One Battle Won

At last the War Department has come out with a democratic Army educational program. The aim to tell every American soldier why he is fighting, the basic facts about the war, and a knowledge of how our enemies operate finally has left the blue-print room for the Army camps. Though such a program is long overdue, at least now it is a reality. And, encouragingly, it is a reality when America is entering the most critical battle of her history--the battle against the tremendous onslaughts to come this spring and summer from the Reichswehr and its oriental partner.

In working out the plan to keep the Army abreast of changing trends throughout the world, and to school our enlisted youth in the true value of our challenged democracy, the War Department has engaged over 150 well-known speakers, including William L. Shirer and Hallett Abend, to dish out the uncensored facts to buck privates. Already, over 350,000 pamphlets and four tons of maps are ready for shipment to training centers. And less recently, Army posts have been introduced to a new orientation course. It includes 15 fifty-minute lectures on world events leading up to Pearl Harbor, not omitting any unpleasant details. Faithfully the War Department follows the aim to keep propaganda out of the lecture room and tell the facts even if they shame our own nation. One of the purposes of such a streamlined program is to show that we as a nation are far from infallible, that, in large part, we are responsible for the present holocaust. "We have been just as blind as any of those broken peoples. We merely had better luck--the luck of geography and distance" is a typical blast coming from an up-to-date Army lecture.

To a nation that has burnt its fingers before in refusing to recognize past mistakes, this sudden, realistic awakening of the Army should be welcome to say the least. It is reassuring that an Army fighting for democracy should try itself to understand the meaning of the word. This couldn't be said for our Army of 1917. Then, as in the twenties, the Army High Commond preached that democracy was the bunk. It put out a pamphlet on civics in which it referred to democracy as communistic, anarchic, a government of the mob. Many Army officers have since repented for this unpatriotic expression of personal opinion, and the Army in general has tried to reform its previously undemocratic stand as evidenced by the recent educational program. Though even the new High Command still has a long way to go, it is finally catching up with America.