The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-07-19

M tIlo ulClueu6 & -.- merely evidence E0sou AJ that the silly season is here, and if Representative 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 second term in Congress though he has just turned Al He is considered an asset to the House Military Affairs Committee, but he never served a day of his life in military service, not even in an R. o. T. c. unit in high school or college, and all he knows abou the Army he has learn ed from the upholstered and air. conditioned halls and ofices of Congress.
 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 been mcted out to whole companies or even larger units for breach of orders.
 At West Point, 1t is traditional that any cadet who can't keep his eyes straight ahead will get de- merits. And it's no uncommon oc- currence for parading units to re- ceive mass demerits if they let their eyes stray as their column or line passes a pretty girl standing at the side of the drill ground.
 The idea behind all this insist ence on strict observance of cour- tesy to women is obvious. The way Army officers figure 1t, if they per- init the yoo-hoos, one thing leads to another and pretty soon the civilian population in the vicinity of an Army post is yelling against the menace of the soldiers to the nice girls of the community-it isn't safe for women to walk alone on the streets any more, and all that. And 1. s.:ere is one thing an Army command dreads worse than actual war, it's getting in bad with the taxpayers.
 Ofhcers who have served under General Lear know him as tough but fair disciplinarian. He isn't 8 West Pointer himself, having come into the Army as Colorado voluf1- teer during the Spanish War. Sub. ordinateS who have been called on the carpet by him say that they usually have had it coming. He doesn't spare his verbal tongue lashes, but when the admonishment is over, he's just as likely to turn to the off1cer he has just dressed down and say snilingly, "How about a game of golf?"
 While the yoo-hoo incident in Tennessee served to relieve tension at War Department headquarters in Washington and give the Army a lot of human interest publicity, what bothers the Army is fear of a bad press. Perhaps too much atten- ton is paid to the what will the People think?" speculation, but the Army must be popular in a democ- racy.
 When publicity backfires and gives the Army a black eye, then there is often catastrophe. One in- cident of that kind was the recent litle story about the need for long blond dresses to make crosshairs for telescope sights on fire control in- struments.
 HAIR IN
 ARMY'S HAIR
 Instead of saying that the hair was wanted In Baltimore, the story said the War Department wanted the tresses in Washington. Three days after the item was printed, nearly 25o little packages arrived in Washington in one day. And the flood was apparently just beginning
 The offerings were beautiful as well as tragic. To see box after box of neatly braided blond pigtails, some still tied with hair ribbons conjured up the image of little girls all over the country walking boldly into the barber or beauty shops and sacrificing their crowning glory for their country's defense.
 Well; there isn't any shortage of blond hairs any more, and the Army has issued statement to stop sending 1t in, but every blond who bobbed her hair for her coun- try is going to get nice letter of thanks from general.
 WASHINGTON
 FUNNEL
 For the eighth successive summer 300 eco men are to be trained by the Red Cross as life savers .. Army is answering criticism about the use of wooden guns in forth coming inaneuvers with the obser- vation that the German army of today was first trained with dummy tanks before, Hitler scrapped the Versailles Treaty The census of cigar manufacturers shows 598 firms in the business, rolling out $l60 million worth of smokes year .. Department of Agriculture has set up a defense board in every county in the country. Six agencies of that department have representatives in every county = Agriculture Adjustment Adminis- tration, Soil Conservation Service, Forest Service, Rural Electrification Administration. Farm Credit Ad- ministration, and the Federal-State Cooperative Extension Service.