ABSTRACT
The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) was the product of a 1914 merger of the National Association of the Army of the Philippines and the American Veterans of Foreign Service, two groups born in aftermath of the Spanish-American War of 1898. The American Legion, founded in 1919 in Paris—a curious birthplace for an organization of American veterans—had by 1920 a membership roster of 843,013 or 18.5 percent of First World War veterans. It dwarfed the VFW in both size and influence. Legion posts were social organizations as well as patriotic clubs; they sponsored baseball teams, picnics, and dances, and performed much the same social function as had the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). In May 1920, the House of Representatives, by a vote of 289-92, passed the Fordney bill, whose eponym was Rep. Joseph W. Fordney (R-MI), who had made his fortune in lumber. The legislation provided an immediate cash payment to discharged soldiers.
