AN AMERICAN LEGION.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VI, Issue 268, 28 October 1916, Page 3

AN AMERICAN LEGION.

FIGHTING WITH CANADIANS

RAISED BY' A NEW ENGLAND MINISTER.

(By HUGH H. LUSK.)

Everybody has heard of the wry active part taken by Canada in the war almost from the very beginning of the contest in France and Belgium; and the heavy sacrifices, both in men and money, which the Government and people of Canada have freely made. It must be remembered, however, that in the case of Canada, as in that of our own and the other Dominions in this part of the world, the feeling that they formed part of a great Empire, and that for them, as for Britain herself, victory or defeat must have far-reach-ing economic as well as political consequences, naturally affected their action. The position of the United States and its people was wholly different. It is true that a decisive victory for Germany might be followed by results both economical and political that would be far from satisfactory to America: hut such a victory was from the first most improbable, and the confidence of the mass of the citizens of the great Republic in the future of their country is too unhesitating to allow- them to fear the rivalry of Germany or any other country. Almost from the beginning of the war, however, there was a movement of a certain class of young Americans towards Canada to enlist as volunteers in the forces that were being organised by the Dominion to assist in the war.

There are a great many Canadians by birth who for one reason or another have crossed the border and taken up their residence in the States —for the most part in tho north-western and western States —and it was natural to suppose that some at least oi these might answer to the call to arms of their native country : and a good many thousands of the younger men undoubtedly did so during the first year of the war’ It was a good deal less natural that men who wpre by birth citizens of the United States should leave their own country and enlist as volunteers under a foreign flag; and yet a large number —apparently not less than fourteen or fifteen thousand — did so. In this earlier stage of the movement these American volunteers enlisted as the Canadians themsebves did, and were, of course, drafted into the new regiments of the Canadian army., forming, it would seem, about ten per cent, of the volunteers. It was only within the last few months that the movement began to take a newform, which seems to be even more worthy of remark than the earlier enlistment of American citizens in a foreign army for a war which the Government of their own country had absolutely refused to take any part in. The movement was set on foot by a New Englander, who had for a good many years been a Unitarian minister in the State of Massachusetts. His idea was to place the matter on a new basis, end instead of merely helping the Allies, to introduce into the conflict lhe spirit of a new and up-to-date crusade. There was to him something unsatisfactory in a merely personal enlistment of Americans in the Canadian forces, as the men simply disappeared into the ranks, and, however good they might be, the credit of what they did must go to the Canadian forces. The man was evidently possessed df that mysterious power of attraction which is sometimes called magnetic, which sijems to make a man here and there a natural leader of men, for his appeal to his own countrymen lias already met with a very hearty response. The idea which underlay the scheme was that of raising a large body of volunteers who should form a branch of the Canadian Army in all military operations, but should be composed entirely of citizens of the United States. They” were definitely to represent an idea, and the idea was to be the unselfish one of fighting for right and justice against oppression and brutality. To people who have the common idea that the American is the representative of hustling business; who puts the almighty dollar in the first place, and all other considerations in a very secondary one, this will naturally seem an extraordinary, perhaps a ridiculous one. This recrudescence of the spirit of the Crusades in America, of all countries in the world, will be almost unthinkable; bu t experience already shows that it has appealed to a good many of the-younger citizens of the Republic. The spirit of the old European Crusader showed itself in two directions one of them adventurous, and the other religious, and the same is evidently reproduced in the new twentieth century American crusade. Many of the five thousand volunteers in the new American Legion have been mainly influenced to join by the love of adventure, just as a large percentage of the knights and yeomen were influenced seven or eight hundred years ago to invade Palestine. There are also many who have been induced to volunteer on much higher and more idealistic grounds. Two songs that are sung by -the members of the Legion may serve to illustrate this. One of them may be called the “banner song,” which is sung in full chorus to the music of an old campus song of Princeton University, to words that are suggestive if not very poetical, as follows :

“Not because our homes are threatened, Or our country calls to the fight; YVe’re fighting because we want to, Because we love both fight and right.” The other is the marching song of the Legion, and, as might have been expected, is more lively: — “There’s Tommy and Mikey, and then Scotty too, Canadian, Australian and Hindoo; English and Irish, and Scottish, all swank, Turn out, look us over, for we are the . Yank.”

The strains of both these songs have been familiar things to the ears of the people of Toronto, where the headquarters of the Legion have now been for some months, and the Canadian papers describe them as a very fine body of men. . . ...

The Legion has a special constitution of its own. It is made up of battalions instead of regiments like the Canadian forces, and in each battalion there are twelve hundred men. Four of these battalions make up a brigade, containing nearlv five thousand men. All the officers are elected by the men, subject only to the aproval of the staff of the Legion, and to the conditions that they have had sufficient experience for the particular rank to which they have been elected, and that they already belong to the battalion or brigade. Half of the first brigade have already gone to France, and expect to do great things there. The movement is evidently a popular one, for although it is against the law to carry on an enlistment campaign in any of the .Union States, there seems to be a continuous stream of new recruits crossing the border, making it not unlikely that, if the war lasts another year, the ambition of the leaders of the movement may be realised, and the American Legion of twentieth century Crusaders may reach a strength of four, or even five brigades. The men of the Legion, are drawn from many classes of American society, but as a rule from the better educated, and every here and there are members of the millionaire class to be found in the ranks who own automobiles, and use them freely when off duty. It has been ascertained, that they do not forfeit American citizenship b’- joining the Legion, as they are only called upon to swear an oath of service during the war to King George, which does not involve a change of citizenship.