red, white and blue and the (see photo) for work with the children half of the eagle of the Great Seal in the community where the post is lo- grasping the olive branch of peace cated. Police awards were made earlier. and looking in that direction rather In addressing a meeting of the Pitts- than towards the shafts of war. The burgh Chapter of the American Society American Legion veterans have been for Industrial Security in East McKees- so dedicated, it seems to me, for the port. Pa., Legion Nat'l Vice Cmdr lohn past fifty years: 'For God and Veterans A. lones said: "The Legion feels there Country.' as Citizens ought to be a law against undermanned, "The design is a simple and direct ^ underpaid, improperly equipped and in- statement in its elements of the eagle U.S.POSTAGE O CENTS adequately trained law enforcement agencies."

42 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 NEWS

322nd Field Art'y (WWl)— (Sept.) Lawrence John H. Lumpkin and Harry D. Richardson POSTS IN ACTION Fritsch, 470 Emerson Ave., Hamilton, Ohio and Elbert S. Wright (all 1968), Post 435, San Francisco, Calif. N.Y., has printed a 327th Mach Gun— (Sept.) Anthony Willig, 836 Post 1363, Eldred, Crescent Ave., Covington, Ky. 41011 Casto H. Stelck (1968), Post 826, Woodland booklet (the cover in four colors, the 339th Field Art'y, Bat D— (Sept.) B. F. Miller, Hills, Calif. 727 E. McLane, Osceola, Iowa 50213 Joseph A. Mayer and John E. O'Malley and inside pages mimeographed) detailing 339th Field Hosp (WWl)— (June) Floyd Smaltz, George H. Otto and Robert D. Sheehan and Dr. Lake, Orland, Ind. 46776 Charles H. Sprague (all 1968), Post 11, Bridge- the history and accomplishments of its Wall 342nd Inf, Hq Co— (Sept.) C. J. Schneider, 411 port, Conn. Montgomery Ambulance Service in 20 years. The his- Alliance Ave., Rockford, 111. 61103 James E. Menifee and Homer 348th Sta Hosp— (Sept.) Milton Bloomquist, and J. Goode Smith and Chester Walker (all calls have been tory reveals that 700 P.O. Box 262, Lansing, Mich. 48902 1966) , Post 506, Rome, Ga. Anton Shimkus and Frank Vaisvil and answered by the Service in that time. 351st Mach Gun Co (WWl)— (Sept.) Fillmore StuU, 1311 Watrous Ave., Des Moines, Iowa Jerome Vitas and Anton Yusken (all 1968), 353rd Inf (WWl)— (Aug.) John Hughes, 829 Post 271, Chicago, 111. East Ave. B, Hutchinson, Kans. 67501 HaUtord Jo,nes and Donald M. Kerrick, Sr. OUTFIT REUNIONS 393rd FA Bn (Korean War)— (Sept.) LaMoine and Elmer Miles and Floyd Richard and Hugh Boggs, Box 215, Frankfort, Ind. 46041 Risk (all 1968), Post 477, Chrisman, 111. indicated. For Reunion will be held in month 472nd Eng Maint Co. (WW2)— (Aug.) Mat John Boska and John Hmirak and Max Lasch person address is particulars, write whose Weiland, 6520 Randi Ave., Canoga Park. (all 1968), Post 825, Chicago, 111. given. Calif. 91303 Alten E. Rose and Homer M. Thomas and accepted official form only. For Notices on 478th Bn— (July) Walter Lewan- Taylor Trosper and Virgil White (all 1968), stamped, addressed return envelope AAA AW form send dowski, 3459 McShane Way, Baltimore, Md. Post 184, Newport, Ind. to R. Form, American Legion Magazine, O. 494th AAA Gun Bn, Bat B— (July) Harold Ernest M. Jensen and William B. Murray and 720 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10019. Notices Kiehne, 424 Nokomis St. N., Alexandria, Edward C. Ohm (all 1968), Post 557, Lone Rock, received at least five months before should be Minn. 56308 Iowa. scheduled reunion. No written letter necessary 648th Tank Dest Bn (WW2) — (Aug.) Al Ervin Marcou and Reginald H. Sturtevant to get form. Vaughan, 919 Garland St.. S.W., Camden, and Patrick Terrio (all 1968), Post 10, Liver- Earliest submission favored when volume of Ark. 71701 more Falls, Maine. requests is too great to print all. 672nd QM Salv Col Co— (Aug.) Frank Graham, James F. Almoney (1968), Post 2, Baltimore, 1778 Sutton Dr., Memphis, Tenn. 38127 Md. ARMY 761st FA Bn (WW2)— (Aug.) W. L. Stevenson, Gustav A. Leutbecher (1968), Post 118, Balti- more, Md. 2nd Arm'd Div— (Aug.) Martin Richard, 1941 R.D. 1, Box 504, Charleroi, Pa. 15022 T. (1968), Post 142, Ash- Potwin Dr., Baton Rouge, La. 1138th Eng Combat Gp— (Aug.) Orlan Larson, Femand Sweeney Mass. 3rd Cav Gp, 3rd & 43rd Sqdns— (Sept.) Joseph P.O. Box 22, Emmons, Minn. 56029 burnham, Quinones, 39 Idlewood Dr., Tonawanda, N.Y. MFSS, Carlisle, Pa.— (Aug.) W. D. Reiber, 435 S. Lightner, Sr. and N. Roberts and F. Rose Travers T. (all Post 4th Div— (July) Charlie Beasley, 942 Ellis St., Cripps Dr., Mt. Holly, N.J. 08060 and Wm. and Wesaw 1967), Augusta, Ga. 30902 Theater Service Forces (Seine Sect, ETC)- 93, Hartford, Mich. William Kohls and Adlere 4th Eng— (July) Carl Jones, Birchwood. Wis. (Aug.) Paul Brown, 901 Coopertown Rd., Fred Grohs and 5th Div, 5th Ren Trp (WW2)— (June) W. T. Bryn Mawr, Pa. 19010 LeMay and Charles Leonard and Samuel Lind- Curtis, 593 Lament Dr., Lexington, Ky, 40503 World Wars Tank Corps— (Sept.) Don Warner, quist (all 1965), Post 65, Rosemount, Minn. Maurice E. Craig and Harvey W. Kennedy 5th Eng Com Bn— (Aug.) James Edwards, 265 9 Park St., Rm. 34, Boston, Mass. 02108 Beacon Ave., Paulsboro, N.J. 08066 (both 1960) and Ernest T. Close (1968), Post Kansas City, Mo. 6th Div— (Aug.) Paul Ossman, 13 West St., NAVY 28, Westboro, Mass. 01581 Charles L. Moraty and Grover Parker and 1st Marine Div— (Aug.) E. C. Clarke, P.O. Box (all 18th CAC (WW2)— (Sept.) Chas. Justus, 625 August J. Thoelke and Frank G. Wyhs Alexandria, Va. 22313 Yaronia Dr. N., Columbus, Ohio 43214 84, 1968), Post 312, St. Charles, Mo. 29th Seabees— (Aug.) W. P. Mast, 1319 N. Ora. I8th Rwy Eng (Seattle)— (Sept.) Iner Nelson, Neal Erskine and Adolph Forsstrom and Randall Rd., Aurora, 111. 60506 Orlando Horstman 641 N.W. 180th St., Seattle, Wash. 98177 Guthrie and John Haas and 31st Special Seabees— ( July ) Charles Scharf, 18 Neb. 20th Inf, Co G (WW2)— (July) Roscoe Brown, (all 1967), Post 9, Hemingford, N. Colonial Dr., Hagerstown, Md. 21740 (both 2603 Booth, Kansas City, Mo. 64129 James E. Toy and Clifton Westervelt 37th Seabees— (June) H. J. Richardson, 700 32nd Div (WW1&2)— (Aug.) Joseph Janos, 2340 1967) , Post 111, Closter, N.J. Ravine Rd., Fort Worth, Tex. 76105 Caserta and Pierino Ciccocelli and S. Hamlin Ave., Chicago. 111. 60623 Domenick 118th Seabees— (July) John Johnson, 718 N. Contino and 40th Div (Korean War, but WW2 also invited)- Salvatore Colavita and Nicola 16th Ave., Melrose Park, 111. 60160 N.J. (Sept.) Edward Lown, 305 Highland Ave., Harry Corailo (all 1967), Post 191, Newark, Carl Knight, 1305 Mt. Gallant Maybrook, N.Y. 12543 DE 442— (Aug.) Michael Dannucci and Harold Darling and Rd., Hill, S.C. 29730 41st Div— (July) Myrl Schantz, 460 Ross, Ply- Rock Samuel Goddard and Emil C. Schneider (all Seabee Vets of America (Aug.) Dan Brum- Brook, N.J. mouth, Mich. 48170 — 1968) , Post 363, South Bound 9515 Kahnar, Portland, Ore. 97203 44th Cav Ren Trp (July) Richard Logan, 245 baugh, Everett D. Van Nostrand (1966) and Arthur — (June) A. R. Smithwlck, HilUard Rd,, Elyria, Ohio 44035 USS Ranger (CV4)— E. Fuss (1968), Post 334, Floral Park, N.Y. Chesapeake, Va. 23320 45th Gen Hosp (WW2)—(May) Frank Zahem- 806 Rutledge Rd., Clin Davies and Albert Greenhalgh and Shore, ski, 244 Maryland Ave., Paterson, N.J. Fred Rhodes (all 1968), Post 365, Bay 48th Surgical, 128th Evac Hosp— (Aug.) Joseph AIR N.Y. Elmer C. Bovee, Sr. (1967) and Hubert L. James, 407—10th Ave. N.W., Austin, Minn. 8th AF, 5th Airdrome Sqdn (Aug.) Jerry — Orr (1968), Post 730, Addison, N.Y. 54th Sig Bn— (Sept.) Ton; Allison, 111 Liberty Simon, 624 S. 62nd St., Philadelphia. Pa. Merritt Waterman and Perry G. Whitman and St., San Francisco, Calif. 94110 19143 Maurice P. Whitney (all 1968), Post 937, Ber- 55th CAC (WWD— (Sept.) Walter Jones, 15 18th Repair Sqdn (Aug.) Charles Niewahner, — lin, N.Y. Winthrop St., Maiden, Mass. 02148 Main Floral Aves., Elsmere, Ky. 41018 & Alfred Marconi and Stanley Spring and 56th Reg't CAC (WWl)— (Aug.) Joseph Kozma, 38th Ftr Sqdn— (July) Frank Wheeler, Box 23, 14 Randall Ave., Stamford, Coim. 06905 Theodore Spring (all 1969), Post 1005. Schenec- Burns, Ore. N.Y. 63rd Inf, Co E— (July) Grover Karr, P.O. Box Fighter (July) William Reid, 118—4th tady, 49th Gp— Ben Caruso and Salvatore Colletta and Jerome 182, Oak Ridge, Tenn. 37830 Ave. N.W., Lenoir, N.C. 28645 J. Golding and Ludovico Mammina (all 1966), 65th Gen Hosp— (May) Sarkis Mihranian, 19 56th Fighter Gp (June) Leo Lester, 408 Aduel — Post 1093, New York, N.Y. Gregory La.. Loudonville, N.Y. 12211 Ct., Kewanee, 111. 61443 Thomas Fiscus and Melvin Hasley and Roy 75th Div— (Aug.) Arnold Turner, 2674 Hastings 284th Aerial Sqdn (WWl)— (July) Leo Neu, Toellner and Harold Wienke (all 1968), Post Ave., Redwood City, Calif. 94061 1115 Homsby, St. Louis, Mo. 63147 1451, Sanborn, N.Y. 80th Div, MP Co (WWl)— (June) Michael 351st Aero Sqdn (WWl)— (June) Fred Alder- John Falerski (1968), Post 1630, Long Island Pasquarett, 13 Elm, Warren, Pa. 16365 man, Box 398, Pinedale, Wyo. 82941 City, N.Y. 102nd Ammo Tn (WWl)— (Sept.) Glen Wemple, 360th Bomb Sqdn— (Sept.) George Torrey, P.O. Embert F. Davis and Linus G. Henger and P.O. Box 217, Boonville, N.Y. 13309 Box 61, Augusta, Mich. 49012 Nels Skovholt (all 1968), Post 283, Mooreton, 102nd Div— (July) Abe Mitchell, 2 McKay Rd., 468th Bomb Gp, (July) Malen Powell, VH— N. Dak. Bethel, Conn. 06801 840 Dr., Denver, Colo. 80233 Dean Herman Breuninger, Sr. and Ernest L. 104th Cav— (Sept.) Ellsworth Price, 3924 Rauch 889th Aviation Eng— (Sept.) Bill Haase, 5061 Bricker and John J. Butler and Samuel Cher- St., Harrisburg, Pa. 17109 Orleans Ave., Sioux City, Iowa 51106 tok and Jerry Cocullo (all 1969), Post 64, 109th Inf, Co K— (Julv) Robert Muir, 604 Dean (Eglin Field, (July) Mary More- WACS WW2)— Coatesville, Pa. St., Scranton, Pa. 18509 land, 1717 St., N.W. Apt. 403, Washington, G Charles L. Marquardt (1967), Post 309, Gir- 112th Cav (Dallas Reunion)— (Aug.) 112th Cav. D.C. 20006 Assoc., P.O. Box 1112, Dallas, Tex. 75221 ardville. Pa. F. Ross John R. 115th Reg't, Cannon Co (WW2)— (Sept.) Wayne Frank Quinn and Samuel and MISCELLANEOUS (all 1968), Rankin, 132 Old Indiana Rd., Homer City, Pa. Shannon and David J. Silverman 119th Field Art'y— (May) Oscar Diehl, 1504 Runestone Barracks 2719 (WWl)— (Sept.) Lester Post 481, Midland, Pa. Birds- Massachusetts Ave., Lansing, Mich. 48906 Young, 608 Cedar St., Alexandria, Minn. Thomas A. Kirkner (1968), Post 626. 127th Inf— (Sept.) John Ciszewski, 4501 W. 56308 boro, Pa. Peterson and Frank Loomis Rd., Milwaukee, Wis. 53220 World War Nurses— (Aug.) Ann Tompkins, Die Ogaard and George Stugelmeyer (all 1968), 134th Inf, 2nd Bn, Hq Co (WW2)— (Aug.) Ralph P.O. Box 196, Leesburg, Fla. 32748 Plocek and Emanuel Howerter, 501 N. Pennsylvania, Abingdon, Post 66, Lemmon, S. Dak. Madsen and Nick Scherer (both 111. 61410 Truels W. 148th Sie Co— (Sept.) George L'Homme, 565 1968), Post 83, Timber Lake, S. Dak. LIFE MEMBERSHIPS Childress, Boswell Ave., Norwich, Conn. 06360 James M. Brown (1968), Post 65, 165th AAA Gun Platoon, Bat C— (Aug.) Gordon The award of a life membership to a Legion- Tex. Morley, Sr., 1302 W. Sullivan St., Kingsport, naire by his Post is a testimonial by those who Tenn. 37660 know him best that he has served The Ameri- Life Memberships are accepted for publica- provide. 168th Inf, Anti-tank Co— (Aug.) Kenneth Mace, can Legion well. tion only on an official form, which we Clarinda, Iowa Below are listed some of the previously un- Reports received only from Commander. Ad- 188th Field Art'y, Bat B— (June) Everett published life membership Post awards that jutant or Finance Officer of Post which awarded Adams. 2120 Ivy Ave., Rapid City, S. Dak. have been reported to the editors. They are the life membership. 57701 arranged by States or Departments. They may get form by sending stamped, self- 215th Coast Art'y AA— (July) Al. Hallanger, addressed return envelope to: Magazine, 720 517 S.W. 8th St., Faribault, Minn. 55021 Ralph I. Petterson and Fred J. Portmann and "L.M. Form, American Legion 280th FABN— (July) Russ Knecht, 2700 Salt Mark L. Pullin and Stephen B. Raybum and 5th Ave., New York, N.Y." 10019. envelope write the Lake St., Las Vegas, Nev. Floyd B. Sharp (all 1967), Post 1, Phoenix, Ariz. On a comer of the return 309th Ammo Tn (WWD— (Sept.) Raymond Hugh 3. Murray (1969), Post 387, Los Angeles, number of names you wish to report. No Miller, Parco Apt. #6, Brazil, Ind. 47834 Calif. written letter necessary to get forms. THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 43 , , "

Dateline Washington. U.S. NOISIEST PLACE IN WORLD. FAMILY PLANNING BY CONGRESS? HEART TRANSPLANT DILEMMA.

"The United States is the noisiest place Another sector of Congress is worried in the world to live and work, " is the about the aftermath of the current bio-

conclusion of Sen . Mark 0. Hatfield medical revolution, and wants Congress

(R-Ore. ) , after making a personal study to set up an independent commission to of the rising level of noise. He con- undertake a three-year study on how to

siders the proliferation of ear-jarring deal with the legal , social and ethical decibels as a "threat to our serenity." impact of heart transplants and other Addressing the National Council on health science advances. Noise Abatement, Senator Hatfield pointed As a result of a series of hearings out that although the United States leads last year, a Congressional group, headed

the world in technological advancement by Sen. Walter F. Mondale (D-Minn. ) and

on many fronts our c ountry lags far Rep. Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash. ) , is press- behind Europe and Russia in seeking to ing for a "careful study of the startling control and restrain noise. Thirty years implications of the biomedical revolu- ago, noise control and sound absorption tion in this country." requirements began to show up in the Besides the questions raised by heart building codes of European cities. Today, transplants, the legislators foresee 16 countries have sound insulation cri- controversial problems arising from such teria in their construction codes, but developments as the creation of an arti- in the United States "most modern build- ficial viral core, synthesis of an enzyme ings today are actually far noisier than and laboratory fertilization of a hiiman older buildings" for the lack of similar egg. standards, he feels. "We have falsely assumed that our PEOPLE AND QUOTES present level of deafening noise in the CODE FOR THE CAMPUS not the right to paralyze and cities is inevitable," Senator Hatfield "The best salvation for the destroy. I oppose violence and said. university in the face of any the takeover of schools, which crisis is for the university com- accompUsh little. I believe munity to save itself by declar- everything is negotiable." Sen. Will Congress get involved in family ing its own ground rules and Edward Brooke (R-Mass.) planning, too? It will if it approves a basic values and then enforc- bill supported by 15 members of the ing them." The Rev. Theodore HIROSHIMA, USA? , Hesburgh, president, Notre "If we had had the atomic H ouse to establish a Select Joint Com- Dame Univ. mittee on Population and Family Planning. bomb in 1945, we would have POVERTY dropped it on you." Gen. Mi- The move reflects increasing concern in CONQUERING noru Genda, Japanese Air Congress with the impending world popu- "We cannot expect to con- Force (Ret). lation "explosion. quer poverty if advances in income are promptly offset by POLLUTION CLEANUP Rep. George Bush (D-Tex. ) , a leading increases in the prices of goods proponent of the legislation, has re- and services the additional in- "We're going to spend a lot peatedly warned his Capitol Hill col- come was expected to buy. of money to remove pollution Labor Secretary Schultz. from the water and from the leagues that the United States faces air ... I think we ought to overwhelming problems by the year 2000, NO RIGHT TO LIE spend some money to remove pollution the when our census may reach 360 million. "The Government has a right from minds of our people." Sen. John O. Pastore not to comment in situations Over the next three decades, global (D-R.I.) population may double to some 7 billion. involving national security. But I have long felt that the Up to now. Congress has pretty much Government has no right to GARBAGE GAFF dealt gingerly with the birth control lie." Herbert Klein, President "As we dump our garbage issue. It is now time, insists Bush and Nixon's Director of Communi- into our oceans, let us be aware cations. his supporters, for Congress to face up that we are not disposing of it, merely relocating it." Edgar to family planning as a national public PROTEST RULES Wayburn, president. Sierra health and welfare problem. "But the right to protest is Club.

44 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 Check right now to see if you qualify for this^'extra cash" Veterans Benefit Plan

... if you do, simply complete the Enrollment Form

at the end of this ad, then mail it before Midnight.

May 29. 1969 -and we'll enroll you at once for only

' Yes No YOU QUALIFY NOW IF YOU CAN ANSWER YES" TO THESE 3 QUESTIONS: Do you hold an honorable discharge from the Armed Forces of the U.S.? Are you not serving on active duty at this time?

Are you not receiving VA disability pension or compensation at this time?

This could well be the most impor- both earning power and family obliga- addition to any other company's insur- tant set of benefits offered to you tions are at a peak— and also the years ance you carry, group or individual, or since you were discharged! Now— as a when serious health problems begin to even Medicare . . . plus a big extra cash qualified veteran— you can take advan- take their toll. That's why you probably lump sum for permanent disability . . . tage of this "extra cash" Veterans Bene- already carry regular health insurance. and, for the first time, actually pays fit Plan that not only pays you valuable But it's a fact that in these "danger cash to your doctor to help him keep money when you are hospitalized— and years" ordinary health insurance— by you well! Of course, you may have only a big lump-sum cash benefit if you itself— simply isn't enough. one like policy with Physicians Mutual. should become permanently disabled— That's why the 67-year-old Physi- Pays "Extra Cash" When You're but, in addition, actually pays cash for cians Mutual Insurance Company—run Hospitalized Pays Money to Help a yearly check-up by your own doctor by doctors—has created this low-cost — Keep You Well and Out of the Hospital to help him keep you in the best pos- plan to give you the extra cash protec- sible health! tion you need no matter what other As your doctor will tell you, few Most veterans are in their late thir- coverage you have. It pays tax-free, ex- things are more important to your ties, forties, and fifties— the years when pense-free extra cash direct to you in health than regular medical check-ups. (continued on next page)

PLAN PAYS $100.00 A WEEK TAX-FREE CASH DIRECT TO YOU WHEN YOU'RE HOSPITALIZED ..rEXTRA CASH" OVER AND ABOVE ALL BENEFITS FROM OTHER INSURERS, EVEN MEDICARE... PLUS LUMP-SUM $10,000.00 IF YOU'RE

PERMANENTLY DISABLED ... PLUS ADDITIONAL CASH TO HELP KEEP YOU WELL

Here's how the Veterans Benefit Plan sary exceptions: war, military service, extra cash benefit. Of course, you must

works: $100.00 a week ( $14.28 a day) will mental disorder, alcoholism or drug ad- have been employed full time for at least be paid directly to you from the very first diction, sevice-connected disability for 6 months before you became totally dis- day of hospital confinement — even for which you are receiving government com- abled and your policy must remain in con- one day — and for as long as 52 weeks, pensation or pension, or conditions cov- tinuous force during the 12-month dis- each time a new sickness or accident hos- ered by Workmen's Compensation or Em- ability period. pitalizes you. Even if you have been in the ployers Liability Laws. You are free to hospital for a full year — and have col- use any hospital in the world except only: Pays Extra Money to Help Keep You lected your full $5,200.00 of benefits, as nursing homes; convalescent, extended- in the Best Possible Health long as you have kept your policy in care, or self-care units of hospitals; or Fed- To encourage you to see your doctor regu- force you will be entitled to all your bene- eral hospitals. larly, Veterans Benefit Flan will pay up to fits all over again if you have been out of $10.00 toward the cost of an annual rou- the hospital for at least six months. $10,000.00 Lump-Sum Cash Benefit tine physical check-up. You see your own

Think of it! You're protected immedi- Unlike any other disability insurance, Vet- doctor any time within 60 days after you ately for new accidents off the job. After erans Benefit pays you $10,000.00 extra receive your notice. you've had your policy 30 days, you're cash in one lump sum if you become covered for new sicknesses, and when permanently and totally disabled from any • Off-the-job accidents covered immediately, you've had your policy for only one year, new sickness or accident. as soon as your policy is in force • New sicknesses cov- you're covered for chronic ailments you've If, before age 60, you are totally dis- ered after your policy is 30 days had in the past — conditions that come abled for 12 consecutive months, and old • Even pre-existing conditions back again and again or are likely to recur. doctors determine you are unable to work are covered after only one year! There are only these minimum neces- at any job, you are entitled to this big

THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 45 Read here and on the preceding page ahout how you may (continued from vrecedinspreceding vase)page) w IP S S The most serious illnesses (cancer, for ing in even when you are on the sick- yourself permanently unable to work. example) can often cured \-'hen be de- list and hospitalized? Debts could pile Perhaps you'd receive small monthly tected early enough. To encourage you up fast — and your savings swiftly dis- payments from social security or other to see your doctor regularly, the Vet- appear. You may recover your health insurance, but this big lump sum could erans Benefit Plan actually helps pro- — but you might never recover from be a lifesaver toward wiping out large vide a yearly routine physical check-up. the tremendous financial loss. debts or helping to pay off your mort- But if even you see your doctor reg- Now, however, you can stop worry- gage. Or perhaps you'd want to use it ularly, you might still be hospitalized ing about where the extra cash is going for your children's education or invest by a sudden accident or unexpected to come from — if you take advantage it for needed income. illness. Would your present insurance of the extra cash protection ofiFered by cover all your medical expenses? Al- the Veterans Benefit Plan, Why the Plan Has Been Called "the

most surely, the answer is no. Best Insurance Buy Since G. I. Not only does it provide extra pro- Life Insurance" But even if it did, what about your tection when you are hospitalized — but family's living expenses? Who would it pays you a big extra cash lump-sum With all these extra cash benefits, you pay the rent or mortgage . . . your benefit for permanent disability. Con- might expect the Veterans Benefit Plan monthly payments ... the food bills sider what this big lump-sum payment 'to be very expensive. But here's the and all the other bills that keep on com- could do for you if you should find best news of all! It costs only $4.95 a // Vou Have Questions, Here's aHandy Checklist ofAnswers

What is the Veterans Benefit Plan? If I fl~| fi] become hospitalized, when do my you must have been employed full time for at benefits begin? least six It is a new non-government insurance plan for months before you became totally disabled and your policy must remain in continuous honorably discharged veterans of the Armed $100.00 a week ($14.28 a day) will be paid di- of force during the 12-month disability period. Forces the United States—who are not now rectly to you from the very first day of hospital on active duty and who are not receiving com- confinement. 13] Can 1 drop out at any time? Can you pensation or pension for service-connected or — ' drop me? non-service-connected disability from the Veter- \t\ How long will I be paid? ans Administration—that pays extra cash direct We will never cancel or refuse to renew your For as long as 52 weeks (as much as $5,200.00) to you when you are hospitalized, plus an addi- policy for health reasons—for as long as you live while you are hospitalized for a new sickness tional lump-sum payment for permanent dis- and continue to pay your premiums. We guar- or accident. Each new period of hospital con- ability. In addition, the Veterans Benefit Plan antee that we will never cancel, modify, or finement pays up to the full 52 weeks bene- provides a physical examination benefit each terminate your policy unless we decline renewal fit, as long as there is an interval of six months year to help your doctor keep you in the best or modify all policies of this type in your entire from the last hospital confinement. possible health. state. You, of course, can drop your policy on any renewal date. 8 When does my policy go into force?

Why do I need the extra cish of the 14 How do I report a claim? It becomes effective on the date your Enroll- Veterans Benefit Plan in addition to my ment is received. New accidents are covered With your policy, you will receive a simple, regular health insurance? on that date. After your policy has been in easy-to-use Claim Form which you send directly Probably your present hospital insurance won't force for 30 days, you are covered for new sick- to the company when you wish to report a claim.

cover all your hospital expenses. But even if nesses which begin thereafter. 15 How much does it cost to join? it does, you will still need help to pay all your

[T] What if I have had a health problem that other expenses at home. And if you become Only $1.00, regardless of age. After your first may occur again? permanently disabled, you can surely use an month you pay only $4.95 a month through age additional lump-sum payment in cash, to help Pre-existing conditions are covered after your 49; only $5.95 a month from age 50 through 59; you pay off large debts, your mortgage, or put policy has been in force for only one year. and only $6.95 a month from age 60. to some other important use. are 10 What isn't covered? 16 Why the premiums so low?

Only these exceptions: war, First, we believe veterans, as a group, are 3j How do I get my "physical" each year? military service, better insurance risks. Second, by mental disorder, alcoholism or drug addiction, encouraging Veterans Benefit Plan actually pays your own regular check-ups, we hope to service-connected or non-service-connected dis- minimize the doctor up to $10.00 annually toward your routine chances of hospitalization ability for which you are receiving government and permanent dis- physical examination (but only if you want it). ability. Finally, this is a compensation or pension, or any condition mass enrollment plan You get special forms yearly to take to your —and no salesmen are used. covered by Workmen's Compensation or Em- doctor so he can give you your check-up within ployers Liability Laws. 60 days. [l7| Why is there a "deadline" date?

11 Does the Veterans Benefit Plan pay in In order to offer the Plan to properly qualified any hospital? veterans without any other requirements and [T] Can I collect even though I carry other health insurance? still maintain our low rate, we can only make You will be covered in any hospital in the world the Plan available on this basis during a limited Yes. This Plan pays you in addition to any other except nursing homes; convalescent, extended- enrollment period. The deadline date is firm— company's health insurance you carry, care, or self-care units of hospitals; or Federal whether we cannot accept the enclosed Enrollment unless group or individual—even in addition hospitals. to Medi- postmarked on or before that date. care. Of course, you may have only one like

if I policy with Physicians Mutual, 12 What become permanently disabled? 18 Why should I enroll right now?

Should you become totally disabled for 12 Because an unexpected sickness or accident consecutive months before you reach the age could strike without warning— and you will not Is there a lot of red tape to qualify? of 60, and it is medically determined that you be covered until your policy is in force. Remem- No. The only qualification is that you are an are unable to work at any job, you are entitled ber, if for any reason you change your mind, you honorably discharged veteran, as noted in (1) to a permanent total disability benefit—a lump may return your policy within 10 days and your above. Even veterans over 65 are welcome. sum of $10,000.00 in tax-free cash! Of course, $1.00 will be refunded promptly.

46 THE AK/IERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 qualify now for this valuable Veterans Benefit Plan

month through age 49 — from age 50 gators are used. It all adds up to high at any cost! Mail your Enrollment to- through 59 only $5.95 a month - 60 quality protection at low cost. day. The same day we receive it, we and over, only $6.95. And regardless of will issue your Veterans Benefit Policy Offered by "the Doctors Company" your age, you get your first month for (Form P321 Series) and automatically only $1.00. Your policy is backed by the resources, put your policy in force. integrity, and reputation of Physicians We'll also send you an easy-to-use Extra Benefits Give You Real Security Mutual Insurance Company, "the doc- Claim Form so that when you need and Peace of Wnd tors' company" since 1902. For many your benefits you will have it ready to years we specialized in health insur- use. In addition, you'll receive special For as long as you live and continue to ance for physicians, surgeons, and forms each year to take to your doctor pay your premiums, we will never can- dentists exclusively. Headquartered in for your medical check-up. cel or refuse to renew your policy for Omaha, Nebraska, where it is incorpo- health reasons — and we guarantee that No Risk — No Obligation rated and licensed, Physicians Mutual we will never cancel, modify, or termi- now serves hundreds of thousands of JUST ONE THING MORE! Because nate your policy unless we decline re- policyholders in all walks of life all this is a Limited Enrollment we can newal or modify all policies of this type across America direct by mail. Our only accept enrollments postmarked on in your entire state. Board of Directors is still composed en- or before the deadline date. But please tirely of respected members of the med- don't wait until the deadline. The How We Can Offer So Much ical, dental, and insurance professions. sooner we receive your Enrollment, for So Little No branch, department, or instru- the sooner the plan will cover you. We Information recently revealed by the mentality of the United States Govern- cannot cover you if your policy is not Veterans Administration (NSLI) shows ment has any connection with this Plan in force. that veterans live longer and are in bet- or with Physicians Mutual. No veterans Simply fill out the form below and ter health than the general male popu- organization is in any way connected mail it with $1.00 jtoday. When you lation. That's why it is possible for you with this offering. receive your policy, you'll see that it — as a properly qualified veteran — to is simple and easy to understand. But Why You Should Enroll Today directly benefit from the low cost of if for any reason you change your mind, this remarkable plan! Once accident or illness strikes, it will you may return it within 10 days and Secondly, by encouraging our mem- be to late to get "extra cash" protection we will promptly refund your dollar! bers to take regular check-ups each year, we hope to keep more of our pol- PHYSICIAIVS MUTUAL icyholders out of the hospital. This means lower claims costs. IIVSURAINCE COMPAIVY Thirdly, the Veterans Benefit Plan 115 South 42nd Street, Omaha, Nebraska 68131 is a mass enrollment plan. All business

is conducted directly between you and Dunne's Insurance Reports, one of the leading Insurance Industry authorities In the nation, gives Physicians Mutual its highest policyholders' rating of "A Plus (Excellent)." the company. No salesmen or investi-

This offer not available to residents of Calif., Ga., Md., Mass., Minn., N. J., N. M., N. Y., N. C, and Wise.

This Personal Record Card Identifies In case of sudden accident or illness, it FREE! you as a veteran, tells of your special may help others save your life. This val- health problems, blood type. Immu- uable card will be sent to you abso- VETERAN'S nization record, allergies, and care and lutely free with your Veterans Benefit medicine you need immediately if you policy. It is yours to keep even if you PERSONAL are unconscious or unable to speak. decide to return your policy for refund. RECORD Fill out and mail Enrollment with $1 to Veterans Benefit Plan, CARD Physicians Mutual Insurance Company, 115 South 42nd Street, Omaha, Nebraska 68131 VETERANS BENEFIT PLAN

LIMITED ENROLLMENT FORM no 3257 EXPIRATION DATE MAY 29, 1969

I have served honorably in the Forces of the Middle Initial Armed United States of America and am not now on active duty. I do not now receive compensation for a service- connected disability or pension for a non-service connected disability from the Veterans Administration. I have enclosed my first monthly premium of $1.00 and hereby apply to PHYSICIANS MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, Omaha, Nebraska, for a Veterans Benefit Policy, Form P321 Series. I under- DATE OF BIRTH_ stand that the poUcy is not in force until actually Month Day Yeai issued. Do you carry other insurance in this Company ?

No O Yes ( If "yes," please list policy numbers. ) . OCCUPATION Form E-321 Sign Name in Full. Do Not Print.

Please make check or money order payable to PHYSICIANS MUTUAL

THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 SNAP CLOTHESPINS provide an easy way to hold back the flaps on your tent LIFE IN THE OUTDOORS windows and doors, recommends Clare Markey of Chillicothe, Missouri. It beats the bothersome chore of tying and untying Drinking Water the flap strings. PICTURES for your den or cabin, four A HAZARD CONFRONTING campcrs in iso- LANTERN HOLDER for campers and color reproductions of old Currier and Ives lated areas is contaminated drinking boats is a steel arm with spring clip on its prints, caricatures of 1875 international rifle water, and with the spread of civiHzation end to hold your gasoline lantern securely. matches. From Remington Library. Size: the problem is increasing. Unfortunately, It also has a chain and hook to tilt the 15x19 inches. Collector's items. Price: $4. you can't determine if water is safe by tast- light downward. Can be mounted easily on Address: Prints, P.O. Box 731, Bridgeport. ing and smelling it. It still may contain bac- a tree, trailer, or boat. Price: $5.95 from Conn. 06601. teria of types which can cause illness from Tempo Products, 6200 Cochran Rd., Cleve- simple stomach cramps to acute diarrhea land, Ohio 44139. TO KEEP treble hooks on lures from en- and even typhoid fever. These originate in tangling in your tackle box, simply wrap wastes carelessly discarded by campers, re- ELECTRIC WORM GETTER now offered Scotch Miracle tape around each treble, eliminates digging, sort owners and small communities with tiresome keeping a flush with the points. Leave it on when you unsanitary disposal facilities. worm bed or the need to buy worms, claims fish and the hooks will be practically weed- its distributor, Taylor Sales Co., 211 Cone- Pond and lake water, and large rivers less, but tape will be peeled back easily by stoga Road, Wayne, Pa. 19087. To use, are always suspect because they might be the fish's mouth when it strikes. insert rods in ground five feet apart as used for sewage disposal. A fast-flowing mountain stream is usually pure, but don't SQUEAKING OARS can be quieted by count on it. As a rule, a fast well-aerated brown soap. Carry a cake of it in your tackle box, rub it the oar locks. stream will purify itself in a mile—if it on You'll flows through or over beds of sand and catch more fish if you prevent boat noises gravel. But if its course is over ledge and which carry hundreds of feet underwater, solid rock, these will have no filtering effect. says Barbara Ruppel of Vincennes, Ind. To be safe, make sure there is no human activity upstream, such as a house, camp, TURTLE TRAP for collecting fish-stealing lumbering operation, etc. It is unwise to pond turtles and snappers is suggested by drink below a fording place, or a watering Rodney Van Dyke of Louisville, 111. Sink spot used by cattle. Abandoned wells may a large steel barrel along the shoreline with be dangerous; frequently small animals fall its top about a foot out of water, and wrap into them, die and decompose. Springs bub- burlap around the exposed sides. Turtles bling from beneath the earth are always will climb to the top to sun themselves, and safe, and the clear cold water from one drop in. is an elixir of the gods. Rainwater is potable if collected in a clean container. Melted TENT LINES can be held tight in sand and clean snow is safe. soft ground with dead-man anchors, writes Be warned, however, that even pure wa- Eugene Dirkman of Calumet, Michigan. ter can cause trouble in the form of an Use a tin pie plate, put the end of the tent affliction affectionately called "mountain rope through a hole in its center, tie the end sickness" although it may have nothing to to a stick so it can't pull out. Then bury the do with mountains. It's due mainly to a plate. It'll hold so firmly you'll have to dig difference in the water's chemical content it up again to release it. from that which you are accustomed. It causes vomiting, weakness and diarrhea that WATERPROOF your wallet before you go can last several it, days. Not everyone gets Sketch of electric worm getter in action. fishing, especially if you're going wading, usually one in a party of several. The rem- advises Mark Tacheny of St. Paul, Minne- shown in photo, connect to extension cord edy for "mountain sickness," also for the sota. Put it in a plastic sandwich bag before and watch the worms appear on top after bacteriological varieties, is fasting for 24 to slipping it into your pocket, and seal with get a slight all elec- 48 hours, meanwhile dosing with paregoric they shock. As with Scotch Magic tape. Drying out wet bills, trical appliances, directions explic- or kaopectate. Weak tea and ginger ale are follow cards, photos, etc., can be a nasty job. the first liquids you'll be able to hold com- itly. It sells for $2.98 ppd. fortably. Your first solid food should be SAFETY signal kits for boats are new from WHEN still-fishing with your rod in a ver- boiled rice. Extreme cases, of course, in- Olin, maker of Winchester firearms. They tical holder, place an empty can over the cluding those with high fever, require medi- contain flare launchers, meteor flares, para- rod tip, suggests Ron Nelson of Eagle cal attention as soon as possible. chute flares, dye markers, hand-held smoke Grove, Iowa. This will hold down the line Although you can't protect yourself flares, signalling mirrors, orange distress for a few inches. Then when a fish takes against "mountain sickness," you can flags, etc. Good insurance for boating fans. your bait and runs, the line will straighten against the more serious bacterial infec- Prices: $3 to $30. and pop off the can to attract your atten- tions. Purify water by boiling it at least one tion. minute or use Halazone or Globuline tablets FRESHNESS of fish can easily be checked, available at drugstores. But carry a small writes Kevin Kelly of Webster, N.Y. Just SAVE your trophy fish for mounting by bottle of paregoric in your first-aid kit . . . press a meaty part with your finger. If the wrapping it in a damp towel before freez- just in case. resulting dent disappears quickly, it's edible. ing it, advises taxidermist Paul Williams of (For further information, get: "The Sur- has Princeton, Wis. This prevents freezer burn If the dent remains, however, the flesh vival Book"; $1.95; Funk & Wagnalls; New become too soft . . . still edible, maybe, which can ruin it. York, N.Y.) but you won't like it. COFFEE CANS, with the plastic snap-on with the wife kids? lids, CAMPING and Take have many uses for campers. Alden If you have a helpful idea for this feature along a small, inflatable plastic swimming Sonnier suggests that you use them to hold send it in. If we can use it we'll pay you pool, advises Francis Crawford of Greens- your sandwiches, cold cuts, butter packs, etc. $5.00. However, we cannot acknowledge, return, or enter into correspondence concern- boro, Ala. Set it inside your tent, add a Then you can put them directly in your ice ing contributions. Address: Outdoor Editor, couple of buckets of water, and you have a chest without getting the contents water- The American Legion Magazine, 720 Fifth first-rate bathtub for the youngsters. logged. Ave., New York, N.Y. 10019. 48 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 an American patent on the telegraph. THE STORY OF SAMUEL F. B . MORSE AND THE TELEGRAPH (Continued from page 28) But at this dark time he got little joy even from that, for Wheatstone and After a successful test of the improved sity of the City of New York. Professor Cooke had obtained an American patent machine—not yet using the key—on Gale had already left to take up an ap- on their system ten days ahead of him January 6, 1838, Morse and Vail took pointment at a Southern college, and the and hoped to use the profits from their their telegraph to Washington in search university's sagging finances threatened English telegraph system to underwrite of federal funds. Morse with the loss of his own professor- line. Congress, too, seemed ship. for his personal finances, Morse an American They demonstrated it successfully in As to have lost all interest in giving Morse February before President Van Buren, wrote: "I return with not a farthing in my any money. It was once again thinking members of his Cabinet and Congres- pocket, and have to borrow even for my seriously about subsidizing a semaphore sional leaders. Morse asked for money to meals." About this time Dr. Jackson telegraph. The only cheering news for meet the cost of setting up an experi- brought suit, claiming Morse had stolen his idea. lost. Morse was a letter from Joseph Henry in mental line between two cities. The Jackson February 1 842, pronouncing Morse's House Committee on Commerce ap- Soon Morse's professorship was ter- poverty- system of telegraphy far superior to the proved the request and recommended minated. Threadbare and stricken, he opened a little studio and British and German needle-telegraph giving Morse $30,000—a huge sum in started to give private lessons in painting systems. and drawing. One day a pupil, who owed him $50, promised to pay the next RENEWED HOPES of a Congressional week. Morse replied, "Next week! I shall grant collapsed in August 1842. be dead by that time!" "Dead, sir?" the "The Treasury and the Government are student cried. "Yes, of starvation," said both bankrupt," Morse heard from a Morse. The student asked if $10 would friend in Congress. "The House is in bad be of any use. "It would save my life, humor, and nothing of the kind you that's all," Morse told him. propose could be done." Another blow He continued to tinker with the tele- came two months later. An attempted graph, though, going out to Princeton demonstration of underwater telegraphy once to consult with Joseph Henry. He across New York Harbor failed when also was briefly involved in promoting a Morse's cable fouled a ship's anchor. process known as photography, recently The ship's sailors hauled his wire—two invented by a French friend of his, Louis miles long and laboriously insulated with Daguerre, but he made no money out of pitch, tar and rubber—out of the water

it. In June 1840, Morse finally received {Continued on page 50)

Amazing RED FLOWERING GROUND COVER Grows in poorest soil-Thrives in sun or shade!

"I've brought you your birthday orange juice!" Sub-zero hardy stern's THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE DRAGON'S BLOOD an era when the whole federal budget CREEPING SEDUM (Sedum rarely exceeded $30,000,000 a year. But Spuriiim, Dragon's Blood) the nation was in the throes of a grim depression, the Panic of 1837. Congress, in a suddenly thrifty mood, refused to pass Morse's appropriation bill. He was given reason to hope, though, that the Brilliant Red Flowers In Summer, Green Foliage in Winter- Lasts a MONEY- BACK GUARANTEE money would be his when the hard times Lifetime! Here's the nearest thing to a maintenance-free planting. (SEE COUPON) were over. Never overruns itself, never needs pruning, is disease and insect- Order now! Plant now! free, scoffs at worst winter conditions, ignores summer heat and sturdy Plants Stiipped in 2V4" Pots. He filed his patent application in drought, and is among the longest-lived plants known. Brilliant Easy Planting Directions Enclosed. red clusters of star-shaped flowers bloom June to fall; semi-ever- 3 for $2.25; 6 for $4.00: 12 for $7.50; April 1838—embodying all the improve- green foliage completely covers the ground even when not in bloom. 24 for $14.00: 48 for $25.00; 96 for $45.00; 240 for $110.00; 480 for $200.00 ments that had been made in the instru- Never Grows Taller Than 4"! Perfect For A Hundred Landscape Uses! Catalog #00850 (specify on order) ment since his association with Professor Now cover poor and sandy waste places where almost nothing else will grow: under trees, in rock gardens, banks or borders, Stern's Nurseries Gale and Alfred Vail. In May, he sailed any area of your garden. Spreads rapidly, thrives in full sun or Field 60, Geneva, N.Y. 14456 partial shade. Beautiful in front of flower borders. For a luxu- to England to file for a patent there. Vail Specialists In Rare and Choice riant gi'ound cover, plant one foot apart. Trees, Plants and Flowers paid his expenses. But England refused ONLY LIMITED QUANTITY OF THIS SPECIAL. MAIL THIS COUPON TODAY! to give Morse a patent because of the STERN'S NURSERIES, Field 60, Geneva, New York 14456 rival claims of Cooke and Wheatstone. Please send me Stern's Creeping Sedum (No. 00850) SATISFACTION GUARANTEEDI You must be delighted or notify us within did get a patent in France, it in the quantities indicated: He but 2 weeks after you receive plants and .i/IUlLORDEirii. 3 for $ 2.25 48 for $ 25.00 IB ASSOCIATION OF ! proved worthless. we'll send a refund or free replace- 6 for S 4.00 96 for $ 45.00 ment for any unsatisfactory plants. 12 for 7.50 240 No need to return plants, When he returned to the United States $ for $110.00 ever! 24 for $14.00 480 for $200.00 in 1839, Morse found his affairs in a Add 10% postage & packaging (70c minimum). Name- N.Y.S. Residents add 2% (plus local) Sales Tax. sad state. Congress still had voted him My check or money order enclosed. Charge no money. Vail, whose ironworks had to my account with: Diners Club; Uni-card; Address been hard hit by the depression, was in American Express; Carte Blanche; Midland financial difficulties. So was the Univer- Specify Card number Clfv -State- -Zlp-

THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 49 — a

THE STORY OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE AND THE TELEGRAPH ton. The choice of Clay was no surprise, (Continued from page 49) but the choice of Frelinghuysen— and cut it. But, in December, Morse dashes on a roll of paper, and the Con- former New Jersey Senator and just then managed a successful underwater trans- gressmen were unconvinced. "That the chancellor of the university that had mission across a canal in Washington. In doesn't prove anything," said one. sacked Morse—was. "Who in the devil January 1843, his long-stalled appropria- "That's what I call pretty thin," another is Frelinghuysen?" people asked when tions bill slipped through the House of remarked. Morse announced the nominations. Sev- Representatives by a vote of 89 to 83. Morse staged a more convincing dem- eral hours later came confirmation when The Senate gave its approval on March 3 onstration when the Whig Party opened the train from Baltimore arrived in —the last day of the session and Presi- — its Presidential nominating convention Washington; but it had taken just two dent Tyler signed the bill that day. Morse in Baltimore on May 1 . By now, the lines minutes and one second for Morse to was to have his $30,000 for an experi- reached as far as Annapolis Junction, receive the message from Vail and cable mental line which, it shortly was agreed, 22 miles from Washington. Morse ar- an acknowledgment. It was the first time would extend from Washington to Balti- ranged for the names of the Whig candi- in American history that a news dispatch more. dates to be sent from Baltimore by train had been sent by telegraph. When he first had approached Con- to Annapolis Junction where Alfred Vail Now the excitement over Morse's in- gress five years earlier, Morse had en- would telegraph them to Morse's head- vention became intense. Crowds of no- visioned stringing his line on poles: "Stout spars of some 30 feet in height, well planted in the ground and placed about 350 feet apart, would be required, along the tops of which the circuit might be stretched," he wrote then. But, in 1843, he convinced himself that the dangers of storms, falling branches and hu- m.an mischief made such a line inadvisa- ble, and he suggested an underground

line instead. He did not know that it was technologically impossible at that time to insulate such a cable. He hired a contractor to cut a 44-mile- long trench between the two cities, and took bids for special cable covered by lead tubing. The job of laying the cable went to a young ex-carpenter named Ezra Cornell, who had been drawn to Morse by an appreciation of telegraphy's commercial possibilities. (Cornell's guess was right, for he grew rich on the new industry and founded the university bearing his name in Ithaca, N.Y., with his profits.) Work started Oct. 17, 1843, "Oh, Dear, your bath is ready!" and the cable went into the ground THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE at a rate of up to a mile a day, though Cornell had misgivings about the insulation. Not until December 1843 were he quarters in the Capitol Building. John tables peered into his Capitol office. and Morse fully aware He of how worth- W. Kirk, a stagecoach operator who was ran several more preliminary tests, and, less the line was. By then, only $8,000 an eyewitness to the demonstration, later when the Washington-Baltimore line was remained of Morse's grant, and Congress gave this description of Morse's office; completed in the third certainly week of May, he would offer no new funds. "On a shelf across the window was the announced with great fanfare the formal strange machine with its paper tape and opening ceremony of telegraphic service CORNELL SAVED the situation by find- the crank by which the weight was between the two cities, to take place on ing a way of peeling the lead cover- wound up, to revolve the rollers through May 24, 1844. Although by that time ing from the line; he then strung it on which the tape moved when the message Morse had been sending messages for poles, using hastily improvised glass in- was being received. At the other end of nearly eight years, that day has always sulators to keep the wires in place on the the room were shelves, on which were the been considered the birthday of the crossarms. By late April 1844, when the pots and jars of the primitive battery." telegraph. line stretched five miles out of Washing- Wires ran along the floor, with planks Wires were run for ton, this occasion from Morse felt confident enough to call over them as a walkway. Morse, Kirk Morse's office to the in a group Supreme Court of Congressmen for a demon- wrote, was "very quietly dressed, his room of the Capitol. stration. "Now, A select group of gentlemen," he said, coat muffled about his throat and his "what government dignitaries was on hand to shall we send over the wire? Pick long hair tumbled about his forehead. watch Morse transmit out your own message, a message to Al- and I will show He appeared to be nervous and appre- you fred Vail at a Baltimore railway station. how simple the whole thing is, and hensive." The text of the message was chosen how it by accomplishes everything I claim." In Baltimore, the Whigs nominated Annie Ellsworth, daughter One of the lawmakers of the Com- suggested "Mr. Henry Clay for President and Frederick missioner of Patents, who was a college Brown of Indiana is here." Morse tapped Theodore Frelinghuysen for Vice Presi- classmate of Morse's. She picked a Bib- it out, and an operator at the other end dent. The news was duly carried by train lical phrase, from Numbers 23; 23 received it and sent it back. But Morse's to Vail at Annapolis Junction and re- "What hath God wrought!" Morse put machine produced nothing but dots and layed by telegraph to Morse in Washing- his finger to the key and sent the words, THE 50 AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 . : . .

Treasury on how and back they came from Vail. The on- ington who would not believe that Polk pared his report to the government's funds. By lookers offered congratulations and then was the nominee until it was confirmed he had spent the it, June the tele- Morse asked them to suggest other mes- by travelers coming from Baltimore. the time he finished on 3, to bring about the sages. This dialogue between Morse and Next, the convention chose Sen. Silas graph had been used Vail over the next few minutes followed Wright, of New York, to run for Vice interception and arrest of a thief fleeing "Have you any news?" Morse asked. President. A committee was supposed to Washington by train; had been used by a if check "No." set out from Baltimore to bring Wright, man in Baltimore to discover a "Mr. Seaton's respects to you." in Washington, official notification that drawn on a Washington bank was a good used to investigate an "My respects to him." he was his party's choice. But over the one, and had been Vail unfounded rumor about the shooting of "What is your time?" telegraph lines sped the news from "Nine o'clock, twenty-eight minutes." to Morse, and Morse carried it to Sena- a Baltimore resident. "What weather have you?" tor Wright, who replied immediately that "In the few days of its infancy," Morse "Cloudy." he declined to run. Back to Baltimore by told the Treasury, the telegraph had "al- "Separate your words more." telegraph went the dumbfounding news ready casually shown its usefulness in the relief in various ways of the anxieties It was a magnificent moment. Swift, of Wright's refusal, arriving there before comprehensible communication between the notifying committee had started its of thousands. . . .The proprietors respect- distant points had become a reality. journey. Though only half believing in fully suggest that it is an engine of power, The next day. May 25, the Baltimore the magical new instrument, the congre- for good or for evil, which all opinions to sub- Patriot became the first newspaper to gated Democrats in Baltimore pleaded seem to concur in desiring have receive a news report by telegraph, al- by telegraph with Senator Wright in ject to the control of the Government though the bulletin from Washington Washington to relent, and Senator rather than have it in the hands of private that Morse sent to Vail for the Patriot Wright sent ever firmer statements of individuals and associations." He offered contained only trivia. But, on May 26, declination to the convention, until, after either to sell all rights in his patent to the Democratic Party's nominating con- a rapid-fire exchange of messages, word the government or else to build a line to vention opened in Baltimore, giving the came that the Democrats had yielded New York under government contract. telegraph a chance to make a popular and nominated George M. Dallas in- A few weeks later, while the excite- sensation. stead. ment over the telegraph still raged, Former President Van Buren was ex- Morse, Vail and their partners tried to wanted pected to get the nomination, but a dead- WHILE NEWS of Morse's amazing in- put a price on the invention. Vail lock developed and the Democrats fi- vention spread across the country $50,000 for his one-eighth share; Morse, in nally chose the little known James Knox —slowly, of course, since the Baltimore- who had retained a 50% interest the Polk of Tennessee. Vail wired the word Washington telegraph line was the only patent, was willing to sell out for Continued on page to Morse, but there were many in Wash- one in existence—Morse proudly pre- ( 52)

AMOUNT OF INSURANCE, DETERMINED BY AGE' OFFICIAL AMERICAN LEGION LIFE INSURANCE Age Basic Full Unit Total Coverage During 1968 Under 30 $10,000 $11,500.00 can protect your family's well-being for as little as a day As a Legionnaire, you 14 30-34 8,000 9,200.00 with Official American Legion Life Insurance. Just mail this application with a check 35-44 4,500 5,175.00 45-54 2,200 2,530.00 unit protection for the rest 1969 (beginning June 1). That for $14 for a full of of 55-59 1,200 1,380.00 comes to only $2 a month! Normally no medical is required. If your application is 60-64 800 920.00 65-69 500 575.00 not accepted, your $14 will be promptly refunded. (And now, provided you join the 70-74 330 379.50 plan before age 70, your coverage can stay in force through age 74.) After you sign up, your coverage gradually reduces.

OFFICIAL APPLICATION for YEARLY RENEWABLE TERM LIFE INSURANCE for MEMBERS of THE AMERICAN LEGION AMERICAN PLEASE TYPE OR PRINT ALL QUESTrONS CHECK MUST ACCOMPANY THIS APPLICATION LEGION ANSWER LIFE Full Name Birth Date. INSURANCE Lost First Middle Day Year PLAN Permanent Residence. IMPORTANT Street No. City State Name of Beneficiary _ ^Relationship If reside in New you ' Example: Print "Helen Louise Jones/ Not 'Mrs. H. L, Jones' York, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Wiscon- Membership Card No. Year Post No. _ .State

I for a Full Unit of insurance at Annual Premium of or a Half Unit at sin, Illinois, New Jer- apply $24.00 $12.00 g sey or Puerto Rico, do The following representations shall form a basis for the nsurance Company's approval or rejection of this not use this form. application: Instead, write to 1. Present occupation? . Are you now actively working? American Legion Life Insurance Plan, P.O. Yes No If No, give reason.

Box 5609, Chicago, . Have you been confined in a hospital within the last year? No Yes If Yes, give date, length of Illinois 60680. Appli- stay and cause cations and benefits Do you now have, or during the past five years have you had, heart disease, lung disease, cancer, diabetes vary slightly in some areas. or any other serious illness? No Yes If Yes, give dates and details MAIL TO: I represent that, to the best of my knowledge, all statements and answers recorded on this application AMERICAN LEGION are true and complete. I agree that this application shall be a part of any insurance granted upon it under

LIFE INSURANCE the policy. 1 authorize any physician or other person who has attended or examined me, or who may PLAN, attend or examine me, to disclose or to testify to any knowledge thus acquired.

P.O. BOX 5609, Dated. 19. Signature of Applicant. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS OCCIDENTAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF CALIFORNIA, Home Office: Los Angeles GMA-300-6 ED. 5-63 60680 _j THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 51 THE STORY OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE AND THE TELEGRAPH often in the hands of adroit men, whose (Continued from page 51) fortunes might be made by single oper- ations." $1 10,000. Not long afterward, the whole to pay. He produced a $20 bill and a enterprise was offered to The government, worried over the the government 1 (t piece. losses the for $100,000. But the government "Well, I can give you one cent's worth Baltimore-Washington line showed little eagerness to buy. Its atten- of telegraphing," the operator said. After was running up, decided not to take con- tion was drawn to the prospect of a war some discussion, the operator alerted trol of operating the telegraph. On De- against Mexico. Polk, elected President Baltimore and sent the code signal "4." cember 1. 1846, Alfred Vail and a part- in November 1844, was eager to expand short for "What time is it?" Baltimore ner took over operation of the line, leas- the United States, preferably, but not replied, "1," meaning one o'clock. ing it from the government. By then, necessarily, by peaceful means, and the "Two characters," said the clerk. various local lines had been established chances of war absorbed everyone's at- "Only half a cent, if you have the elsewhere, with their promoters licensing tention in the capital. change." The man had no half-cent the patent rights to the telegraph appa- The Washington telegraph office had pieces—the United States coined them ratus from Morse and his original been moved in September 1844 backers. First from until 1 857—but he paid over his penny came the Magnetic Tele- the Capitol to the city post office build- and left, seemingly satisfied. graph Company, which ran a line from ing. Morse went off to Boston to exhibit So the total receipts for the first four Philadelphia to New York in the fall of his apparatus and Vail moved to Wash- days of commercial telegraphy in the 1845. (At first it was impossible to get ington to take over that end of the line, United States amounted to $0.01. On the line across the Hudson River, and it with a new operator being trained to the fifth day. though, business boomed: ended in New Jersey; boys in rowboats handle the Baltimore end. After that, the Washington and Baltimore offices to- and, occasionally, carrier pigeons got Morse touched a telegraph key only once gether took in 12'/2 0. By April 8, re- the messages over to Manhattan.) Then more in his life—in January 1845, at ceipts for the day were up to $1.32; the came a New York-to-Boston line, one which time he found himself out of gross for the entire month of April was from New York to Buffalo, one from practice. $21.23. The first three months of service Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and many In 1848, Morse, who had been saw receipts of $193 (and expenses of more. In April 1 847. the Magnetic Tele- widowed since 1825 and was at last en- $1,100). Things were not much better in graph Company bought control of the joying prosperity and world-wide fame, the second quarter, with receipts of $219 pioneering Baltimore-Washington line remarried. That same year, he received and expenses of $1,400. The Postmaster from the government. By 1865, nearly an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws General expressed doubt that the tele- all of these short lines had been consoli- from his alma mater, Yale, as well as graph would ever be profitable, although dated into the Western Union Company. being decorated as a public benefactor he felt it should be kept under govern- As for Morse, he spent most of these by the Turkish government. Honors ment ownership, lest in private hands it years in the law courts, defending his from Austria, France, Denmark, Spain cut deeply into postal revenues. patent against the claims of rival in- and Portugal followed. In 1858, ten na- There were others who feared that ventors. Eventually he won vindication tions joined in presenting him with an the new means of instantaneous com- by a Supreme Court decision of 1854. "honorary gratuity" of 400,000 francs munication was too dangerous a thing to His patent rights brought him a fortune, ($80,000) as a gesture of public grati- allow into private control. The New and in his old age he turned to philan- tude. York Express warned: "Stock gambling, thropy. In his later years he also in- bread gambling, or political gambling of dulged another of his hobbies—contro- HAD PLAYED his MORSE part in the the most frightful kind may be carried on versy—getting involved in an anti-Cath- venture; now, having assured him- secretly by it, and successfully, too. olic movement, a pro-slavery movement self undying fame, he was content to let down. Soon, he accepted a prestigious appointment as a Professor of Natural History at Yale. The Baltimore-Washington telegraph line, meanwhile, remained the only one of its kind for more than a year. At- tempts to establish lines from New York to Boston and from New York to Phila- delphia in 1844 came to nothing. The original line was operated free of charge to the public—with surprisingly few people interested in using it —^^until April 1, 1845. Then, since it had been built with government funds, it passed into the hands of the Post Office Department, which tried to run it on a commercial basis. The message rate was set at 1 (( for every four characters transmitted. On the first day of commercial service, one customer arrived, motivated by curiosity. As a taxpayer, he claimed he was entitled to send messages without cost, but the clerk insisted on payment even for a brief trial message. After an hour's debate the man left without sending anything. On April 2nd and 3rd, the telegraph office had no visitors at all. On the 4th, the first man returned, willing now

52 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 —

and assorted other attempts to defend the cient one, and it swept the others into American way of life as he imagined it obsolescence. Without those who helped to be. him—Joseph Henry, Leonard Gale, Al- Did Samuel Finley Breese Morse fred Vail—there would have been no

Now you mav fict the money vou need . . . really deserve credit for inventing the Morse telegraph. But Morse was the cen- Pay As Little FAST! BoiTow $100 to $1,500 with a Monev- telegraph? about Baron Schilling, tral figure, the man with the vision to By-Mail "Secret Loan" from Dial. Absolute As $5.00 What privacy. No co-.signeis needetl. ABSOLUTELY a Month Weber, Wheatstone and be fulfilled, determined and indefatig- NO MORTGAGES OF ANY KIND REQUIRED. Gauss and You use your own si^tnatuie. Pay up old Cish 30 Monthly bills and have cash left over out of every is there able, used the knowledge of other Gel PiymenlJ Cooke? The answer that were who paycheck. (Special: Credit life insurance You available, at nominal cost). Whatever you other systems of telegraphy before men to fill the gaps in his own scientific $104.65 $5.00_ need money for . . . get it FAST . . . and in ^93.02^ 14.00 that education and triumphantly turned a privacy by Mail from Dial. Write today. Morse's—many of them—but No Obligation. 623.06 29.00 Morse's was the first practical and effi- dream into reality. the end DIAL FINANCE CO., Dept. £ 092 Cash 36 Monthly You Got Payments _410J(llpatrickBld£^ Omaha, N ebr. 68102 l927.7037.OO FdIAL CO., Dept. E-092 finance 1550.151 59.00 1410 Kilpatrick BIdg., Omaha. Nebr. 68102

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ARE TOO UNLUCKY? THE GIRL whose dreams never coinetrue THE MAN success passes by NOW VOU CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! This age-old symbol of Irish lueli — the LUCKY LEPRECHAUN — cast In the original good luck mould from gleaming solid sliver 'Well, it's time once again to feed the caterpillars, mites, leafhoppers, lace bugs, or gold, can now be YOURS. Test his mag- " netic power under our money-back guaran- thrips, . . . . Japanese beetles, aphids, flower rose chafers tee. Airmailed to you overnight from Ireland with complete tree history and guarantee. Beware of plated Imitations. Send now only $3 for Silver - $10 for Ski THB AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE Gold - $15 for 14kt Gold (no COD's) toi Silvercraft Ltd. 20A Albert walk, BRAY. IREUND THE GREAT SAN FRANCISCO FIRE AND QUAKE— 1906 (Continued from page 23) Makes Eating With

But the damndest finest ruins quake since 1906. To be sure, it did not nothin' more or nothin' less." reach the 8.25 magnitude of the quake FALSE TEETH Looking over the damage after the that hit 51 years earlier, but the needles Up to 35% Easier smoke had lifted, San Francisco authori- on the seismographs stood at 5.5, which Tests prove you can now chew better—make dentures average up to 35% more effective—If ties made an interesting discovery. Not meant a major shock. you just sprinkle a little FASTEETH on your a single life was known to have been lost plates. FASTEETH Powder is alkaline. It holds false teeth firmer, more comfortably. No gum- in the steel-framed skyscrapers, although AGAIN, San Franciscans heard ONCE my, gooey, pasty taste. Doesn't sour. Helps Dentures that fit 452 were recorded dead elsewhere and the ominous rumbling and felt the check dental plate odor. are essential to health See your dentist regu- the toll probably was closer to a thou- ground beneath them heave. Lampposts larly. Get FASTEETH at all drug counters sand. oscillated, towers swayed in the sky and San Franciscans had learned a terrible the arches of the Golden Gate Bridge lesson, one they never forgot: He who shook violently. Once again the San lives in earthquake country must build Andreas Fault had shifted, breaking gas MARTINS FLAGS DISPLAYS FOR his home soundly on solid ground. To mains and pipelines. But that was all. ORGANIZATIONS- make sure that it profited from the lesson, The buildings stood up to the shock. TOWNS-SCHOOLS-FAIRS San Francisco called in America's best There were no fires, no deaths. What Prompt shipment. Ask for our colorful WHOLESALE Catalog No. 69A engineers and architects from all parts could have been a disaster was over in MARTIN'S FLAG CO.. FORT DODGE. IOWA 50S01 of the land to make certain that the new minutes and radio commentators were buildings were sound and to be doubly chatting lightly about the extent of the sure that the water supply was ade- damage: a few broken chimneys and ACCORDIONS • Big Discounts quately safeguarded. some fallen plaster. flEW ELECTRONIC MODELS SAVE 1/2 42 "New Sound" For years, nothing occurred to put the But old-time residents noted one minor Electronic, Standard models, Amplifiers. Famous new city to the test. Then, on March 22, incident with an eerie feeling. The hands Makes. Try before you buy — 5-Day Trial. Easy 1957, it happened again. On that bright on the clock in the Ferry Building froze Terms, Trade-Ins. Money Back Guarantee. Free Cat- spring morning the great city was sud- at the moment of shock, just as they had alogs, Price List. Write: Accordion Corporation of denly rocked the severe earth- a half century earlier. America, SS3S W. Belmont, Dept. by most the end Chicago, III. 60G4I THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 53 PERSONAL A LOOK AT ATLANTA, GEORGIA (Continued from page 9)

6th and Peachtree; the Bull and Bush SUMMER TRAVEL COSTS UP steak place out Piedmont a little way; Herren's (featuring beef and seafood) A MINI-MEDICAL KIT FOR TRAVELERS downtown at 84 Luckie Street; the Fal- con "showbar and lounge" at 774 West MEDICARE REMINDERS Peachtree; the Mexicano, with a mixed Latin and Gringo menu at 634 Peach- Travel—at home and abroad—again will be massive this summer, but it tree N.E.; the Lion's Head Pub out also will be more expensive. Figure it this way: Peachtree a cab ride at Collier Road. • If you travel by car, fuel and tire costs are up over a year ago. Others—some well out from downtown • If you travel by bus, fares are up around 10%, though charter rates, and some near the heart of town—in- group rates and excursions will help you take some strain off your pocket- clude: The Knights Table, Aunt Fanny's book. Cabin, The Squirrel Cage, the Coach • If you travel domestically by air, basic costs are up 3.8% as against a and Six, the Baron of Beef, Chateau year ago. Family plans and special excursions give you considerable reduc- Fleur de Lis, Eng's Gourmet, The House tions, but they're up too, since they're geared to the basic fares. of Eng, Trader Eng's Hibachi Steak • If you travel abroad via plane, the rates generally are about the same House (wow!). The Diplomat, Happy as last year. The 5% round-trip discount has been dropped; but on the other Herman's Sidewalk Cafe, Lulubelle's, hand, the 14 to 21 -day excursion plans have been extended and liberalized Mammy's Shanty, Old Heidelberg, the (for a suicharge). And beginning November 1, a new set of "bulk" fares Old Hickory House, The Monte Carlo goes into effect which will put a round trip to London (group rate) into the Lounge, Salvatore's Neapolitan Restau- $175 to $220 range, depending on season. rant, The Summit, Sweden House, Incidentally, veteran travelers (and the airlines) tell you your best bet Switzerland House, Twelve Oaks Restau- for air travel is weekdays. Reasons: You get some major fare breaks that rant and Town and Country. way, and the chances of a hangup at either end are slimmer. much Wits' End Cabaret is by design a steak- house and a nuthouse theater for satiri- Most travelers, especially if they're heading offshore for the first time, cal revues. Yohannan's brags three class get uneasy about the possibility of becoming sick away from home. Then restaurants spread about town. We what? Obviously, you try to find a foreign doctor, but for minor ailments, walked by some topless joints looking Dr. Kevin M. Cahill (St. Clare's Hospital, New York) suggests you take the other way, as befits our dignity. along a sensible mini-medical kit with these contents: The list isn't complete, but it gets the Paregoric or Kaopectate (for stomach upsets and diarrhea); aspirin; an idea across that you don't have to eat antiseptic; bandages; zinc oxide (for insect bites); a sulfonamide (for at a greasy spoon in Atlanta. urinary tract infection); antibiotic (tetracycline, a broad-spectrum for There are plenty of bars and cock- example); penicillin, and an analgesic. Have your doctor help you assemble tail lounges, from high class on down. the kit and give you some pointers on how to use it. You'll need a prescrip- They are closed all day Sunday. tion from him anyhow to buy tetracycline, penicillin and sulfonamide. INLAND CITY that wc cvcr heard of Anyone born before October 1901, who hasn't signed up for Part B of Noserves up seafood to match that of Medicare (the voluntary $4-a-month doctor plan) now has lost his chance such coastal cities as Boston, New York, permanently. The moral of this is that there's a penalty for not observing the Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami, New Social Security law carefully. Here's a quick rundown: Orleans, San Francisco, the two Port- • To get retirement benefits, apply three months in advance of your birth- lands and such. Atlanta has three or four day. If you are late in your notification, things may get sticky, and further- well-known seafood places. We sampled

more, Social Security pays benefits retroactively only for 12 months. one, and by inland standards it was good. • Similarly, sign up for Plan B of Medicare three months before your 65th But we are spoiled from a life spent near birthday. the sea, so further comment would be • If you don't here's what will happen: If you sign up in the month of your unfair. 65th birthday (instead of earlier), or in any of the next three months, you One suspects that a good fraction of will have to wait one to three months for the voluntary doctor plan to go into Legion delegates may do a little busi- effect for you. ness, or at least broaden their contacts, • If you delay longer than that, you can't get into the voluntary plan when in Atlanta. Many of their firms until the next enrollment period (January through March). have Atlanta offices. There are few big • If you let a year or more elapse after your first opportunity to enroll, national firms, or firms doing a wide the price of Plan B goes up progressively (to a maximum of $5.20). business in the South, that do not. Many • And if you let three years elapse—that's it; you're out for good. have been there a long time, while, since 1960, more than a billion dollars

An item to think about as summer approaches: in new construction, most of it business GRASS: If you have put up a new house or otherwise disrupted your or civic, has been authorized. More yard, you still can plant permanent grass, say the experts, providing you: than 100 new office buildings have been 1) get the right quality seed, 2) fertilize and water adequately and 3) have erected, while 144 manufacturing plants a little patience. True, temporary ground covers (such as rye) will give you and 176 warehouses have opened shop

fast gi'eenery, but if you want to put in permanent grass later (hybrid in Atlanta since Jan. 1, 1960. The air-

blue is a big favorite these days) you may have trouble getting rid of the port is the fourth busiest in the nation. , old ground cover. Biggest single mistake of grass planters: They're too In 1967 alone, permits for non-residen- stingy with water. tial construction were okayed to the —By Edgar A. Grunwald tune of $187 million. A huge office-building complex, the

54 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 Peachtree Center, somewhat in the moved on to the Black Hills of South image of New York's Rockefeller Cen- Dakota to engrave on Mount Rushmore ter, is still mushrooming in the heart of his massive heads of four Presidents. the downtown area. First element to In 1964 the work on Stone Mountain open was the Merchandise Mart (in was taken up anew and is now nearing ANSWER 1961). It now ranks second in size only completion under the direction of sculp- HERE IS THE PERMANENT FOR YOUR FUND RAISING, THAT MANY to Chicago's. More of these new office tor Walter Hancock and chief carver THOUSANDS OF ORGANIZATIONS USE. fJoshhoards have since sprung up on both Faulkner. The Stone Mountain Air- buildings Roy "BINGO KING" SUPPLIES EVERYTHING sides of Peachtree Street, and high above way Company operates cable cars to the ALONG WITH FREE IDEA BULLETINS the street they are connected by aerial top capable of moving 700 people an FOR YOUR HELP. PAY AS YOU GO. WRITE TODAY. walkways. Not far away, in all direc- hour. They ride high above the land for wreckers are knocking down a half mile and take passengers past the tions, P-n Systems E. Lee, older structures at a merry clip to make huge equestrian figures of Robert DEPT. 513 Tables & [hairs I way for tomorrow's growth. Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson BOX 1178 ' ENGLEWOOD. COLORADO 80110 This new development isn't just plain before arriving at the flattened top. building big. It is viewed locally as set- From there the scenic view stretches ting a standard for a master plan for the out for 90 miles in all directions. Enough FALSE TEETH downtown city of tomorrow. The guid- parklike and museum-like facilities and KLUTCH holds them tighter ing architectural designer and crusader picnic grounds have been created at the KLUTCH forms a comfort cushion: holds dental plates so much firmer and snugger that one can eat Jr. to a visit atop Stone Moun- of the scheme is John C. Portman, summit make and talk with greater comfort and security; in many Klutch He told the National Geographic that tain an occasion for an outing rather cases almost as well as with natural teeth. lessens the constant fear of a dropping, rocking, at Peachtree Center "there will be 45 than a quick sightseeing jaunt. chafing plate. ... If your druggist doesn't have Klutch, don't waste money on substitutes, but send without ever itself is a geologic acres where you can walk Stone Mountain us lOe and we will mail you a generous trial box. getting on the same level as an auto- curiosity, a huge rounded mound of gran- KLUTCH CO.. Dept. 907E, ELMIRA. N. Y. 14902 mobile. We're planning gardens and gal- ite rising 825 feet above the surrounding leries and restaurants, museums and land. It is said that no similar mountain BE A TAX CONSULTANT theaters, places to live and work—every- exists elsewhere on earth, nor any other Earn big money in ever growing profession. Our students are earning lucrative fees in dignified busmess prepar- thing. This is the grand scale; this is exposed block of granite so huge. It has full or part time home-office ing income tax returns. Pays BIG in a very stiorl experience necessary. what cities are all about." variously been called an igneous intru- time! No bookkeeping We train you at home and help you start, icensed by N. Y. Education Opt, Write is a tourist city. moraine, a simple mo- Atlanta not sion, a terminal for free literature. Accredited Member, NHSC. Vet Approved. It has no French Quarter a la New nodnock and a natural monolith, if you National Tax Training School Orleans, no gaming tables or entertain- know what all that means. Monsey, 17DB, N. Y. 10952 ment splendors a la Las Vegas nor the The figures of Davis, Lee and Jackson scenery backdrop of a Portland, Seattle cover almost li/4 acres of the granite BUY U.S. SAVING BONDS or Denver. mountainside and are as tall as a nine-

But it is far from lacking in interest- story building. They are scheduled for ing things to see and do. completion this year, 41 years after

Sixteen miles east is the famous Stone Borglum's first attempt ran out of funds. Train quickly in 8 short weeits at 1 oletio Mountain on which Gutzon Borglum be- At the foot of the mountain is a for a bright future with security in vitnl meat bu.siness. Big pay, full-time jobs — statuary of 3,800-acre park for paying visitors. It HAVE A PROFITABLE MARKET OK gan carving out a colossal YOUR OWN! Time payment plan available. Diploma given. Job help. Thou- Civil War military figures in 1923. The offers boating and campsites, has a sands of successful graduates. (lUR 45th YEARl Send now for big new lUuRtrated in 1928 Borglum (Continued on page 56) FREE catalog. No obligation. G.I. Approved. project went broke and NATIONAL SCHOOL OF MEAT CUTTING Dept. A-18, Toledo, Ohio 43604 HEAVY DUTY BALL-BEARING PUMP IRRIGATE • DRAIN • SPRAY • CIRCULATE • All- metal, rust-proof XB. Stainless shaft. Use '/< HP or larger. 1 HP for up to 5,200 GPH 60' high 1" or 3,000 GPH from 25' well. I'/i" inlet. WFMk outlet- For belt or direct drives. $12.95 ^ mW\. rust or clog. Bronze bear- m'-' Wr'kiL ~A f m^J^ Mt Ing, Hundreds of thousands in use. Up to 2,400 GPH. 1" inlet. W outlet $8.95 P'pd. cash with order. Money Back Guarantee. LABAWCO. Box 56. Belle Mead, N. J. 08502

Your help goes where 'It needs just a teensie-weensie pinch of salt—about half a pound will do it." hunger is — — Give to THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE CARE, New York 10016 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 55 — —

A LOOK AT ATLANTA, GEORGIA takeofT at Orly Airport in Paris. In its (Continued from page 55) flaming wreckage there died 122 of At- lanta's cultural leaders and patrons of motel and an old Southern plantation. music—'Dixie' or 'The Battle Hymn of the arts. They had been touring Europe The Ante-Bellum Plantation at Stone the Republic,' depending on which side to bring back ideas from her museums, Mountain is, in its whole, a reproduc- has the upper hand at the moment galleries, concert halls and ballets for tion. But most of its parts are the real rumbles through the room. I came away the enlargement of the arts in Atlanta. thing, hauled in from old plantations all from the painting with a stark, almost Atlanta responded by vowing to fill over Georgia. Sherman's army left little numbing realization of the tragedy of the gap they left behind and fulfill their standing in the Atlanta area. There's an the Civil War." ambitions. The Memorial Center is a 1830 country store from Cherokee The great battle began in early sum- thing to see. In one beautiful building County; an overseer's house from Kings- mer of 1864 after the fall of Chatta- set off oddly in an old residential center ton, Ga.; a doctor's office and drug store nooga opened the road of the Union it embraces almost the whole spectrum originally erected by one of De Kalb Army into north Georgia. War raged — of the arts symphonies, art exhibits, County's first doctors. Two slave-quar- in and around Atlanta throughout most — ballets, schools of the arts, drama, and ter cabins were transplanted from the old of the summer, and the city fell in Sep- so on. Joe Amisano, the Center's archi- Graves Plantation near Covington, and tember. For the next two months it was tect, didn't say it all when he said: "In so on. occupied, almost empty of civilian in- one day at the Center one may expect to see a movie at the High Museum, an opera matinee in the concert hall, a play at the repertory theater, a dance recital at the rehearsal hall, a series of adult lectures at the art school and a touring exhibition in the galleria."

It has recently been reported that the Center is not drawing the crowds to its performances and exhibits that were expected and doubts have been cast on how much the populace really wanted such art culture. We suspect that the location at some distance from the center of Atlanta life has something to do with such troubles. A visitor should not miss seeing the Memorial Center when in Atlanta. This could go on and on. There's a library given over largely to memorabilia of writer Margaret Mitchell and her "Gone With the Wind." In Atlanta, you wouldn't have to look beyond your hotel or motel for a Gray Line Tour pamphlet "$150 a week, your own private beach, and no and other literature listing other things extra bedrooms to put up weekend guests!" worth seeing. We personally expect the Legion con- THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE vention to be as well managed as hu- manly possible. In the 83 years since it was finished, habitants, by Sherman's army before Many of those around the country the Cyclorama of the Civil War battles he decided to burn the city on Nov. 14 who personally know some of the top in and around Atlanta in 1864 has at- and march to the sea, leaving desolation Legionnaires in Georgia will recognize tracted and awed visitors from all over behind him. names on the following list of the direc- the world. Fully abreast of its daring moderniza- tors of the Convention Corporation, and

The Cyclorama is housed in Atlanta's tion of highways, business establish- feel they are in good hands. Grant Park, only a short cab ride from ments, sports spectaculars, eateries, Adjutant George Osborne is the Presi- downtown and even closer to where hotels and office buildings has been At- dent. Executive Vice-President is James some Legionnaires will stay. It is a cir- lanta's drive for the latest in so-called E. Powers, of Macon, Past National cular mural painting 50 feet high, 400 "cultural facilities." Of course every- Commander and chairman of the Le- feet in circumference, weighing 18,000 thing just listed is cultural, but as that gion's national Publications Commission. pounds. William Ellis boiled its effect word is often used it means the purely Other directors are Frank Blankenship, into a paragraph in the National Geo- expressive arts—painting, sculpture, mu- General Counsel (Atlanta); George graphic article this February that we sic, the dance as a stage performance, Brown (Tucker); Larry Coggin (New- have recommended as additional read- drama, etc. nan); Hugh Conley, Secretary (College ing: The city has just recently completed Park); Williard Dawson (Atlanta); W. Said Ellis: "Completed in 1885-86 by a magnificent memorial home for these C. Harrell, the Nat'l Executive Commit- a group of German artists, the Cyclo- vehicles of human expression—the $13 teeman (Bainbridge) ; Edward Jensen rama tells the story of the Battle of million Atlanta Memorial Center, on (Forsythe); Richard Jones, Vice-Presi- Atlanta with such three-dimensional im- Peachtree at about 15th Street (which dent (Atlanta); Frank Kelly (Savan- pact that the viewer feels drawn into the is perhaps too far out for its best suc- nah); Everett Millican (Atlanta); Rev. action. Sound effects lend a crack to cess). Splendid as it is as an arts center, Claude Smithmier (Marietta); J. W. rifles and a muffled moan to the the word "memorial" belongs in its Toney, Treasurer (Doerun); Ernest wounded. The recorded narration traces name. It was seven years ago, on July Tomlinson, Sr., Vice-President (Atlanta) the battle from start to finish, while 23, 1962, that a big jet plane crashed on and George Tribble (Atlanta), the end

56 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 HOW PURE IS OUR FOOD? IHEAVY DUTY WELDER (Continued from page 15) Does work of $85.00 welder not a factor in the pure food picture. increase egg production by as much as yet costs only IDOQ POST PAID MMM ^ Some 90% of our beef and 50% of 30% . While by federal regulation animal our pork and mutton come from animals foods for human use must be free of Fits ordinary 110V outlet that have been fed or injected with medication residues, the need for po- 3 welding heats Weld, braze, solder or cut most anything made of metal. No experi- stilbestrol. It is a synthetic sex hormone. licing is again apparent. Some people can ence needed. Follow simple instructions. Uses standard W rods to weld iron, steel, brass, bronze, aluminum, other metals. 3 welding In sufficient doses it is capable of alter- become sensitized to antibiotics by in- heats ... not just one as with other low priced models. New HEAVY DUTY circuit gives higher heat 4 times the heat needed to ing human and animal sex characteristics gesting small amounts daily. Then, when melt toughest iron. More welding power than ever before. Comes complete with welder's mask, $2.00 pack of rods, flux, carbons, dramatically, and it may be a cancer they need them in an illness they may automatic arc striker, etc. NOTHING ELSE TO BUY. Approved for homes, garages, shops, factories. 10 day MONEY BACK trial. Guaran- agent in some animals. It stimulates be allergic to them, sometimes fatally. teed against burnouts. Send $2.00 and pay S16.95 plus small C.O.D. when delivered, or send $18.95 cash, ck., M.O. for postpaid shipment. rapid growth of good, red meat in live- Cancer has been on the rise in our WEL-DEX MFG. CO.,Dept. w-57. Boi iotts, Honston, reus 77018 stock, hence is economically important. society for the last 30 years, yet its causes It may increase growth by 19% and cut remain a mystery. Some investigators FREE TRAINED ' BOOK ' feed costs by 11%. The FDA feels that believe that the unexplained increase in LAW MAN its use as prescribed by regulation is safe. cancer is due largely to an increase in Write today for a FREE cop; of illustrated law book. "THE LAW-TRAINED MAN," which shows how to earn Sale of meat which shows presence of unrecognized cancer-causing hazards that the professional Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree through home study of the famous Blackstone Law Course: Booka the hormone is prohibited, and animals we have added to our environment. and lessons provided. Moderate cost ; easy terms. Write now. must be taken off of it 48 hours before Ever since 1957, when it was made Blackstone School of Law. 307 N. Michigan Ave. slaughter. The importance of good en- into law, the chemical industry has been Pounded 1890 Oept 95 Chicago 1, Illinois forcement is apparent. complaining about the Delaney anti- HYDRAULIC JACK REPAIRS Injection of stilbestrol in the heads cancer clause inserted in Public Law Earn While You Learn In Your Spare Time 85-929. of male chicks, to make them grow fat It lets the FDA rule out chemi- Trained and qualified meclianics needed NOW to service inoperative hydraulic jacks. BIG opportunity for ambitious as desexed capons, was allowed in 1947, cals in food which have been shown by men. We show you HOW - in your basement or garage to earn spare time cash In an expanding industry. Don't wait, in the belief that the hormone was adequate tests to cause cancer in man or ACT NOW! Get the facts. Write for folder No. A5, and free bonus offer. thrown away with the head after killing. animal. This the FDA does when it is Ten years later traces of stilbestrol were satisfied that a danger to humans exists. ,Hydraulic Jack Repair Manual Co., Inc. 'O.P.O. BOX 3 • STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. 10314 found in the liver and fat of capons, and Some doctors such as Dr. W. C. its use in poultry was prohibited in inter- Hueper, for many years chief of the en- state trade. Canada prohibits the use of vironmental section of the National Can- stilbestrol for any food animals. cer Institute in Washington, believe that FLUSHES UP or Millions of people have probably a much stronger law is needed. He has to sewer septic tank eaten billions of hot dogs and other urged the Food and Drug Administra- no digging up floors. foods to which sodium nitrate has been tion to outlaw all food additives, cos- write , . . McPHERSON, INC added, without ill effect. But the need metics or pesticides that cause cancer in BOX 15133 TAMPA, FLA. 33614 for good policing is obvious, since severe animals. poisonings have occurred when certain Chemicals are tested as possible can- meats were overdosed with sodium ni- cer-causers by giving them for short trate. periods of time in fairly large doses to Many food animals are steadily fed animals, says Dr. Hueper. This has small doses of antibiotics. By ridding limited relevance for human beings who Your livestock and poultry of many infections, may consume these things over a lifetime the antibiotics promote growth and they in relatively small amounts. "It is possible that a 'safe' dose of cancer-causing agents exists, and that most people could Heart Fund be exposed for years without developing cancer. But at present," says Dr. Hueper, "there is no reliable method for deter- mining this dose." Fights Dr. John J. Hanlon of our En- vironmental Health Service notes that food additives to impart flavoring, color HEART ATTACK • STROKE and other characteristics have increased HIGH 50 percent in the last decade. Everyone BLOOD PRESSURE eats about three pounds of these addi- INBORN HEART DEFECTS tives a year, he estimates. And then he asks: "What do we know about the long- term effects of these substances on the human organism? What do we know

about their interactions? I understand it is impossible to buy poultry without traces of antibiotics or hormones in

them. . . These things add up to a chemical barrage on every American." The unknowns involved in many chemicals that get into our food leave a deal ". good of the whole field to guess- . . Would you mind turning off your transistor, spitting out your gum and work, and create a considerable diversity combing back your hair?" of expert opinion. It ranges from caution (and urgings that we must make strenu- THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE {Continued on page 58)

THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 HOW PURE IS OUR FOOD? Such talk is often pure rubbish—and (Continued from page 57) we'd all be dead already if it weren't.

ous efforts to learn more) to the direst ment, and thus enter our food plants, This adds a great deal of froth to the of predictions. Dr. Franklin Bicknell, in their effects on humans would be un- worldwide concern about our food pro- his book "Chemicals in Food," predicts predictable, he warned. cessing. Enough scientists have urged the need for that the future will reveal all sorts of Writing in the Nov. 7, 1968, New more caution and greater con- unexpected complications from ingest- Scientist. Dr. Carlisle theorized that trols without having the water muddied inexpert ing unproven substances whose biologi- it is not too remote, based on his experi- by hysteria. cal repercussions are but dimly seen ments, to speculate that the grandchild To deal realistically with many food now. of a woman who ingested one of several problems it is not enough to cry with Researchers at universities in New growth retardants might be the first to alarm. Some of them call for more ex-

York and Minnesota think there's a di- show the ill effects, in the form of birth pertise than is available at present. This rect connection between DDT and an defects. Such a time lag moves any sort is true of salmonella, which can be re- increase in hepatitis. Dr. Richard Welsh of passing grade of safety into a scienti- duced by wider application of existing and others have noted one or more of fic never-never land. rules, but not eliminated by any method the following effects of DDT in animals It also opens the door for people who yet known. It's also true of various other molds, bacteria and other organisms that sometimes cause food poisoning. Dr. Kenneth M. Endicott, head of the Nat'l Cancer Institute, told Congress that we may need major changes in the way many crops are grown and stored to prevent the growth of molds on them that have been associated with cancer. The possibility that aflatoxins released by such molds may contribute to human cancer is not taken lightly. A few years ago the FDA destroyed nearly 4,000

cases of peanut butter before it reached the market because of suspected aflatoxins, secreted by the fungus aspergillus flavus. Present testing methods are inadequate to assure the complete absence of aflatoxins in food. There are notorious instances of aflatoxins killing poultry that had eaten moldy peanuts, corn, etc., and they have been shown to be active in altering cell growth in liver, lung and possibly stomach.

What's to be done about it all? Don't

quit eating just yet. Americans are still growing fat and living to age 90, so the "Mom, do you think I'm pretty-well stacked for a six-year-old?' idea that your next meal will get you

isn't quite it. Around the home the old THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE precautions are still good ones. The FDA urges all housewives as a matter of habit when the dosage was less than what our know far less to cry "wolf" about any- to smell any food, and discard any that general population gets: thing and everything. One net total effect seems "off" (even if you prepared it • Increase in enzyme production to of the situation is that the line between yourself) without tasting it. Never ac- break down the DDT, which breaks science and ignorance, expert and inex- cept the contents of any swelled or bulg- down other body substances at the same pert, is becoming undefinable. When ing can. Take action whenever you buy time. scientists don't know, everyone is a contaminated food. Write to the pro- • Increase in size of the uterus in rats. scientist. ducer, the store, the local and national • Some toxic effects on the central Today TV, radio, printed media and board of health, even the FDA in Wash- nervous system. pamphleteers give us almost anyone as ington. Keep your own meats, fish, milk, • Alteration of calcium metabolism. an expert on food dangers, if he talks etc., under refrigeration. Don't buy (or • Reduction of vitamin A. scary enough. Things are bad enough eat out) any food if you doubt it has Cipriano Cueto, Jr., of the Public without that. been well kept. Health Service, has noted that new pesti- The fact that something is harmful Meanwhile, state legislators ought to cides are coming into use faster than in given doses to laboratory animals be encouraged to maintain pure food researchers can keep abreast of their po- neither disproves nor proves that it is controls at least equal to the federal tential side effects. harmful, in controlled quantities, to standards. There are those who urge Dr. David B. Carlisle, of the British humans. Changes in body chemistry are much tighter federal laws and regula- Ministry of Overseas Development, has not necessarily bad. Scientists take such tions, and a more powerful enforcement warned against the hasty release of CCC things as areas of doubt for further ex- agency. for general use. Florists use CCC to re- ploration and serious caution. But ama- Some suggest that we need a Cabinet tard plant growth. Dr. Carlisle said that teurs rush into print or on all-night radio level post armed with broader powers he his and colleagues had produced ste- shows to shout that if formula X in heavy than any agency now has to police the rility and deformities in locusts that they dosage transformed a rat's enzymes, no food laws, step up research, and promote exposed to such growth retardants. If more proof is needed that traces of new law based on sure knowledge and these chemicals get loose in our environ- formula X in human food are deadly. due caution. the end 58 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 SOME Gl BILL AUTHORS TODAY YOUR DIVISION OR BRANCH OF Continued from page 33 SERVICE INSIGNIA IN 10-K GOLD

DIVISION NUMBER •ssSHOPPER vidual educators opposed it. We ended NSIGNIA, BIRTHSTONES, CAMPAIGNS GEMSTONES OR up with the strong support of a large DIAMONDS array of educational associations. Sen. Bob Wagner helped us enormously on veterans' employment rights and services. NOW! Hundreds of New Designs — Easy-Pay Plan scared of the Organized bankers were PRESTIGE RINGS you'll be proud to wear. 10-K yellow or white gold. Choose your Insignia from GI loan idea, while it was individual America's largest selection. Over 1000 designs bankers who gave us the help we needed. for all services, all wars. Money-back guarantee. Send for FREE illustrated catalog today. The banks had just been through long ROYAL MILITARY JEWELRY years of depression in which many had Box Y-302 Apache Junction, Arizona gone broke. They were shy of any new COLOR PHONE Standard Western Electric, refinished. Choice of colors to business loans. beautifully adventure in mortgages or fit your decor. Fitted with standard corcTA The American Bankers Association nei- MAGNIFYING GLASSES prong plus for instant use. Available in Pink, Blue, Red, Green, White, Black, Yel- ther opposed nor favored the bill, but it low, Beige & Ivory. Only $19.95 (Shp. Chge. $1.50). Send for free brochure. Grand Com. invitation to sit with steered clear of our Inc., Dept. AL5, 4 E. 46 St., N.Y., N.Y. 10017. us to give advice on the loan provisions. It remained for bankers in the Legion and some of their friends to give the Bill A Blessing For Folks Over 40 its professional touch. [W. Bea Waldrip, Read newspaper, telephone book, recipes, in the photo on p. 33, is a Michigan Bible, and do close work easily. Goodlook- so the Legion's committee had banker, ing stylish amber frames. Wear like regular \ its own expert in that field.] glasses, SEE CLEARER INSTANTLY. astigmatism or diseases of After the Bill was passed there was Not Rx or for the eye. 10 Day Home Trial. Send age, banking resistance to making GI loans sex. SATISFACTION GUARANTEED. in some areas of the country. Thus, in On arrival pay postman only $4, plus California, little GI Bill mortgage money C.O.D or send $4, and we pay postage. could be found until L.M. Giannini, head of The Bank of America, an- STOP STOOPING, sagging shoulders with new Pi Peer Shoulder Brace. Made of that all its branches would start nounced ventilated-for-comfort 3-ply material; cool, putting money into GI loans. The others lightweight, with padded arm bands. Cor- rects posture instantly. $5.95. 350 pstge. soon fell in line. It's interesting to note (Men give measurement around chest; put out money for 20 to women under bust). Piper Brace, Dept. that the banks AL-59H, 811 Wyandotte, Kansas City, Mo. 30 years at 4% back then. A great deal 4 64105. still at a W of this 4% money is out now, time when the prime rate has gone to MORE BRILLIANT than DIAMONDS says Reader's Di- 7^/2%, and banks themselves cannot get gest, SatEvePost about this new, man-made jewel Titania! For settings of your ciioice only 4% money. S12 per carat; a 1-ct man's box 14K ring is only fishtail a mere $33. No more Q. In what way is recorded GI Bill $41; m'lady's 1-ct federal tax. Write for FREE HANDY RING history, as previously published, the SIZE CHART & 120 PAGE FULL COLOR JEWELRY CATALOG. TEN 04Y money back guarantee weakest? Lapidary Company Dept. AL-5 (Unanimous.) In the credit given ^^Q^g^n A. 511 EAST 12 STREET • NEW YORK 10009 N. Y. the members of the Legion staff of those days. It is impossible to give them too This section is presented as a ser- night and day, much credit. They worked vice to readers and advertisers. All on weekends and holidays. They had the products are sold with a money- special knowledge and gave of them- GROW LIVE SEA MONKEYS . . . just add back guarantee. When ordering, water and in 5 min. playful, tumbling sea selves unstintingly. We wanted to raise monkeys hatch; chase each other, turn light beams. $1.00 plus their pay but couldn't under the war- please allow a reasonable amount cart-wheels, follow 250 handling & shipping. Satisfaction guar. time wage freezes. T. O. Kraabel (the of time for handling and shipping. Free instructions and year food supply. David Geller & Assoc., Dept. AL5, 4 E. 46 in photo, and only staff man the p. 33) Be sure to include Zip Code num- St., New York. N.Y. 10017. the late Frank Sullivan (then acting as ber along with your address. legislative director) were magnificent. Frank's assistant, Kay Burch (now retired), was almost a whole staff in her- NOW! Improved and Patented self. But the same could be said for every CHINA Legion employee involved. Such loyalty, RUPTURE-EASER' DOLLAR (A a@B Truss) devotion and enthusiasm must be seen No laces — instant to be appreciated. only 10^ pull-strap adjustment No Fitting Required Then, too, the members of The Ameri- Uncirculated nickel sil- can Legion Auxiliary deserve a much ver dollar minted in 1960 Right or $ 95

to Commemorate 50th an- Left Side I bigger place in the recorded history. niversary of The Republic of China (For- Double . . $6.95

mosa) . . . only one to a customer ... a When it is said that the Legion secured beautiful coin and ONLY Wt. SUPPLY Strong, form-fitting washable sup- literally millions of petitions from the LIMITED ! SEND TODAY. Also get free big port for reducible inguinal hernia. Snaps up in catalog Illustrating coins and supplies, front. Soft, flat groin pad. No steel or leather general public in support of the GI Bill, plus selections of coins from our approval bands. Unexcelled for comfort. Also used as service returnable without obligation. after operation support. For men, women, chil- it is safe to say that the women of the Send name, address, zip number and 10* dren. Send measure around the lowest part of Auxiliary probably got the majority of for your China Dollar to: LITTLETON abdomen and state right, left side or double. COIN CO., Dept. k:C-42, Littleton, New Add 350 postage. PIPER BRACE CO., Dept. them. RBP Hampshire 03561 AL-59 •811 Wyandotte • Kansas City, Mo. 64105 THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 59 PAR FOR THE COURSE By the PARTING time you can afford to lose a SHOTS golf ball, you can't hit it that far. Ralph E. Munsel

LUNAR LOVESONG We strolled beside the Tranquil Sea, Admiring the cosmic dust. We climbed the ridge, so thrilled to be Together on the crater crust. I held her air-tight pressure glove

And tried to span her space suit's girtli. It isn't easy to make love By the light of the silvery earth. Otta Louise Chase

NO STRIKES If playboys formed a union, they'd be organized sports. C. Edward CIibbons

BIRD LOVER'S LAMENT Oh, lovely bird of scarlet hue The things that I go through for vou! Trudging through the snow and sleet To place the seeds for you to eat. Building shelters from the cold, Chasing cats that are too bold. Slipping quickly out of .sight If it should please you to alight. And all for just one thrilling note That bursts forth gaily from your throat "Hi! Anybody home?' As you sit proudly up so high. And serenade the summer sky.

THk AMEKICAN l.l'.GlON MAGAZI.NIO But one thing sadly puzzles me— Why must you choose my neighbor's tree? Helen M. Vorba ATTENTION-GETTING MESSAGE Tlie moving van BE WARY was just pulling away, leaving the young wife in a kitchen full When you are admiring a young, of boxes, inoperable appliances, and a screaming baby. Then came a crash shapely blonde these days, remember as the five-year-old put her head through the front' picture window, adding that you may be wrong on all counts. a frightened but uninjured child and pieces of jagged glass to the confusion. Bill McGlasiien Feeling an overwhelming desire to share the joy of her new home with her husband, she tried to telephone him. Knowing his penchant for for- getting to return calls, she left the following message: "The insurance will cover it. Call home for details." He telephoned.

T. Rancont, Jr. COURTEOUS SQUELCH The harried airline reservation clerk took a firm grip on the phone and struggled to maintain his company's policy of courtesy as a woman caller, shrill and angry, persisted in demanding that a seat be found for her to go to New York the next morning. She announced that her husband had important connections who would not tolerate the treatment given her, and now, what was the clerk going to do about it. "Madam," the clerk said politely, "as I explained, there is no space left. But if you will give me your name and phone number. I'll be glad to notify you of any cancellation." "Oh," the woman spluttered, "this is stupid!" "Thank you," replied the clerk. "And your phone number?" Dan Bennett TIME OUT OF MIND A passerby asked a hippie on Boston Common what time it was. "Twelve o'clock," replied the hip. "Goodness," said the man, "I thought it was later than that." "Man, it never gets later than tiiat around here," said the hippie. "Like, "Diplomatic Immunity, my foot! That'll be when it reaches twelve o'clock, we start all over again!" $26,851" Harold Winerip THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE J THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE • MAY 1969 Drink a phenomenon tonight.

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