Imperial Valley press., 1941-07-17
By Peter Edison
The Inside Track in Washinqfon

WASHINGTON. July Il - The
case of teen. Ben Lear and
his disciplining of 800 soldiers by
making them DO 0 l5-mile march
because one detachment yoo-hooed
at girls in shorts on q Memphis
golf course is settled as far as Gen
eral Lear is concerned. Although
the War Department has asked fer
a report and is investigating Moth
ing much will come OF it.
The talk Of a congressional in
vestigation of the incident is mere
If evidence that the silly season IS
here. and if Rep Paul Kilday Of
San Antonio carries his demands
any further he Is probably leading
with his neck.
The good gentleman from Texas
worked his way through college and
law school and is serving his Sec
end term in Congress though he has
Just turned IL. He is considered an
asset to the House Military Affairs
Committee. but he never served a
Gay of his life in military service,
not even in an R.O.T.C. unit in high
school or college. and all he knows
about the Army he has learned
from the upholstered and air-con-
ditioned halls and offices of Con
gress.
COULD BE TOUGHER
General Lear. on the other hand
had all the traditional Army de-
mand for strict discipline behind
his action, and military folklore is
replete with incidents in which
mass punishment has oeen meted
out to whole companies or ever
larger units for breach of orders.
At West Point. it is traditional
that any cadet who can't keep his
eyes straight ahead will get dement's
And its no uncommon occurrence
for paradlng units to receive mas
demerits if they let their eyes stray
as their column or line passes {
pretty girl standing at the side ol
the drill ground.
The idea behind all this insistenct
on strict observance of courtesy u
women is obvious. The way Army
officers figure it, if they permit thu
Yoo-hoos. one thing leads to another
and pretty soon the civilian popula-
ton in the vicinity of an Army
post is yelling against the menace
of the soldiers to the nice girls q
the community-it isn't safe fol
women to walk alone on the street.
any more, and all that And if thes,
is one thing an Army command
breads worse than actual war, it
getting in bad with the taxpayers
Officers who have served undel
General Lear know him as a tougl
but fair disciplinarian. He isn't {
West Pointer himself, having CONT
into the Army as a Colorado vol
unteer during the Spanish War
Subordinates who have been callet
on the carpet by him say that the,
usually have had it coming H
doesn't spare his verbal tongut
lashes, but when the aumonishmen
is over, he's just as likely to turn
to the officer he has just dressed
down and say smilingly "Hoy
about a game of golf?"
While the yoo-hoo incident il
Tennessee served to relieve tension
at War Department. headquarter
in Washington and give the Army
lot of human interest publicity
what bothers the Army is fear o
a bad press. Perhaps too much a.
ton is paid to the what will tn
People think?" speculation, but tn
Army must be popular in democ
racy.
When publicity backfires and give
the Army black eye, then Their
is often catastrophe. One incident o
that kind was the recent little stor,
about the need for long blond tress
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