Albuquerque Morning Journal

Several Hundred Thousand Veterans of the World War Are Out of Employment and in Need, Claims ORGANIZATIONS ARE ASKED TO CO-OPERATE
Survey of Conditions in Each Locality Will Be Completed By March 20, MacNider Announces.
(By The Associated Press.)
Chicago, March 4.-A campaign by the American legion to obtain employment for 700,000 veterans of the world war, now idle and in need, has been undertaken by the legion, Colonel Hanford MacNider, national commander, announced tonight at a dinner given in his honor by the Illinois department of the legion.
National, business, civic, fraternal and welfare organizations have been asked to co-operate, and a survey of conditions in each locality will be completed before March 20, which will be known as American legion employment day, Colonel MacNider announced.
"Properly supported, this concerted, localized national effort will result in the relief of 500,000 men in thirty days," Colonel MacNider asserted. President Harding has been requested to set aside the day by proclamation to obtain relief for unemployed veterans, and governors, mayors of cities and local leaders have been asked to co-operate.
"Give Him Work."
"Resplendent dignitaries, great addresses and solemn music paid last November," Colonel MacNider said, "homage to the unknown soldier. This unknown soldier even now is passing your door. Your faith and appreciation will inspire him. Give him work."
The legion's real influence for good, he said, is in the individual post. "The legion," he said, "is not in politics but we are going to see that the country stays the way we fought for it to be-American."
The legion's program, Colonel MacNider said, was to get relief for disabled soldiers, to secure adjusted compensation for those who fought in the world war, and to find employment for the service men.
Soldiers' Bonus.
Discussing the soldiers' bonus legislation, Colonel MacNider said, "Those opposed to adjusted compensation charge that we are putting a price on our patriotism. This is untrue. We do not believe, however, that a man should be penalized for offering his services to his country."
Opposition, he said, came through ignorance of the provisions of the proposed legislation. The cash feature of the bonus bill was a child of congress and not of the legion, he asserted.
"I think I can assure you that the adjusted compensation legislation will pass congress," he said.
"It is the legion's duty," he continued, "to see that service men get a chance to live self-respecting lives in the nation they helped to save.
"It should be our endeavor to see it grow so big, so fine, so strong and stay so clean and American that when we ask for anything the people will have the confidence to say, if the legion is for it, we are for it."