The Wilmington morning star., 1947-11-22
AS Pegler Sees 1t
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1947, King Features Sym
dicafe Tncl

ira and Leo Durocher present a composite
problem that simply must be disposed of
with justice when the boys of maturing gen
erations are drafted for universal military
training Kaye was rated 4-F and excused
on medical grounds, but his local draft
board, in subsequent correspondence. retus-
| ed to let him go overseas as an entertainer
for the U. S. o. with the remark that his
mental attitude did not recommend hlm
as a morale builder. This was wonderful
war for psychiatrists. They argue a plausl-
bic line and if you recognize them at all, II
| you do not keep them on the tar side OF a
deadline, they will be in your lap and IN
your hair and you will never be able to
Idraft any man who even says loud noises
make him nervous that the sight OF a nose
| bleed makes him faint or that he feels anxi-
Gus. There were between $4,000 and 100000
deferments for psychiatric reasons, many OF
these individuals were useless for any mill
tary service Idiots and low-grade morons
would be a detriment rather than an asset.
But the medical officers and the civilian
medical advisers drlfted off into a foggy
state from which we got back communicates
laying it down that the physical and the
mental were inseparable and overlapping
and finally, that man who was just PLAIN
scared was suffering from physical I'M
pairment as real as a broken leg, sub
ject to no control by the patient StoneWall
Jackson cured it with bayonets. but now it is
doctors business
The conclusion was reached by some ad-
ministrators of the draft that all OF us were
more or less nuts and that If all persons
who were legitimate prey OF the psychla-
trists were excusable, there Wo. Id have
been no Army or Navy. General George S.
Patton himself was as dizzy as dervlsh by
psychiatric standards, if this cult OF the
uueers has any Standards and might have
been ruled out and restricted to blubberlng
silly sounds into a microphone like Danny
Kaye.
Sinatra's excuse was a punctured ear
drum, and the Brooklyn baseball club, which
employs Durocher, states that he had the
same trouble. Trouble might be the wrong
word for it in view of the inconvenience that
it spared them. Sinatra was not only we'll
within the draft age but self-elected ''lead-
er" of American youth, particularly of
young girls. He gave $500 to Roosevelt's
fourth term campaign fund and lunched
with him at the White House. Any suspicion
that this political contribution was influen-
tial in the decision of the doctors which
finally excused from military service a
young man with an income second or third
IN all the world and pugnacious attitude
toward Nazis in state-side saloons and sand
wich wagons, is the product of your own
mind The problem of the doctor then be-
came simply one of deciding whether this or
THAT fellows condition made him unaccept-
able. The bright idea back in the beginning
was to save the government the expense in
| later years OF penSioning men with chronic
ear trouble and complications who were
Ipredisposed by a condition existing when
they were drafted. The purpose was to save
money eventually, and Immediately to save
sensitive to colds and infection. They are
equally sensitive in civilian status
Durocher is not merely healthy but pro-
fesslonal athlete and robust He was ply
sically superior to about 80 per cent of the
young draftees and volunteers. He could
lick roomful of most of tk en- when they
were skinny striplings and he was mature
man with years of physical training, not
many individual survivors could lick him
now although he did call on house detec-
tive to pin the arms of discharged soldier
while he, Durocher slugged him on the jaw
and smashed it. This probably was just an
act of convenience to save Durocher some
exertion. Otherwise he might have had to
untangle the fellow The incident showed
that Durocher. for all his invisible blemish
in the ear, would have been useful man
at grips with Nazi or Jap.
General Lewis B. Hershey, the director
of the draft, holds that universal service
means Just about that and his motto is a
Ol yOutl LII A1loA
ana, "just as I am, without a plea" Mem
bers of his own family have gone through
| life so far with ruptured eardrums asking
no favors nor neglecting opportunities to do
as they believed they should. Sinatra and
Durocher could have wangled piece of this
war somehow had they really hated the
dirty oppressors hard enough.
| Some physical conditions are legitimate
grounds for exemption, but many of the
aar -6rllrn expmntjOns 0f tho racnnt war wore
granted to men who could have been put to
very useful Army and Navy jobs where
they would not have been imposed on: To be
sure, if Sinatra and Durocher had spent a
few weeks in mudholes in winter, they
might have had complications, but so did
thousands of less wealthy and less hardy
young men, Shells bullets and bombs cause
complications, too. Swimming is generally
forbidden to ear-drum jobs, but Trudy Ed
erie swan the channel witt. an open ear
drum and thousands of young bluejackets
who had to swim when their ships went out
from under them would have had bargain
if they could have settled for complications
Another class of registrants beat the draft
by wangling commissions. Nobody has Of
| fered any promising idea as to how to
thwart the likes of a young Hollywood
patrioteer who was doing his bit in pro-
curement and throwing contracts in the right
directions until suddenly one day that thing
Iell OIL Ills oSoh. "A lew odyS IdI6r ne turned
up a captain and after two years in Eng
land he came out Lieutenant-Colonel
The Legion of Merit Is the next logical
step for this arful dodger who is one of
thousands, as the Army administration well
knew. And of course, the Colonel is well
employed in the movie industry
The universal plan must be a fair nlan
excuslng only those with genuine physical
impalrments. And the way to commissions
shoulo De through the ranks for all boys of