AUGUST 1939 GION 1ST SEPTEMBER 2 NATIONAL m I r A r C\ CONVENTION l^ll I VJ VJ 25 t(r 28 Qet fleadu FOR YOUR CONVENTION r ..Mad No**! EMBLEM DIVISION, American Legion National Headquarters, 777 N. Meridian, Indianapolis, Ind. Name • Please rush my FREE copy of the 1939 Legion catalog, with special SAL supplement. It is under- Street stood that this latest Legion catalog, featuring Caps, Shirts, Ties and Countless other Convention City State Supplies and requirements, will be sent to me without any obligation whatsoever. Serial No. of my 1939 membership card 4 ; (for(god'and'country , we associate ourselves together/or thefollowing purposes: Oo uphold and defend the Constitution JofthetlnitedStates ofAmerica; to maintain law and order; tofoster andperpetuate a one hundredpercent Americanism topreserve the memories and incidents ofour association in the^reatl^ar; to inculcate a sense ofindividual obligation to the com- munittf, state andnation; to comhat the autocracy of'bolh the classes andthe masses; to make right the master ofmight; to promote peace andgood willon earth ;to safe-guardand transmit to posteritg the principles ofjustice.Jreedom anddemocracg; to conse- crate and sancigg our comradeship bu our devotion to mutual helpfulness.— Preamble to the Constitution ofThe American Legion Htie American August, 1939 Vol. 27, No. 2 LEGIONMAGAZINE Published Monthly by The American Legion, 455 West 22d Street, Chicago, Illinois EXECUTIVB AND ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING OFFICES Indianapolis, Indiana 15 West 48th St., New York City GEORGE WHARTON PEPPER, CONTENTS got warm and couldn't get warm - who gives a truly American COVER DESIGN without running. Congress would ap- valuation of the World War By Edwin Earle propriate money for new types of on the occasion the twenty-fifth ammunition, say, and the blueprints of THE REAL THING 2 anniversary of its start, is a famous By Karl Detzer would be prepared and a model built Philadelphia attorney who was a Illustrations by Frank Street and there would be stories about United States Senator from 1922 to FOR TOMORROW'S AMERICA 6 how fine the new gun was, what it 1927, and is as well an author of By Henry A. Wallace could be expected to do. But the new Illustration by William MacLean note. With Mr. Pepper's searching gun would never get into production. analysis of the greatest struggle the NEVER AGAIN? 8 Things are a bit better now, thanks By George Wharton Pepper wotld has yet known is presented a to Legion persistence. prophecy made in 1914 which proved READY? WE'D BETTER BE 12 By Warren H. Atherton startlingly true. The Getman, Rus- LEE BEVERIDGE'S su- Cartoon by John Cassel ROBERT sian and Austro-Hungarian monarchs . perb essay on Old Glory, So BACK TO THE FRONT : conclusion 1 lost their crowns in the reshuffling of Proudly e Hail, which appeared in By James E. Dar^t W power, and in all of those countries the June issue, was itself proudly Illustrations by J. W . Schlaikjer socialist or communist governments hailed by numerous Legionnaires and M-DAY—WHEN, AS AND IF 18 were set up, at one time or another. By Cabell Phillips and others in letters to the magazine. Un- Jonescu's statement about the leader- J. D. Ratcliff intentionally, Mr. Beveridge's name ship of the United States in world IN THERE FIGHTING 20 was left out of the box in the back affairs also has come to pass. By Jimmy Dykes of the magazine in which Legion affi- BRING THE FAMILY, TOO 22 liation of contributors is noted. Let WARREN H. ATHERTON'S By Colonel A. A. Spracue it here be recorded that he is Amer- Ready? We'd Better Be, and ON, ON TO VICTORY 24 icanism officer of Richland Post, Co- the M-Day article by Cabell Phillips By Joseph J. Gleeson lumbia, South Carolina. Illustration by Harry Townsend and J. D. Ratcliff when put together give a picture of the defense needs EDITORIAL : more than a million 25 FOR those who like plenty of of the nation and what will actually GREW ALL AROUND ... 26 fiction in the summertime there happen // we go to war. Perhaps By Wallgren are two fine short stories, as well as would-be aggressors will stop and THE SAP 27 the concluding installment of James count the cost of attacking when they By Earle C. Jameson E. Darst's two-part serial Back to the Illustration by V . E. Pyles learn that instead of the sixty-one Front. Karl Detzer's The Real Thing days needed in 1917 to arrange for A MILE OF PENNIES 28 has a California setting; Earle Jame- By Boyd B. Stutler a manhood draft men will actually son's The Sap goes back to the A. E. F. register nine days after war is de- MARY'S LITTLE LAMBS 32 By John Noll clared. Always that // should be kept J. COLONEL SPRAGUE, President in mind. The fact that we're ready BURSTS AND DUDS 64 of the Chicago Convention Cor- Conducted by Dan Sowers for a ruckus almost certainly means poration, enumerates a good many that we're not going to have any things about that city that will prove ruckus. Industrial and to some ex- of interest to the thousands of Legion- tent military preparedness in this naires and their families who will be country were for generations in the IMPORTANT on hand for the 21st National Con- predicament of the Butterscotchmen vention, September 25 th through A form for your convenience if you wish in "Davy and the Goblin," who you 28th. Convention reunions of war- to have the magazine sent to another ad- may remember couldn't run until they dress will be found on page 55. time outfits are on pages 61 and 62. The American Legion Magazine is the official publication of The American Legion, and is owned exclusively hv the The American Legion, Copyright 1939 by The American Legion. Entered as second class matter Sept. 26, 1931, at the Post Office at Chicago, 111., under the act of March 3. 1879 Stephen F. Chadwick, Indianapolis, Ind., National Commander, Chairman of the Legion Pub- Ushing and Publicity Commission; Members of Commission: Philip L. Sullivan, Chicago, 111. ; William H. Doyle, Maiden, Mass.; Phil Conley. Charleston, W. V?.; Raymond Fields, Guthrie, Okla.; Jerry Owen, Portland, Ore.; Lynn Stambaugh, Fargo, N. D.; Harry C. Jackson. New Britain, Conn.; Tom McCaw, Dennison, Ohio; Carter D. Stamper, Beattyville, Ky.; John J. Wicker, Jr., Richmond, Va.; Theodore Cogswell, Washington, D. C; John B. McDade, Scranton Pa.; Robert L. Colflesh, Des Moines, la.; Dwight Gnswold, Gordon, Neb.; Dr. William F. Murphy, Pales- tine, Tex. Director of Publications. James F. Barton, Indianapolis, Ind.; Director of Advertising, Frederick L. Maguire; Managing Editor, Bovd B. Stutler; Art Editor, William MacLean; Associate Edi- tors, Alexander Gardiner and John J. Noll. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of October 3. 1917, authorized January 5. 1925. Price, single copy 25 Cents, yearlv subscription, $1.30. AUGUST, 1939 1 ! REAL Thing Karl D ETZ E R looked across the table at Bingo JOECole's hand, holding his Scotch- and-soda. Bingo's hand was steady. The guy had nerve, Joe must admit. Here he sat in the Brown Derby, talking about horses at Santa Anita, lapping up highballs, one-two-three, as if nothing was going to happen But what was going to happen? Joe shifted uneasily. He was a light, youngish man with pale eye- brows that looked yellow against his brown skin. He fancied that he resembled Jimmy Cagney and so made a habit of hunching one shoulder and speaking fast from the side of his mouth. The difference, he often told himself, was that Cagney just acted. His stuff wasn't the real thing, like this business to- night. Truth sure was stranger than the movies! Why, he'd never even heard of Bingo Cole till last week when Bingo hailed his taxicab on Hollywood Boulevard and they'd started talking, the way guys do. "Listen, kid," Bingo had said as he got out. "I like your style. Maybe we can fix up a deal." "Okay, boss," Joe had answered from the side of his mouth. That's how it began. Now Joe sat wait- ing. He glanced at the front door, then at his wrist watch. Ten o'clock. Bingo said Katie Joy would be in around ten. Said she usually came in for one drink and a sandwich, then went home to San Fernando Valley. That's where they'd pull the job, just as she reached her door. Provided, of course, she wore the neck- lace. Behind her waddled a fat Bingo had planned everything. Joe man with a shiny bald head didn't even know where Katie Joy lived, never had seen her off the screen. He'd left it all to Bingo. Bingo was an old The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine Fran k Stre et worth a hundred grand, Bingo said. Get fifty for it tomorrow. Fifty, split two ways. Easy. "Fat guy's Looie Gunzler, her pro- ducer," Bingo whispered. "She's goin' to marry him, maybe, after her di- vorce." Joe stared. She certainly didn't look the way Katie Joy did on the screen. Wasn't pretty, like Katie. He said so. "A lot of them aren't," Bingo an- swered. "Besides, it's her dark glasses." "Oh!" Joe's breath caught. She had dropped her wrap and the necklace, looped about her throat, tossed back the lights. "Did you bring the cash?" Bingo asked. "Sure," Joe kept his eyes on Katie.