Tributes to Don Martin continued
to be written long after his death. A particularly touching one published on
page one of the New York Herald Magazine on Sunday, March 16, 1919, reprinted the tribute Don Martin had written to the Salvation Army.
End of the Salvation Army Lass
with a
Tambourine
Great Organization That Has At Last Come
Into Its Own
And Is Honored and Revered and
Adored by
All American Soldiers
Don Martin’s Tribute
It was Don Martin, who died in France while serving there as
correspondent with the American armies for the Herald, who paid one of the
finest of tributes to the work of the tambourine girl as he found her on the
battlefield, and thereby probably did as much as any one else in directing the
American public’s confidence to the organization. He wrote:
“Whenever you see the whiskered old
Santa Claus with kettle and bell, who stamps his feet to keep warm as he
watches the human currents swirl around him in Herald Square, or wherever else
it may be, give him something. When the Salvation lassie comes around with her
modest appeal to help the boys at the front, don’t turn her away, for the
Salvation Army is a ministering angel to the boys in the fighting ranks.
“It takes human nature as it finds it
and asks no questions. There is not a soldier in France who does not tip his
hat to it. It is right there under fire, selling at bare cost chocolate,
coffee, gum, cigarettes; giving away when the boys are without money; sending
everything it can spare to the trenches and accepting not a penny for this
invaluable service; writing letters for such as do not take readily to
penmanship, but have heartstrings just the same; doing a thousand and one
things to offset the brutalizing influences of war, and getting nothing for it
except the satisfaction that comes from having done good and asking nothing
except that its workers be permitted to share with the soldiers all the
hardships and hazards of the front line.”
None could read a tribute
such as Don Martin’s and fail to realize that the Salvation Army must have been
doing great things.
From H. D. Gibson, commissioner in
Europe for the American Red Cross Society, who wrote the following:
In the death of Don Martin I feel that the Red Cross has lost a firm
friend. In all his despatches home he never failed to speak of the work of the
Red Cross at the front, and always he spoke of this work in a manner that
showed clearly his appreciation of our efforts, as well as his eagerness to
further the work.
Honors by The American Legion
The American Legion was chartered by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic
veterans organization. On March 15-17, 1919, members of the American
Expeditionary Force convened in Paris for the first American Legion caucus. At
the St. Louis Caucus on May 8-10, 1919, "The American Legion" was
adopted as the organization's official name. On Sept. 16, 1919, Congress chartered The
American Legion. The first Legion convention was held in Minneapolis on
November 10-12, 1919. Focusing on service to veterans, service members and
communities, the Legion evolved from a group of war-weary veterans of World War
I into one of the most influential nonprofit groups in the United States.
Membership swiftly grew to over 1 million, as local posts sprang up across the
country.
Service men in Don Martin’s hometown, Silver Creek, N. Y., formed
an American Legion “Don Martin Post of Silver Creek,” Post No. 148 named in his
honor in Fall 1919. Several months later, the world war veterans on the staff
of the New York Herald and Evening Telegram organized the “Don Martin Post of
New York,” Post No. 666 of the American Legion [The Fourth Estate, November
22, 1919]. In only one other instance had the American Legion permitted the use of the
same name by two posts. That was the “Quentin Roosevelt Post of Oyster Bay,”
New York and the “Quentin Roosevelt Post of the Bronx,” New York.
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