Major D.D.  Drain, 3d Army Sgt.  G.F.  Fleming, Paris Command Lt.  Markoe, 2d Army Major Dwight, S.O.S.  Sgt.  Barnard, Paris Command

The names of these committees are given because they are more than just names.  They show the first bubbles of the melting pot into which all rank and titles in the American Army have been cast and out of which comes the one word “Comrade.”

There were three outstanding features of the Paris caucus which were evident by midnight of March 15th.  The first was the desire to get together and form an organization quickly and a willingness to forego personal prejudice and opinion to arrive at that end.  The second was the determination to make the man who didn’t get across as much a component part of the legion as his more fortunate brother-in-arms; while the third was the avowed intention to take no action at the caucus which could be deferred until the winter convention in America, when the home brother and the navy could be jointly represented and a permanent organization could be effected.  I say that these things were evident by midnight of March 15th for those who have attended many conventions know that from the casual word heard here and there, the whispered conference of a few leaders, and from the general tenor of discussions carried on by delegates gathered together in little groups, the spirit of the body politic is most perceptible.

After the adjournment of the afternoon session on that day, members of the committees closeted themselves and started work on their special functions, while those who were to pass on the committee’s actions, the “hoi polloi” were here and there in groups, in the “Y” huts or in boulevard cafes discussing the real meaning of the gathering.  A colonel in the Officers’ Club said there must be no disagreement on this or that question; a private in the Bal Tabarin told his buddies the same thing.

And so it came to pass that on the following day in the Cirque de Paris, where the final meetings were held, the delegates formally gathered, sensed the gossip of the clubs and boulevards, and acted accordingly.  One of the things done was to endorse the action of the temporary committee in appointing itself and in calling the caucus.  Another was to adopt a tentative constitution.  It is in reality little more than a preamble, but it gave a working basis, expressing enough and yet not too much.

Newspaper men have told me that the Sermon on the Mount is the finest bit of reporting in the history of writing because it tells a long story succinctly.  Lieutenant Colonel Buxton and his committee on constitutions are certainly entitled to credit of the same type—­for they tell a great deal in a few lines.

[Illustration:  Henry D. Lindsley
  Temporary Chairman, who presided at St. Louis]

[Illustration:  The Paris Caucus
  This gathering had no time for official photographers.  A half hour
  before a session began one slipped in and took this picture with more
  than half the caucus delegates absent]