Leaksville-Spray, May 26—J.A. Lockhart, state commander, and R.E. Denny, state adjutant of the American Legion delivered addresses here Wednesday, legion day at the community week exercises.
Mr. Denny told the folks he was a native of Rockingham county and there was something he felt he should speak about directly to them. During the parade he said he saw but two men salute the flag as it passed.
“It is the duty of every American citizen and boy,’ he said, “to take his hat off when Old Glory appears.”
State Commander Lockhart was then introduced by Mr. Denny. He declared the nation had neglected disabled soldiers and charged that the administration knows it, but does nothing to aid.
Mr. Lockhart commended Woodrow Wilson for maintaining peace so long as peace with honor was possible and then for going into the war when he did, with all the power possible to make this the last war. “We gave them 72,000 of our buddies in a war to end wars,” he said, “and after we had won, we saw our government refuse to cooperate with other nations of the world, and what we had fought for and won was lost by the acts of the so-called statesmen of the world—politicians.”
He made an attack on George Harvey, British ambassador, who said that Americans went into the war “laggardly.”
“During the time they were facing death in behalf of their homes and loved ones, George Harvey was sitting in an easy chair writing out his ‘bleathings’ and doing all in his power to hamper the administration and its fighting forces,” he said.
Mr. Lockhart criticized President Harding for playing golf “while many of our buddies die every day from neglect."
He also assailed the President’s surgeon general, Dr. Sawyer, who is alleged to have said that the government could not now build hospitals, that things would right themselves.
“Yes,” said Mr. Lockhart, “after the boys are dead.”
He maintained that the administration knew of the frightful conditions in army hospitals where ex-service men are neglected while disabled. “Under these conditions we are asked to keep our mouths shut. If we have no right to speak, who has?”
He said he was liable to prosecution if he was not speaking the truth, “but,” he said, “the administration knows that it is the truth.”
From the front page of The Reidsville Review, May 28, 1923
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