FOOTNOTES:
[924] Horne, Charles F., Editorial Director, The American Legion, The American Legion School History (30 Church Street, New York, 1923).
[925] See the Principles of the American Legion as announced in 1925 by the Director of Americanism. These follow on the next page. The attitude of the Legion toward history textbooks as given by Mr. Cross, the Director, is included.
[926] Received from Frank C. Cross, National Director Americanism Commission, American Legion, December, 1925.
[927] According to a statement in the Boston Herald, May 7, 1926, the Legion withdrew its support, June, 1925, due to opposition within its membership, when it abrogated its contract with the United States History Publishing Company. As a result, they were “to receive no financial benefit from the sale of the history; permission, however, was granted to the company to carry on its title page the fact that the book was prepared at the suggestion of the American Legion.” A letter to the author, May 13, 1926, from the Assistant National Director, Americanism Commission, however, declares: “The Legion has not retracted in its position relative to this history.... The only change made is that the National Executive Committee annulled the arrangement whereby the Legion was to receive a percentage from the sale of these books. The United States History Publishing Company is a private concern.”
H. AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION, Report (1924).
Committee on American Citizenship, “Our Citizenship Creed.”[928]
1. I am living under a government—and am myself a part of such government—wherein at least an elementary knowledge of the nature and principles of this Government must be generally diffused among the great mass of its citizens. I therefore believe it to be my duty to inform myself on American history, the foundations of our Government as embodied in the United States Constitution, and the application of the principles therein contained to present-day problems.
2. Since ours is a government of, for, and by the people, it is by the very same token a government of and by public opinion. It is, therefore, my duty, as a good American citizen, to help form public opinion in the community in which I live in order that all citizens may hold intelligent, just, and humane views on governmental questions and endeavor to have such views embodied in our laws.
3. Since popular government is shaped in the first instance by the exercise of suffrage, it is one of my primary duties as a good American citizen to cast my ballot in all local, state and national elections and to urge my fellow-citizens to do the same.