Show ii- ii t E aff r r ES- ES 4 5 f ft r rBy Mentally Healthy Soldier Needed for Modern War Var High Selection Standard Required in Sup Sup- Supplying Supplying i plying Army With Men Equipped to Meet Hazards of Blitz Tactics By BAUKHAGE National Farm and Home Hour Commentator Service 1343 13 3 H 11 Street W N-W Washington ol D. D C. C At a recent White House news new conference the asked whether he thought th there there ought to be bea beL a L D. lowering of the physical mental menta and educational standards for ad ad- admission admissIon admission mission to the army The question came up at the close of f a long dissertation by Mr Roose Roose- Roosevelt Roosevelt velt on a report from the army which seemed to reveal a shocking state of the national health It was based on figures which showed that tha nearly 50 per cent of the rejected for service were Ineligible because be of deficiencies In these three categories It did look as though Americans as a people were pretty sick The Presidents President's answer to the question of lowering the standards of admission was as an emphatic nega nega- tive five Very little attention was paid to this response at the time and the stories which went out over the air nir and the wires that day were chiefly concerned with the program for healing the physical ills of sit At 0 un r But it that part of the picture as I learned when I talked with a prominent prominent nent psychiatrist is only half of It it- it or less Lowering the Ule standards of mental requirements would In case of war mean a terrific psychopathic casual casual- casualty ty list the taxpayer would have a terrific bill to pay and the efficiency of the American fighting forces would be immeasurably Impaired Record of Last War Lets Let's look at the record of ot the thelast thelast last war when the mental hazards were only a fraction of what they are arc today with a thousand machines harnessed for destruction Briefly the story is this The government of ot the taxpayer has paid out nearly a billion dollars I for the benefit and care of mental cases among veterans of the last war This sum represents 20 per cent of ot all benefits paid to veterans and their dependents There are such mental cases and a third of ot aU all veterans confined to hospitals are mental cases It is true that some of these men cannot prove that their plight is traceable to their military service but they are on Uncle Sams Sam's expense list just the same and they I would not be if they had been kept out of the army in the first place Of course all of these mental cases could not have been spotted by the draft boards in 1917 and 1918 Not all cases of mental weakness or potential weakness can be spotted now But the army now has a wealth of experience on the subject and the Veterans Administration is operating co-operating with many local boards in this effort Twenty years study has made these government doctors expert in discovering hidden weak weak- weaknesses weaknesses nesses nesses in the human mind Some of the nations nation's greatest psychiatrists have offered their services to the army Today of course there are ar many reasons why mental qualifications count more than in the last war In Inthe Inthe Inthe the first place modern warfare re re- requires requires re- re requires quires greater self discipline on the part of ot the individual Special Training Needed In the old army the squad com com- composed composed composed posed of seven or eight men was a unit The squad has now been abolished Modern ordnance small ordnance small and heavy arms arms is Is much more complicated Each man must be specially trained for a special task and frequently the responsibility formerly relegated to a group falls on the individual Greater skill to operate modern arms and equipment is necessary Also the devastating effect of mech mech- mechanization mechanization creates a greater mental strain An example of this is the terrorizing effect of the th noise of dive bombers When the French troops first heard the they threw down their arms and fell fiat flat on the earth As Dr Martin Cooley consultant of the Veterans Bureau in Washing Washing- Washington ton puts it When one considers how the war war- warfare warfare warfare fare of today has stepped up In in in- intensity intensity and tempo with the divers the panzer divisions the ele dc elements clements ments of ot deadly surprise and audacity audacity ity and the dropping of bombs of high explosives weighing as much as ns asa asa a ton it becomes evident that com com- combat combat combat bat troops will have an immense strain on their morale and It must be e expected that a man with un un- unstable unstable stable nervous system or a flaw of character will crack under the strain In the last war an effort was made to weed w ed out the men who from their medical histories or as a result of examinations were consid consid- considered considered considered ered unable to stand up under the strain of service Strangely enough It was the medical officers rather than the line officers who were in inclined dined to be lenient in accepting I questionable cases and the medical department of the army records that cases of record were discovered discovered ered and the men retained in the army against the advice of the psychiatric officers Many of these men broke down I when they reached camp before they heard a gun fired With this rec rec- record record record I ord staring them In the face It is I no wonder that responsible war de de- department department de- de department officials are anxious that there be no let down in the stand standards ards for admission to military s rv- rv ice S S S 4 Pan American Child Congress War and politics arc no respecters of children Bombs and shells spare neither nursery nor school And politics frequently like the bad Samaritan goes by on the other side even in peace peacetime The Pan-American Pan Child Con Con- Congress Congress Congress gress whose purpose is to build sturdier happier wiser future citi citi- citizens citizens citizens zens of the Americas was established established established in 1919 Plans arc are now under underway underway underway way for its first meeting since 1935 which is to be held next spring in Washington Four times during the last six years the meeting of the congress has las had to be postponed The first came in 1938 when Nicaragua found I that hat it could not go ahead with plans for or being host to the conclave Then when the delegates were all ready re dy to take the boat the next year for or Costa Rica where the postponed congress was to meet it was can can- cancelled cancelled cancelled celled again indirectly because of war var The real reason for this last postponement perhaps was indicated ed d in a headline in a San Jose Costa Rica lica newspaper which read Is this his a Pan German American Con Con- Congress Congress gress Germany had announced that hat it would send exhibits and take part art in the meeting and presumably Nazi fazi influence in Costa Rica was strong trong enough nough to make it unwise for forthe forthe the he local government to protest In any case the meeting was again cancelled S SOn On n Gray Days Days Days- Meditation Repose The other day dOlY I sat on a bale of straw in a stable st ble with the measured crunch and stamp of horses around me waiting for the rain to stop I watched the slanting drops with mixed desires The earth was so thirsty hirsty for these few drops that it seemed more than selfish to hope the watery benediction would cease At last a rooster crowed and the rain thinned to a mist The whole countryside seemed to look up in damp gratitude for its short cup of pleasure There was life and move move- movement movement movement ment everywhere The dog dug in inthe inthe inthe the softened dirt for no particular reason When I passed he looked up at me with mud on his whiskers and a n foolish happy grin on his face ace Chickens energetically pulled at worms that they hadn't seen for weeks and then suddenly there was wasa a bright flash of color before me Eight bluebirds appearing out of ot the theair theair theair air like a bright light suddenly turned and alighted on the top rail of the fence Back in the city skies were still gray but the same muted feeling of relief that I had felt in the country spread along the streets There is always to me a beauty in gray days I feel as though I had stepped from a garish world into a quiet cloister cloister I I hear sanda lIed feet on cool stone the light subdued comes through stained glass win win- dows It is time for meditation me and repose S S S SL I C. C L Rep John W. W Gwynne of Iowa has hasa a plan whereby automobile license plates would be good for a year five period In order to conserve steel for national defense The congressman estimates that adoption of such a aplan aplan aplan plan would save tons of steel annually in Iowa alone and would also save the taxpayers of that state each year |