Page:Fred Arthur McKenzie - Americans at the Front (1917).djvu/49



The Legion was made up of men from every part of the United States, from West Point graduates to Texas cowboys. Most of the recruits came from New York and Michigan. It was found, however, that the separate American Legion was not satisfactory, and the battalions were broken up and scattered among others.

A good example of more spontaneous co-operation was found in the Sportsmen's Battalion of Toronto. A group of prominent athletes in that city started a fund for machine-guns for the troops. The fund grew, and it was suggested to the athletes that they should not only buy guns, but give themselves. They promptly fell in with the proposal and a battalion was raised in record time, numbering close on 150 champions and 1,200 in all, good hardy sporting men, baseball cracks, football champions, light-weight, welter-weight, middle-weight and heavy-weight boxers, lacrosse kings and the like. Now the man who sets out to divide the athletic champions and leaders of Toronto into strictly