without those more or less culturalized self-sufficiencies which now no longer impress us." [Loud murmurs of assent.]

My speech must be considered as being my pondered decision as to the political and diplomatic position I shall take in this matter. I hope it will be understood by those whose duty it is to listen, lest the Italian Government see itself obliged to pass to concrete replies, as it is determined to do to-morrow if the German Government should take upon itself the responsibility of what has occurred and what may yet occur in Germany. [Loud cheers.]

Gentlemen, the other day a Fascist newspaper, one of those provincial Fascist papers which I always read with the greatest attention, printed across six columns this headline: "Fascist Italy will never lower its flag on the Brenner." I sent the newspaper back to its editor with this correction: "Fascist Italy can, if it is necessary, carry its flag beyond its present frontiers, but lower it, NEVER!"

[All the Deputies and Ministers spring to their feet. Unanimous, enthusiastic, prolonged applause, in which the public in the tribunes participates. Cries of "Vive il Duce." Renewed applause. Fascist hymn "Giovinezza" sung by all in chorus.]

ALVIN OWSLEY

THE AMERICAN LEGION AND THE NATION

An oration delivered by Col. Alvin Owsley, Commander-in-Chief of the American Legion, on Thanksgiving Day of 1922 in Washington, D. C. This oration was radiographed by relay, throughout the United States.

THIS day has been set apart by our ancestors for a very definite and excellent purpose. It has been set apart as the Day for the Giving of Thanks, and thus it has been observed for three hundred years. It is the oldest of American holidays; it was first observed by less than a hundred settlers struggling in a wilderness; to-day it is observed by a hundred million people established across a continent. This is the measure of the nation's growth. Twelve generations have dreamed and toiled and fought to bring the Republic to this eminence.

American citizens, workmen of liberty, inheritors of the high endeavor of three hundred years, I address myself to you. Yours is the privilege of citizenship in this great Republic, and yours the opportunity of taking active part in the progress of a mighty people. Nor is this any small privilege, or an honor lightly to be esteemed; it is a high distinction rather, and an opportunity. It has not been long since the storm of a great war struck the spinning world, shattered its best establishments, and brought confusion into the minds of men. To-day great powers lay prostrate, and whole peoples and populations are wandering in the darkness. Yet our America endured the storm, her strong abiding institutions emerged unaltered. Her sons and daughters go peacefully about the ordering of their lives to-day. Let us be thankful then for this great country of our own-peaceful and prosperous America, mother of cities and of true men and women.

American Legionnaires, fighters and builders, men facing for

ward, I address myself to you. It is you who make up the membership of no mean organization, an organization not least among all those that go to the making of this great America of ours. Not least indeed, but rather first and foremost of them all; conceived in a season of splendor and sacrifice, and consecrated to the service of the nation; this is The American Legion, and it is worthy of our loyalty.

We of the Legion share together the memories of heroic trials, and struggles that left a mark upon our hearts. In that hard service we came upon comradeship; for not till men march and sacrifice together do they come to a true appreciation of each other's worth. Through rough endeavor we won that spirit of service and comradeship, and having won it we shall never give it up; we know its value now.

Five years ago they

We know its value; and therefore there can be no forgetfulness for us, of certain men who suffer. There are near thirty thousand of these men, our comrades. were erect and strong, lively and hopeful; with their lives just opening into the years of labor and achievement. Boys of America, with eager eyes, they put on the uniform and went out in the service of the Republic. Mothers, wives and sweethearts awaited their coming back.

They did come back, those beloved and pitiful thirty thousand boys. They came back blinded, or with their bodies shattered, or with their minds shadowed by strange horrors; they were brought back silently, with the hope of their lives put out. There were no bugles at the stations to welcome these men coming home. They were shifted from beds of pain to other painful beds, or they were brought unhappy into sorrowful homes.

It must be hard to sit helpless in the chair of an invalid and watch the world go by and all your dreams depart. It is hard to lie alone in bed and watch the four walls of a ward in a hospital, while thinking of what might have been. It is hardest of all to nurse your scars in silence, powerless to help your nearest and dearest in their struggle against poverty. Why, it catches at the heart to think of the little children of the disabled, hungry perhaps and ragged here in rich America. It is a heavy cross that the sick and wounded of the war have been given to bear.

Here was a service of comradeship ready to our hand; and we of the Legion may well be proud and thankful that we have not been slow in that service. We have drafted and revised the legislation for the disabled and brought it into efficiency, and we have stood guard to see that this legislation was carried out in actual fact to the last full measure of its good intent. For four years we have guarded and forwarded the interests of the broken veterans of the Great War; and we shall maintain this vigilance for forty years if need be, till all that can be done for those men be accomplished, and the nation's debt to the disabled be paid in full.

The Legion asks for no charity for the disabled; the Legion calls for justice, that is all. We call upon the nation to be mindful of its duty to its own. To-day there is great suffering overseas, just as there has been since the war began. Hatred and cruelty have worked their will upon unfortunate millions in the troubled East; there have been famine and plagues, and humanity has fallen under misrule and anarchy. These distant peoples have cried sharply to America for help; and help from America has come to them beyond all measure. We have sent them bread and gold and all assistance in our power. At the peril of their own lives, our devoted agents of relief have established themselves in all those wasted lands, and the charity of America has brought whole populations out of disaster. This is a good work, a noble work, a work deserving of all praise. Yet in admiring it I cannot quite forget those thirty thousand of our own, those broken comrades who now, this month, this Thanksgiving season, are facing their fifth year of suffering. And this thought comes to me: Out of the millions that we send continually overseas for the saving of tribes that we know little of, if this flood of gold for one day only were diverted to the aid of the men disabled in America's defense, it would provide a Thanksgiving and a Christmas for every one of them that would lighten a gray existence with a gleam of joy.

Let us be thankful that there is no need of that, even for one day. The men and women of the Legion and the women of its Auxiliary can care for America's disabled on every Thanksgiving, and care for them they will; and America's charity may continue overseas. Let us be charitable, if need be, when the

agents of the soviets of Russia come before American audiences to plead for our charities and to denounce our country alike in utter confidence. But the American Legion devotes itself to the American disabled.

We of the American Legion seek to devote ourselves to things American; and after the care of the American disabled there comes cultivation of American citizenship. There are things of the heart and mind that set apart America from all other nations; these things we simply call Americanism. Concerning these our creed is concise and definite.

We hold that the Constitution of the United States is the most effective instrument yet devised for the expression of the will of all the people for the benefit of a free people. It provides for a representative government responsible to the people for the carrying out of their commands; and it incorporates within itself the machinery for its alternation according to the people's will, leaving no argument to any advocates of forceful change. In this first century and one half, under this Constitution the American Republic has advanced beyond any previous experience of mankind. And this establishment has survived the severest of domestic and foreign difficulties. It brings to the American citizen liberty secure under the law, and the opportunity of working out his life according to his desires and his abilities. It requires from the American citizen loyalty. We of the Legion believe the bargain is fair.

By this Constitution there has been established a Congress of the United States for the function of legislation, and a Supreme Court of the United States invested with the ultimate judicial authority. Protection of minorities is a basic principle of free government, and this protection the Supreme Court has been established and empowered to maintain. This allocation of authority is just and constitutional, and has stood the test of time. There is a movement under way to extend the authority of Congress over the Supreme Court. The American Legion opposes this movement and brands it as dangerous and un-American.

Equality of opportunity is a necessity of a free people; for the lack of such opportunity brings citizens invariably under