Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-02
Ours a Democratic NAVY
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Then about q third stay and the other
two-thirdS Of first enlistments, to the
tune OF about 10000 year, return to
private life.
Regarding this fact, our Navy realizes
It is confronted with dual responsible
ity. Its first and greatest specialized
duty Is to train men for the battle line.
Its second is to educate them so that
II they again become private citizens of
this Republic they will find themselves
equipped for life.
This second duty also the Navy per-
forms superbly. providing the enlisted
men with better business or technical
training than they would have received
In our average school system If they had
remained on shore.
Time was when there was competi-
ton between recruiting stations for
numbers of enlistments. Those DAYS
are over. Now the competition is for
quality, not quantity. The year lust
past saw 81,848 men apply with only
1919 accepted by the Navy. There's a
waiting list today at every Navy re-
cruiting station in spite of the fact that
they viii get relatively less pay for the
next four years than they could get in
civilian shore jobs. Why?
What's hard to get is what the
American wants" a Navy oficer re-
marked to me. But he also pointed out
that dotted about the country are many
other lads who have had that Navy
training and are making good on 1t.
Down the street is the chap who is
running his own garage. He learned all
about gas engines in the Navy. Up the
street Is lad rising in q drug store
business. He studied pharmacy in the
Navy.
On1cials In Washington figure out the
minimum requirements and send out
word to the recruiting stations With
their quotas fixed, the officers handpick
the applicants.
The very locations Of the recruiting
stations have been carefully chosen,
They are placed in good communities,
where decent citizens resort, not wharf
rats and buns.
A young man applies. He is given a
preliminary physical, psychological and
personal examination. II he passes
them an officer repairs to his home and
learns, with all the detail of an expe-
rienced social worker, what those home
conditions are. If he has relatives de-
pendent upon him, so that his Navy pay
OF $50 or $40 q month will be made
quate for their support, he is rejected.
If he has police record he is rejected.
The time Is rapidly passing when our
police court judges will suspend SEN
tence on a man If he will agree to join
the Navy. Such man can't get in.
Navy Brings Out Latent Best"
Our Navy today Is an institution
which picks out men who have latent
best" and helps to bring out that
best" It makes men out Of boys,
gentlemen out Of men and sometimes
also officers as well as gentlemen. Each
year 100 enlisted men may 60 (if they
want to and can qualify to Annapolis
to take Officers training.
Always the Navy asks to develop per-
sonal responsibility, leadership, quick
| ness OF wit in an emergency. There are
always daily examples of the effective
| ness OF its training. Take, for one, the
tale Of what happened recently in q
railroad wreck in New Jersey.
The train was overturned, wrecked, in
flames. Out of the confusion of noises
Of escaping steam the screams Of agony,
| the dazed efforts of the injured to extri-
cate themselves, arose three seamen Of
Uncle Sam-Charles j. Cole, chief yeo-
| man; Karl F. Crenoweth, chief boat
SWANS mate, and Charles Ludlow, chief
boatswain's mate-together with others,
Save women and children first," cried
Chenoweth-that old cry of the heroes
OF the sea.
Seaman Schertil of the Florida freed
q woman from the wreck bound her
wrist, from which the hand was nearly
severed, and took her to the, hospital
where her hand was amputated. Physi-
clans said that by his quickness he had
saved her from bleeding to death.
vNofv - 4v.n. k1mlR 4o~ S.NR
listed men wrapped their peacoats and
sweaters about the injured passengers
,, to save them from the bitter cold they
themselves seemed not to feel
Stories of mere heroism might be con-
Sidered ordinary. When recently an ex-
ploSion on the Poinsetta filled the har-
Dor with burning brands and covered
the waves with burning oil, Atchison, of
the Antares (home address Florida)
first remembered to turn in an alarm
and then plunged into the blazing wa
tiers to save Carey, the carpenters
helper.
Bulletins Of our Bureau of Navigation
| (sent about among the service "for the
purpose Of disseminating information of
| probable interest") are full of tales Of
similar heroism, sandwiched between
notes about aerial surveys and new glass
picture slides. A single recent bulletin
contains six such items.
But a word-of-mouth story ] heard
suggests q deeper meaning. call it the
Hankow gesture, or how an enlisted
man averted an international episode. :.
Concentrated Chinese hatred Of all
foreigners is at its height. Bluejacket
goes ashore. BluejacketS are traditional
meat for Chinese ricksha coolies. This
bluejacket ashore does not hire rick
sha. He walks into an inn. While he
Is in the inn a rickSha coolie draws up
| to the door and waits.
Rlueiacket comes out and the rickSha