APRIL 13, 1923

PAGE 3

She aint like

She used to be

she's evenhetter/

^/Aatd what Buddy says about thelYew Corona

Still shell-proof, cootie-proof, and as fluent as a top-kicker — the good old Corona of the guerre is a changed girl. My — how she has changed!

If the following improvements wouldn't bring a kind smile to the face of an M. P., — Buddy is willing to eat a ream of carbon paper:

1 — Automatic Ribbon Reverse.

2 — Improved Line Spacer — one

motion returns carriage and spaces for next line.

3 — 10 inch carriage, widest on

any portable, takes a No. 10 envelope with room to spare.

4 — Standard Portable Keyboard, with right and left shift keys. The simplest of all typewriter keyboards, and the easiest to memorize and use.

For the sake of all those letters you tapped out on the company Corona — you owe a visit to the Corona Supply Sergeant. He has a store in your town, listed in the phone book under "Corona."

At a cost of only fifty berries, you can own your own field clerk. With the NEW CORONA you can really typewrite anything, anywhere.

fold it up- take it with you —

typewrite anywhere-

Corona Typewriter Co., Inc.

132 Main St. Groton, New York

I Corona Typewriter Company, Inc.,

• 132 Main St., Groton, N. Y. 1 I . . I

l I would like to give that new Corona the once over, so you may send along one of ( I those new illustrated folders and tell me where there is a Corona store near me. |

■ n

I Name I

I I

I Address I

I I I I

PAGE 4

THE AMERICAN LEGION WEEKLY

dmtdoovs

can rbe yours

The cheapest health insurance for the whole family is a Chevrolet.

In a few minutes it transports you from the close and sultry atmosphere of the city to the pure invigorating air of the country. The nerve-racking city sights and sounds are left behind and replaced by the restful and inspiring vistas of green fields, babbling brooks, cheering songs of birds, lowing of cattle, the rare color of wild flowers and the scent of new mown hay.

Two Passenger Roadster Five Passenger Touring . . Two Passenger Utility Coupe Four Passenger Sedanette Five Passenger Sedan ... Light Delivery . . » , ,

Without counting the daily utility of a Chevrolet for going back and forth to work, shopping or taking the children to school, etc., its value in saving doctor's bills, broadening your mental horizon and keeping the whole family physically fit, amounts to more than the cost of the car and its upkeep.

It makes possible the suburban or country home far from the trolley or railroad tracks.

Call on the nearest Chevrolet dealer and learn how much daily utility and year 'round health and happi- ness can be had for a sum so low that almost any American family can easily finance the purchase.

Chevrolet Motor Company, Detroit, Mich*

Division of General Motors Corporation

Dealers and Service Stations Everywhere. Applications will be considered from high grade dealers only, for territory not adequately covered.

Official publication of The American Legion and The American Legion Auxiliary.

Published by the Le- gion Publishing Corp.: President, Alvin Ows- ley; Vice-President, James A. Drain; Treas- urer, Robert H. Tyn- dall; Secretary, Lemuel Bolles.

LEG I

I CAN

reekly

BUSINESS OFFICE (Advertising and Circulation) 627 West i3d Street, New York City

EDITORIAL OFFICES Natl. Hqtrs. Bureau, Indianapolis, hid. 627 W. 43d St., New York City

Owned exclusively by The American Legion.

Correspondence and manuscripts pertaining to Legion activities should be addressed to the National Head- quarters Bureau. All other communications should be addressed to the New York office.

APRIL 13, 1923

PAGE 5

A Sequel to "Who Got the Money?"

The Profiteer Hunt

IV. The Air Service Starts a House-Cleaning

By Marquis James

WE have spoken of the War Depart- ■nent Claims Board — of how its vigilance saved the Govern- ment millions by paring down the padded claims of some contractors, and how also this vigilance wearied and nodded at times and millions were permitted to slip through the Govern- ment's fingers and into the capacious wallets of other contractors. When one re- calls the speed with which this vast and creaking mechanism operated, when one recounts the exhorta- tions of its president, Bene- dict Crowell, former Assist- ant Secretary of War, for speed and more speed in the settlement of claims, it is little wonder that accuracy was sacrificed to celerity. Reviewing the circumstan- ces fairly, as we have tried to do, the case seems like that of Dr. Johnson's dog that could walk on two legs — the wonder ceases that the feat was performed im- perfectly, and the wonder grows that it was performed at all.

The state of affairs soon became a quasi-public scan- dal in Washington, and this not long after the Armistice when the Claims Board be- gan its operations. Little appeared in print and there were few public official dec- larations on the subject. Powerful influences were at work to prevent such things, and they succeeded. Strong hands were raised to strike down any that might assail the goose that laid the golden eggs. But the liber- ality of the Claims Board awards was a common topic of conversation and spec- ulation among those of the minor elect; there was no way of stopping that. It

Official pholo U. S. Air Service

Major General Charles T. Menoher, former chief of Air Service and wartime commander of the Rainbow Division, is better known as a soldier than as a man of letters. But General Menoher is the author of a little treatise which, while it may not be a best seller, still holds possibilities of bringing considerable sums of money into the United States Treasury. The little treatise has a long title: "Necessity for the investiga- tion and audit of certain negotiated settlements made by the finance division of the Bureau of Aircraft Pro- duction under cost-plus contracts"

was the gossip of civilian lawyers, ac- countants and clerks who were in the government service and in the know. Officers discussed it quietly at their messes and at the Army and Navy Club. It was cloak-room talk at the Capitol.

Lawyers and lobbyists who had fattened and were fat- tening on the enormous fees contractors were willing to pay to keep the system go- ing, spoke unctuously of the necessity of "turning capi- tal back into peacetime channels" with the least delay.

Whether the burden of these conversations ever' reached Mr. Crowell, who was the head of the Claims Board organization, or whether it reached the ears of his superior, Secretary Baker, it is impossible for this writer to say. In March of 1921 the Federal administration changed hands and John W. Weeks became Secretary of War. Whether any of the gossip we have described pene- trated the massivejand well- watched doors of this Sec- retary's office I do not know. I do know, however, that a statement of the facts reached him. It came in the form of an official memorandum from the Chief of the Air Service, who was then Major Gen- eral Charles T. Menoher. The communication bears the date of May 26, 1921. It is entitled: "Necessity for the investigation and audit of certain negotiated settlements made by the fi- nance division of the Bu- reau of Aircraft Production under cost-plus contracts."

For conservatism and moderation of statement this communication is an excellent axample of an official government document. Yet it tells the story, beginning with this lan- guage: "Within the first few months after the Armistice owing to the urgent necessity of the rehabilitation of private industry certain settlements were made

PAGE 6

THE AMERICAN LEGION WEEKLY

in quite a number of cases with contract- ors involving large amounts without an audit or a redeter- mination of the ac- counts of the con- tractor having been made."

The document goes on to relate the has t e with which the Claims Board made settlements and quotes Mr. Crowell to show that this haste was the official policy. It re- cites that the finance contract division, in charge of liquidation of Air Service ac- counts, "has had oc- casion to examine and review some of the negotiated settle- ments" in which con- nection two audits had been completed. It is explained that the purpose of this proposed activity is to determine "whether or not the negotiated set- tlements were in ac- cordance with prin- ciples and terms of contracts settlements

Colonel L. L. Deit- rick, under whom contract audit ac- tivity in the Finance Section of the Air Service has made notable strides since he was placed in charge

the

conditions surrounding the negotiated settle- ments. There is an in- dication of over-pay- ment of about $16,000,- 000 in these six cases. There are a number of other cases in the Air Service which have not been investigated in which settlements were made under similar circumstances and by the same officers of the Government, which in the opinion of this of- fice should be investi- gated.

The Government if it so desires can reopen these settlements for the following reasons:

1. The settlements were made contrary to the terms of the origi- nal contracts. . . .

2. They were made without a re-audit and determination of the previous payments, which is required un- der the contracts.

. whether the were to the best interests of the Gov- ernment . . . whether or not to the best interests of the Government such set- tlements could be reopened and set aside for the pur- pose of recovering back sums of money erroneous- ly paid by reason there- of."

The memorandum re- cites that six contracts had been experimentally re- viewed, 'and $16,000,000 discovered to be due the United States. The Weekly is able to identify four of these cases. The other two are with held because of the possibility that pub- licity at this time might prejudice the Government's interests. The four cases are:

Tho Standard Aircraft and the Standard Aero Corporations, which are the names under which the great Mitsui & Company, the financial emperors of Japan, carried on their wartime opera- tions in the United States. These firms received $16,000,000 from the Govern- ment— an overpayment of $2,000,000, the Air Service contends.

The Lincoln Motor Company, which received $45,000,000 of government money — an overpayment, according to General Menoher's memorandum, of $4,825,000.

The Wright Martin Aircraft Cor- poration, which received $54,000,000, with contended overpayments of $4,000,000.

The Dayton Wright Company, air- craft makers, paid $32,000,000 and, according to the Government's figures, overpaid $2,500,000.

General Menoher continues:

The history of these cases indicates the general situation with reference to the

Captain W. F. Volandt, assistant chief, Finance Sec- tion, Air Service, and Thomas F. Lane, head of the Legal Section, in charge of contract audit activity in the Air Service. It was these men who brought to General Menoher's notice the condi- tions which he out- lined in his report to Secretary Weeks

3. It is shown conclusively that the set- tlements were made greatly against the best interests of the Government of the United States.

4. The settlements being made without an audit, the Claims Board of the Air Service or the Secretary of War or anyone acting for the Secretary could have had no actual knowledge that overpayments were made.

5. The finance contract division has been advised that the payments made by the Government under said settlements are so grossly unfair and unjust that they fall within the principles laid down by the Comptroller of the Treasury, the Court of Claims, and the Supreme Court of the United States which hold that whether such payments and contracts are the result either of fraud actual or constructive, or mistake of facts or mistake of law, such actions and contracts do not bind the Gov- ernment and money paid thereby cm be recovered back.

The memorandum concludes with the names of twenty-six additional firms whose contracts were declared to be in need of audit to protect the Govern- ment's interests. '.

It is not without significance that the Government's first decisive move against allegedly overpaid contractors should have originated in the Air Ser- vice. Profiteering, waste, mismanage- ment, extravagance and fravd may not have been more prevalent in the Air Service than in the other departments of the Army whose activities we have reviewed, but they were certainly more pat- ent. At any rate they re- ceived the most and the first publicity. The in- vestigations conducted by Senator Thomas and by Mr. Hughes, now Secre- tary of State, and the find- ings of the Graham com- mittee and other official bodies of inquiry gave the public sufficient facts upon which to predicate a rather definite opinion. The Government started out to "win the war in the air" by placing 20,000 planes in France in 1918, spent half a billion dollars and failed to place one American- made fighting air- plane on the front.

The first year af- ter the war found the Army striving in the grip of many dif- ficulties, chief of which were those that sprang from a condition of the pub- lic mind, which re- cently had been di- verted from consid- erations of war to those of peace. Peace was pleasant. The war was over and the people wanted to forget it — they did not wish to think or talk of it. "Speak of the devil and he will appear." They feared that speech of war might mean war. Any topic (Con. on page 24)

APRIL 13, 1923

PAGE 7

"Blinkety blink blink!" comes back the doughboy. "Take your troops out of No Man's Land!"

YOU, of course, were in a hot sector during- the recent dis- turbance of the nations. When you came home and sent little brother Lester down to the corner for ten cents worth of moth balls, suitable for one uniform, O. D., you proceeded to stretch yourself in the easiest easy chair in the house and to discourse with authority on barrages, whizz-bangs, gas alarms, trench knives, and night pa- trols. Maybe there was casual mention of a Croix de Guerre or a hurried in- flux of the local press armed with note- books and large fat pencils with black leads. Whatever was said was taken down and used against you. The next day when you went down street to see if Brown's drug store was still stand- ing or if Mary had got married while you were away neighbors insisted on rushing up to you and shaking you by the hand.

"It's Bill," they bubbled. "Back from the war. I'll bet you killed a lot of Germans, Bill."

"Well," you said, a little diffidently, "I don't know that I won the war. But I was in some pretty hot sectors."

Yes, looking back on them over the vista of the years they were hot sec- tors— Luneville, Soissons, St. Mihiel, Chateau-Thierry, Verdun, the Argonne, all the way down the list. Hot and heavy and historic sectors. If you served overseas in a combat outfit, sooner or later, you will recall, you got into one or another of them and became an expert at dodging, ducking and otherwise taking measures to prolong life. The fact that you're still here proves it.

Or, if your lot was cast in the sweat- ing, twenty-four-hour a day S. O. S., engaged in rushing bullets, breeches and barrels up to the front, you heard all about those sectors from the men who came down from them to inquire where in thunderation were the air- planes or the issue Number Twelves or whatever it was they were under the impression the back areas had. But there was one sector that it's a four- wheeled fourgon against an application for an O. T. C. you never heard of. It's the sixth year since a state of fisticuffs was declared, and I haven't seen it breaking into print yet.

That was the front I was on. Yes,

I'm still here to tell the tale. But I am not here due to any care on my part in avoiding the heavy metals of war that used to thunder down out of the skies on one in the course of hostilities. Far from it. Our front was regularly labelled and completely equipped; I re- call that it was roped off and staked and had lines marked on it for battle- field purposes. It had Germans on one side of it and Americans and French on the other and cooties on both. But it was the oddest, weirdest, loosest kind of a front that France boasted. It is the only one I can remember where the war had regular office hours.

You can, if you wish, keep your bar- rages and trench raids and daylight patrols — all your banging, slamming, erupting scenes of warfare in the hot sector you were in — and leave me my memories of a sunny countryside dotted with red-roofed farms and cosy village cafes. For this was Haute Alsace, right next to the Swiss border, "le sec- teur tranquil" of the entire guerre, seen by relatively few American troops, where the barbed wire of a neutral country pinned down one flank and the mountains of Alsace rose in front. If the French shelled Mulhouse, the big German town back of the lines, the Germans cheerfully replied by throw- ing exactly the same number of shells into Belfort, the French city a few kilometers behind the Allied front. Neither side could maneuver or ad- vance, neither could move its valuable cities and villages out of range. The French wanted to take the part of Alsace the Germans held intact, the Germans expected to get back such of Alsace as the French held without damaging it.

Voila — as the frogs say — what was there then to make the fight about? The Germans sent their tired troops to Alsace to rest and the French did like- wise. They sat about in trenches and billets and smoked, I imagine, and wrote letters home until they were relieved.

I remember our arrival at this scene

Le Secteur Tranquil

By Steuart M. Emery

of warfare. About two a. m. one morn- ing late in July, 1918, our precious trainload of battling Americans fresh from the States came to a halt after four days and nights of the assorted bumps and jolts that only a French locomotive driver can cause to run through a string of 40 Hommes, and out we piled into a ghostly, fog-filled meadow.

"Pitch shelter halves!" We pitched them.

"No noise, men!" Half of us were already snoring. Grass feels good after the better part of a week of sleeping on corn willie cans over a flat wheel.

Bang, bang, bang, bang! It was day- light and we were in the war — on top of the second-line trenches, in fact. "Get up, men !" cried our skipper. "There's firing going on!"

The firing stopped. It didn't start again, as I recall, for a week. I have always had a suspicion that a hapless frog gunner was dismissed from the army for firing those innocent rounds and waking the troops in that sector. Far to our right the mists were slowly rising from the mighty, snow-covered slopes of the Jungfrau in Switzerland. We were on the front in Haute Alsace, and the war there had been dead and forgotten since September, 1914.

Forgotten, did I say? I fear it might just as well never have existed. In less than a week after our division's arrival to learn war under the French a wrathful corporal of the sanitary train was recounting the experiences of his outfit on its first leg-stretching hike under a doughty officer. To this day I remember his words.

"There we was in a column like a snake walking over a nice bit of coun- try with a lot of wire on it when up pops a doughboy out of a hole. 'What- inell are you doing here?' he yells. 'Hiking, my man,' says our chief.

PAGE 8

THE AMERICAN LEGION WEEKLY

'Salute and say sir when addressing an officer.'

" 'Blinkety, blink blink,' comes back the doughboy. 'Take your troops out of No Man's Land. You've walked into a listening post.' We had. We walked into two more before we could get off the front and back to a place we knew was peaceful because the frog army was all back there raking hay."

This front of ours, to my best recol- lection, was indeed confusing. Its trench line had great gaps in it of a quarter of a mile or so. No Man's Land was a thousand yards across in spots.

Boche tumbled about and performed his evolutions in dozens behind our lines I have invariably been led to believe that he was using our air as a training ground for squareheaded cadet avia- tors. The French had planes in our sector but they were never the right planes with which to drive off Germans. They were simply observation planes, or cigarette-carrying planes, or their chauffeurs had just gone out for lunch.

Anti-aircraft batteries banged away with Gallic enthusiasm all day long running up the munitions debt and once, memory informs me, they got a

" 'What the blazes are you do- ing?' I asks their sergeant. 'Trying to shoot up your allies ? Me ami, me ami

The troops could go out into it and take their morning setting-up exercises in it if they cared. Every night, according to madame the proprietor of our favor- ite cafe, a German adjutant from the forces opposite was accustomed to slip through the lines and visit his wife, who still lived in their home on our side of the fence. Of Madame la Pro- prietaire's veracity I have no great cause for doubt. She never failed to give back the right change.

I recall that the doughboys in the trenches used to be annoyed all the time by having Germans of low cun- ning sneak through the gaps and bob up in the country to the rear. It was particularly provoking the time three Germans held up a rolling kitchen a kilometer behind the front just as it was bringing up the evening's slum. Had it not been for the timely arrival of a Yank patrol and the flight of the squareheads there would have been bit- ter feeling between the two armies.

Even today I suffer from a slight occasional stiffness in the neck. This, I am certain, is the aftermath of two months of looking at German airplanes overhead in the Haute Alsace sector. From the cheery manner in which the

Boche. This so delighted them that thereafter they fired more wildly and delightedly than ever and began to miss by quarter miles instead of eighths. Verily, it was the German aviator's paradise.

Especially when I see a full moon these piping times of peace I am re- minded of Herman the German, the most dashing avion jockey of them all. Herman the German was the name that the division headquarters billets be- stowed on their dearest sleep-wrecker. He made a regular nightly round of it under the full moon. He flew low and he flew fast and I believe that he grinned as he flew. First there would come the joyous banging of the nearest anti-aircraft battery to division head- quarters signaling the sighting of Her- man the German on his way for a moonlight call. Then followed seven shotjS in swift succession from an auto- matic. This would be the M. P. at the railroad station getting into the war as Herman sailed by his usual hundred feet off the ground.

I have always thought that Herman the German knew it was an M. P. fir- ing at him, for he never failed to give the railroad station a full and rattling

belt while the M. P. went inside and started looking up trains for Paris. In another minute he would be circling division headquarters, almost scraping its roof, and tickling its doors and win- dows with machine gun pellets while G's 1, 2 and 3 and their attendant field clerks for the first time in their lives endeavored to make themselves incon- spicuous. Yes, Herman the German had a sense of humor and full informa- tion on where everything was located.

The next act would be a swing over the shacks housing the division head- quarters personnel and then down to Signal Corps headquarters a few rods away for another merry burst of gun- fire. In the meantime, from behind the shelter of staff passenger cars, trucks and trees, Herman the German was being greeted by fire from Enfields and Colts in the hands of warriors mostly in issue underwear. There was a rumor that one paperwork sergeant major invariably threw rocks at him.

But nothing ever bothered Herman. After half an hour or so of annoying the American troops he would go home and the billets would check up to see if anybody had been hurt by the sergeant major's rocks or the anti-aircraft bat- tery's shells, which throughout had been bursting with fine abandon around the premises. Occasionally I wonder if these days Herman the German smiles over his beer at the thought of his Alsace antics.

I shall never fail to insist, if only for my own satisfaction, that Herman the German was the aviator who sailed blithely one day past the ring of bat- teries girdling the city of Belfort and with crowds of citizens tumbling for shelter descended to a level just above the main street and chased a United States Signal Corps major in an auto- mobile for half a mile along the trolley tracks, firing playfully at his rear tires the while. There were some new troops just arriving in town then — I remem- ber the bulging state of their eyes when we carefully assured them that the above was a daily occurrence with us.

"But," they argued, "we heard this was a quiet sector."

"It is," we assured them gravely. "Frequently the firing on the main street of this city ceases for as much as a quarter of an hour."

Yet it took a truck driver with his double-visored, ear-flapped overseas cap pulled down over his ears to provide the crowning tale of the war in Alsace. We met in the railroad station at Bel- fort, drawn thither by eight-hour passes and a desire for coffee at the booth kept by two English girls for the traveling soldiery.

"I'll hand this war a lot for being a nuisance," growled my new-found friend. "Day before yesterday when we were taking rations up to the front what do I do but go and lose my con- voy. Well, buddy, maybe I did hop off at one of those cafes for a shot of vin blink. Anyway, there I was rolling miles along a road without a sign of the rest of the trucks when all of a sudden I finds myself in a new village. So I stops in the square and when the crowd gathers I asks 'em how to get to my own joint.

"Sure, I speak French, but they were too thick to get me. Kept babbling something away down in their lungs. Finally one gink points back the way I came and I turns the old truck around (Continued on page 28)

APRIL 13, 1923

PAGE 9

Putting the Post Dollar to Work

By William N. Day

Assistant to the National Treasurer of The American Legion

YOU'VE seen the figures plenty of times— $500,000,000 a year lost in the United States through unsound "invest- ments"— but however familiar a per- son is with them, they are figures which make him pause and think. The keenest minds, along with the dullest, frequently succumb to whatever witching power it is that poor investments yield. In view of the fact that every investment is somewhat of a risk, should an organiza- tion like a post of The American Legion ever enter the investment field?

We can estimate that each of prob- ably a thousand posts in the country has a considerable amount of money that might profitably be invested. Most of it is money which is to be used eventu- ally for a new building or some definite- ly planned purpose. But at any rate, the point is that these posts have money which they have no immediate need of spending. Should they invest it, or leave it in the bank?

If the post finance officers have been on the job, all of the money over and above a reasonable balance for a check- ing account is already in certificates of deposit or some other interest-bearing form in the bank. Right here let us mention a few good reasons for keeping it there. As long as it is in the bank the post can withdraw it, dollar for dollar, whenever it needs it, or in any case upon reasonable notification. With investments it is not always possible to cash in on short notice. Even in the case of Liberty Bonds, the soundest in- vestment in the world, it is quite con- ceivable that a point or two of loss might be sustained if they were thrown on the market at an unfavorable time. In the depression of 1920, as is well known, many holders of Liberty Bonds who had bought at par during the war, sold them all the way up to sixteen points below what they had paid for them.

In no investment in the world will a post's money have greater security and protection than is afforded by the aver- age bank. Most investments require a considerable amount of supervision, a bank account practically none. But on the other hand, a bank account pays only from two to four percent. And reasonably sound investments may be had which will yield all the way from four and a quarter to six, six and one- half, or even perhaps in some cases seven percent. The amount of idle money a post has to invest, how long it will be before it has use for it — these elements enter into the problem of whether or not to take the money out of the bank.

TT/'HILE Mr. Day

r r in this article is concerned solely with the question of invest- ing surplus post finan- ces, his advice holds equally true for sur- plus personal finances.

Generally speaking, a post which has a surplus of less than a thousand dollars will do just about as well to leave it on deposit in an interest- bearing account, espe- cially if an arrangement can be made with the bank to get a reasonable amount of interest on it, say three and one-half or four percent on funds which are to be idle for six months or a year. But let us assume that a post has over a thousand dollars, and that it knows definitely it will have no use for it for more than a year. After considering all the elements pro and con, it has decided to enter the in- vestment field.

In general, if a post is in a position to invest at all, it will find some one or several of these four types of securities suited to its needs: United States Treasury Certificates, Liberty Bonds, Federal Land Bank Bonds, municipal bonds, first mortgage bonds, building and loan association shares.

Building and loan associations have an especial appeal in many communities to a public-spirited organization like the Legion, because money placed in them stays in the community. It supplies small borrowers with funds to buy homes. If a post contemplates building and is not able to swing the proposition on a cash basis, the good will of a build- ing and loan association may be the means of supplying it needed credit at a reasonable rate of interest. Most of these associations are under state su- pervision. If the community which sup- ports them is enjoying a solid, substan- tial growth with diversified industries and business, and the association is managed by a reputable group of citi- zens, as is generally the case, they are as safe as a bank. Funds invested in building and loan association shares can generally be withdrawn upon due notice, though in order to secure the full rate of interest it is usually neces- sary to leave them invested for from a year and a half to two years or more.

For many posts first mortgage bonds will be just as good an investment as building and loan shares, perhaps bet-

ter. One difficult point about many mortgages is that they usually run from five to ten years. And where they are not listed on the New York Stock Ex- change, unless there is an agreement with the broker that the mortgages will be redeemed by him before the term is up, in case the money is needed, it may be difficult to cash in on them for ready funds. Mortgages are not so readily saleable as are stocks and bonds.

In buying mortgages outright the se- curity behind them should be scrutinized carefully. If they are on farm proper- ty, it should be ascertained that the farm is in a prosperous farming region and that the land is tilled by an indus- trious and thrifty class of farmers. If they are on city property, improved of- fice buildings in well established busi- ness centers are generally considered the best security. Other things being equal, a mortgage which calls for peri- odic reductions in its principal is sound- er than one which contains no such clauses, and generally speaking, a short-term mortgage is safer than one running over a long period of years. This is especially true of mortgages on city property.

In any case only first mortgages secured by a substantial equity should be considered. The deed to the prop- erty on which a first mortgage is based goes with the mortgage, and the deed is reclaimable by the property owner only after the mortgage is paid. State laws regulating savings banks, trus- tees, trust companies and insurance companies usually specify that these shall invest only in first mortgages issued to the amount of from fifty to sixty percent of the value of the prop- erty which secures them. Always re- member, too, that where you are sole (Continued on page 23)

PAGE 10

THE AMERICAN LEGION WEEKLY

Post Programs That Put Power Behind the Legion s Effort to

Make the Graves Fund Grow

CARL A. JOHNSON Post of Grand Rapids, Michigan, put over such a successful local campaign as its share of Legion effort for the Graves Endowment Fund that some of the details merit setting forth here, not for the greater glory of Johnson Post, but as a guide to other posts which are in a position to go and do like- wise. Johnson Post tried to raise a thousand dollars among citizens of Grand Rapids and failed — to stop at a thousand. The latest announced total was $1,237.22, and probably scattering contributions have come in since.

The method was extreme- ly simple. Carl A. Johnson Post and the Grand Rapids Herald worked together — ppl that was all. The Herald ff$f fired its first gun with a full-page spread in its issue of Sunday, March 18th — ex- actly five years earlier the Germans had fired their first gun in the offensive that brought them nearer victory than they had ever been before or have been since. The page spread carried a photograph of Romagne Cemetery seven ■ columns wide, a boxed ap- '• \>f / peal from Commander Eugene B. Houseman of Johnson Post, a complete and well-written story de- scribing the Legion's plan and giving full and interest- ing data on the number of graves overseas and their location, and a page-wide display box explaining the clan for raising Grand Kapids' quota. Contribu- tions, it was announced, could be mailed or brought to the Herald office and would be acknowledged by giving each contributor a buttonhole daisy to wear as evidence of his gift. (The plan was perfected before the Weekly's announcement of National Headquarter's plan to sell poppies to posts desirous of conducting similar cam- paigns.)

That's about all there was to it, ex- cept that a Herald reporter was as- signed to follow the campaign through the week, totaling each day's contribu- tions, listing the names of contributors, and 'detailing local progress, exactly as the Weekly is reporting national prog- ress from week to week. Officials of Carl A. Johnson Post see no reason why the Grand Rapids program cannot be adapted to any community sizable enough to support a progressive post and a progressive newspaper. One

HOW IT STANDS

Prev. ack'd .$7,17722

Two Weeks ending

March 31st . . .$2,315.23 Total $9,492.45

HPHE American Legion Graves En- * dowment Fund will be invested in perpetuity and the income used annually to provide decorations for the graves of 32,000 American soldiers and sailors whose bodies will forever lie in American cemeteries overseas. At least $100,000 is needed to increase the principal of this fund, which has as its nucleus a million francs now on deposit in France.

The Weekly publishes in every issue a list of contributors who have given one dollar or more to the Graves Endowment Fund. Owing to the necessity for re-checking this list to insure accuracy and prevent omis- sions, it is a few days behind the total as given in the figures above. Names of contributing Legion posts and Auxiliary units are printed in boldface type.

Checks for the Graves Endow- ment Fund should be made payable to the National Treasurer, The American Legion, and addressed to him at National Headquarters, The American Legion, Indianapolis, Ind.

CONTRIBUTIONS

The following contributions are acknowledged:

Alabama. Anniston: Charles R. Barker, $2. Arizona. Tucson: Mrs. John H. Richey, $15.

Arkansas. Combs: Raymond T. Hurst Post, $1; Hot Springs: John L. Mclver, $10.

California. Los Angeles : A. E. Feld, $2 ; Samuel J. Whitten, $1; Palo Alto: Elona N. Underwood, $1; Reedley : Max W. Hare, $1 ; Wasco: Wasco Post, $5.40.

Colorado. Fort Lyon : Dr. L. D. Riggs, $1 ; James L. Luther, $2.50 ; Scott M. Allen, $2.50 ; H. Winder, $2.50; C. J. Miller, $2.50; M. A. Harlan, $2.50 ; S. A. Kingsley, $2.50 ; Antonio Colucci, $2.50 ; J. M. Bledsoe, $2.50 ; R. M. Beeler, $1 ; Ben Esquibel, $1.

Delaware. Wilmington: Philip D. Laird, $5.

Idaho. Bigby: H. C. Taylor, $1.50.

Illinois. Bush : John A. Hale, $2 ; Chicago : Dr Charles A. Albrecht, $2 ; Gardner Dynes, $1 ; L. D. Karnatz, $1 ; Avon: Carrie Chatterton, $1; Joliet: Raymond P. Anthonison, $2; Sterling: C. J. Partridge, $1.

Indiana. Kirklin: Auxiliary to C. E. Peterson Post, $3.

Iowa. Audubon: B. J. Arnold, $15;*H. A. Ar- nold, $10; Clark Arnold, $5; Cedar Rapids: Loyal J. Miller, $2.

Kansas, lola: Hubert Sherman, $1; Weir: George A. Fagan, $1; Yates Center: Harry S. Trueblood, 1 ; C. O. Stotts, $1.

Kentucky. Paducah : Ernest Bell, $1 ; Paducah Lodge of Elks, $25; Mrs. J. R. Rork, $1.

Maine. Clinton: Chas. L. Beale, $1; Dexter: Daniel A. Hubbard, $2.50; Waldboro: Arthur M. Chute, $1.

Massachusetts. Boston: Marshall W. Cox, $1 ; George B. Stebbins, $2; Fitchburg : Ernest J. Congram, $1 ; Petersham : C. W. Goodsell, $2; Springfield : Dr. D.