The Wilmington morning star., 1945-07-31

| views of Mr.. Pegler, and often disagree
| with them as much as many of his read
| ers His articles serve the good purpose
| of making people Think
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLEK
copyright, 1s45, by King Features Syndicate.)
NEW YORK,-About three years ago, Gene
Tunney then lieutenant commander on active
service in the Navy now high and dry in the
hills behind Stamford, Conn.,. singing Bar
nacle Bill volunteered a suggestion con-
corning the costume of the American flat-hat
blue-jacket or COB. Costume, rather than uni
form seems the appropriate word for this
Quaint survival of olden times in fighting
force that hasn't had sailor in the literal
sense of the word within the memory of any
man now serving. It has 10 buttons on the
pants, a sentimental if indicate reference to
the original states of this peace-loving repub-
lie The jumper, or blouse, long az was
seized by the dressmakers as appropriate for
the young ladies of boarding school age. 1t
has inadequate pocket room and, with the
passing of time and the change of style, has
become a mere memento, as impractical as
the Gordons' kits.
Commander Tunney's concern was not aes-
thetic or sartorial although l am not the one
to allege that there is any phase of any problem
worthy of his utter neglect. His interest was
physical fitness and the training of thousands
of boots just entering the Navy for the war
who were, he said, being made pot-bellled by
the design of the pants. Having neither belt
nor suspenders to hold Up their bell-bottom
trousers but only a sort of expansion plate
aft which can be closed by laces, the enlisted
sailor must keep them up by abdominal pres
sure after he had stopped few times and
the pants have been Numbered, stretching the
cloth.
| This, Commander Tunney argued, deformed
the posture and the flat hat, having no bill
| or peak, presented no target for the hand in
| the manual salute with the result that sailors
sometimes think they are saluting when they
are scratching the right ear. AS to this latter
objection he might be repulsed by reference
| to the brisk and accurate Salutlng of soldiers
| of many armies who wear the fore-and- aft
cap and of Frenchmen in their berets but
many photographs do show that the American
enlisted sailor tends to bow his neck and meet
the saluting hand PARKWAY with his brow and
| that ne does stick out his belly and suck in
his chin
| This was an issue that could bide its time
on the future hook but it was revived recently
| by one of our higher officers in proposal to
| let sailors hereafter dress in a style unmis-
| takably masculine and modern for the good
| of their morale as well of their health. And
| 1 have found no more interesting comment
on the subject than that of an old blue-j acket,
| signing himself Arthur L. Palmer, Of Long
Beach, Cal, who says he sailed with Bob
Evans 40 years ago and apparently isn't proud
of his old pictures.
1--WE read IN the papers," he says, ''of
bill to abolish the monkey-suit. An old Navy
salt myself 1906 and 1918, l am for the
change 1t is long overdue and it is important.
| These kiddy clothes are bad for the Navy and
| the nation
| Consider the real, original reason for such
suit. The usual historical and unitarian
stuff is just bell-bottomed bunk. The fact is
that these nursery outfits served useful
British purpose in the hard-boled long ago,
to exalt the bridge and degrade the TO sle.'
They marked low-caste. They tanned tough tars,
made them ruly socially inferior and all that
sort Of thing.
| Hard to run amok or mutiny in rompers,
wot- Even a gorilla's soul sank. subservient
and silly. Put one on yourselves, sirs, and note
the effect.
do the brass hats and the gold-stripers
defend the suit? Test them If it has merit
propose that all Navy personnel, officers and
men, wear it. Then listen to the howl No
looks, no comfort, no utility, no convenience
no dignity, nothing to be said for it but easy
stowage light opera. comic strip stuff but
not good sense and not American.
ION duty, dungarees will do. Dressed up,
that's different. Character. self-respect eff CT
ency, behavior, all are at stake. trim,
snappy, dignified uniform makes a man feel
| and mechanical and the men are specialists
| Let America lead off here. Let's be done with
this make-believe, roister.ng, roWdy sloppy
irresponsible notion of salty sailing ship yes
terdays and lousy waterfronts We have mod
! ernlzed our ships and methods. Now lets make
| the monkey suit walk the plank
Our boys are tops by any test They have
a right to be uniformed, one and all, regard
less of rate or rank like officers and gentle
! men,
AS to the British origin of the low neck
and the wide pants l have no knowledge but
the relative positions of officers and men was
the same in our Navy as in theirs in the
same days when the British man o'warsman
was degraded and reluctant hero, often kid
mapped from the waterfront and serving Under
brutal punishment and below gratings At a
corresponding time, the American Navy had
many Portuguese and other aliens and like
! the British, many of our officers were prof.
teers, lncompetents, drunkards and slave
drivers. In fact, patriotism in war has been a
relatively recent development in the ranks
and the United States seems to have been
] the leader in this.
: 1t is barely possible that the men who
wear the suit might have some preference
and may still regard it as an honorable un:-
form to be worn with pride and defended
, man-fashion against all criticism Gu perfor-
nance in war they seem not have have felt
unmanly or low-caste. Has anyone ever
thought to ask them?