Greenwood Colliery, Minooka

Greenwood Colliery, Minooka

Monday, July 4, 2016

Prize Winning Essays - July 1924

Winners of American Legion Essay Contest
Are Announced – Scranton Republican – July 16, 1924

“Minooka Post Awards Gold Medals to Three Students
Who Submitted Best Compositions on Popular Subjects”

Patrick Diskin, of 2700 Birney avenue, age 13 years, a fifth grade high school student; Frances J. Powell, an eighth grade student of the Woodrow Wilson school, and Robert Coyne, age 11, a fifth grade student, of 2726 Birney avenue, were last night named as winners in the American Legion essay contest conducted in Minooka by Connolly post, No. 568.
Gold medals were awarded the three winners. Diskin’s essay was entitled “The American Legion,” Coyne’s essay was “Personal Hygiene” and Miss Powell’s essay was on “Minooka.”
The three winning essays will be published in The Republican, the first of three: Master Diskin’s work, this morning and the other two on Thursday and Friday mornings, respectively.
Patrick Diskin’s essay, “The American Legion,” follows:
There are always arguments in the world by different people, and taking some of them into consideration, we find “The American Legion” the topic of the day.
The American Legion is the G.A.R. of the great war. It was not organized by any individual for a selfish purpose, nor was it conceived by any group of men. It sprang into being the result of a universal demand among the soldiers and sailors of the great war for an effective nationwide organization, which would enable them not only to perpetuate their relationship formed in service, but also to carry on in time of peace, the defense of America which they had so well begun in time of war.