Word: ringley
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...Sharpen Your Knife." Jim Ringley, 59, is a dedicated Legion politician. During World War I, Ringley tried 17 times to get into the service, was turned down 17 times for faulty vision. On his 18th attempt, he made the grade, spent the rest of the war at Fort Oglethorpe and Fort Meade, and was discharged as a private. Returning to his native Chicago, he joined the Legion and plunged into its politics. In moments of Legion political crisis, Ringley's favorite maxim is: "When you're hurt, you smile and sharpen your knife...
Although his big Legion job-officially -was that of chairman of the National Convention Committee (1934-39), Ringley has steadily increased his behind-the-scenes power. A persuasive lobbyist, he rates a large share of the credit for getting the G.I. Bill of Rights through Congress in 1944. With that success under his cap, he moved openly against the Ardery faction. His candidate for national commander, Illinois' ex-Governor John Stelle, lost to an Arderyman in 1944, but won the next year. Since then, the candidate publicly backed by Ringley has been elected every year...
...single exception gives an interesting example of Legion-and Ringley-politics in action. In 1953, Illinois State Commander Lawrence Fenlon announced that he wanted to run for national commander. Ringley publicly endorsed FenIon's candidacy. But he quietly passed the word that he really favored Connecticut's Arthur Connell. Reason: Fenlon was so popular in his own state that he was becoming a threat to Ringley's control of the Illinois Legion. Connell won easily, Fenlon dropped out of sight, and Ringley remained the master of the Legion situation...
...Against Ringley's shrewd politicking, the Forty and Eight's Charles Ardery, still trying for a comeback, could offer little more than nuisance opposition. But even a nuisance was not to be tolerated. Last year the Kingmakers maneuvered Ardery's Forty and Eight men out of their Mayflower Hotel accommodations at the national convention in Washington. Then the Ringley group dug up a Washington regulation against more than one parade a week in the city's streets. The effect of this was to force the Forty and Eight to abandon its longtime custom of marching separately...
...withdrawal threat caused Kingmaker Ringley no pain. The Ardery group's action still faces ratification by the rank and file of the Forty and Eight. Jim Ringley figures that the membership will repudiate its leaders. If he is right, that will be the end of Ardery as any sort of a force in Legion politics...