Educators Criticise New Army Plan, Favor Navy Program for Colleges
GIDEONSE, HARRY D.
Education — Food — Women — Go to War Campus Educators Criticise New Army Plan, Favor Navy Program for Colleges By HARRY D. GIDEONSE President of Brooklyn College •¦'HE situation of...
...In other words, he advocated a liberal education rather than the strictly military training which the American Army is now prescribing...
...A decade ago, when Joe College was a flaming campus radical, one of the cherished slogans was "Schools not battleships...
...factory workers under 18 g-et increased milk rations...
...And there are some who saw the hell on earth There are those who cannot bear the thought of a victorious Fascism...
...1 gave up the job that I held and devoted all my daylight hours to work with the Civilis» Defense Offices...
...If the assignment had been different, we should stress that civilization itself is dependent on how our citizens in general understand what brought on the war and what can bring a just and durable peace...
...We women hav^e just begun to serve...
...we can bake well...
...Furthermore we are face to face with a situation in which it is wasteful of material and labor to produce any more of anything, food included, than we just have to have...
...Why did I join, and why did I believe that the women of the nation could, and should, become a part of the war effort...
...In China, Russia...
...and we do it and a**> ready to do more...
...It most be coordinated with a national health program, and it should establish precedents and practices for the democratization of social and industrial life after the war...
...All appear to agree that the Army program for the colleges is fraught with serious dangers for liberal education...
...There is a terrific over-emphasis at present on Technology and so-called defense adaptations of academic subject matter...
...But the effect of this is offset by fuller civilian employment and the heavier work now performed by civilians, and bj^the fact that soldiers consume about 50 per cent .more food than any normal class of civilians...
...We want to enjoy freedom of speech, of press,* of conscience...
...We should not suffer for fats and oils, consumption in 1942 being somewhat less than last year, but this rate should be maintained in 1943...
...Everybody agrees that we must accustom ourselves to living in a changed world...
...We know them by the pictures which they view from time to time...
...The Army has spoken, however, and for the time being we shall, of course, do everything .we can to execute its orders to the best of our ability...
...We want a decent j world...
...There is the best of reasons for taking this stand...
...It has been said that women do not work well together...
...But we have many other sources of fat, of iron and of these vitamins...
...This may appear like a sermon, but it is not* one...
...By MAX C. OTTO Professor of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin f4NE of our military leaders recently gave vent to 'this outburst: "To hell with the colleges...
...They are here to avenge the death of some one who had been bombed to death at Pearl Harbor, or who had been killed at Bataaan, or on Corregidor, or who had been taken prisoner...
...Revert to those people with incomes over $2,000 a year...
...What does this mean in terms of incomes...
...But the consumption of the 55 per cent of our population with incomes of $2,000 or less a year can be raised half a pound per person per week above the present 2Vz pounds...
...We are at war...
...TpAfcfe meat as an example...
...Later it should enable as to share abundance equitably in peacetime...
...Already the War Production Board has issued an order prohibiting fruit canners from shipping more than a specified percentage of their packs available for civilian consumption during certain months...
...But 1943 demand will be large, especially for butter and cheese, and it may prove difficult to produce as much milk as we did the past year due to labor and other difficulties...
...The objective for military students is training, the ability to act with maximum efficiency and speed, and without question, in a designated situation...
...We want those who are here, and those who are to come, to have an abundant, happy ? and joyous life...
...We know them by the quiet poise with which they perform their work...
...Our people were not conscious of the unleashing of savagery and brutal death upon the earth...
...We cannot for this building rely limply or mainly on "the classics" nor even upon "history" as such...
...To complete our scientific system of food management, we must carry out a nutritional survey that will indicate the main dietary deficiencies of our people...
...pounds, a 17 per cent cut...
...As for the classics, we do wish a certain contribution to the social outlook got by the best students in the past from the classics...
...Today 46 per cent of our population consists of members of families and individuals -with an income over $2,000 a year...
...That must not be allowed to happen in America...
...worthy experience...
...We can take orders and obey them...
...Nobody need go hungry...
...Education Professor Emeritus, - Teachers College, Columbia University...
...The newer knowledge of nutrition must be spread among the masses intensively to enable civilians to purchase well-balanced diets...
...They are the tragic few amongst us...
...Civilians: Food Management in Wartime By T. SWANN HARDING [Concluded from last week] AS a whole, agricultural food production in 1942 was the largest on record, 10 per cent above 1941'—not a mere 6 per cent as the Gov-ment asked—ands27 per cent greater than in the period 1935-39...
...T. Swann Harding, one of the nation's leading economic experts, concludes his analysis of food and the national food management program...
...We should offer the best courses we can in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and any other courses which the array and navy people need and we are able to conduct, and we should do this work in the spirit of full cooperation and with a willingness to make sacrifices comparable to those which have constantly to be made by the men at the front...
...Finally it is true that (c), the ivory tower attitude, is at best a limited right, because—even in normal times —its over-indulgence unfits for useful life...
...So the rations actually consumed in 1936 were nothing special...
...Our domestic fruit production tops last years' record crop, but it may be somewhat lower this year...
...Here in the Army, men regard women as their equals and as their comrades...
...We shall get 20 per cent less beef than in the same months of 1941 and 25 pep cent less pork...
...However, our total fish supply may run 17 per cent less than last year...
...But the most compelling reason for- keeping our cultural interests alive and strong is the very war which threatens them...
...I felt then that the youth of the democracies must enlist to preserve the future of mankind...
...There are a few of these avenging angels amongst us...
...I don't believe it...
...For that reason farmers hereafter will concentrate upon producing food of the highest nutritional value to the neglect of produce ordinarily consumed because of its mere pleasing flavor...
...Doubtless many of his fellow officers would repudiate such sentiments, and we have no reason to suspect that anything like his attitude is behind the War Department's proposal to transform universities and colleges into an auxiliary of the army and navy.' Still, it is only natural that those whose attention must be concentrated upon military efficiency should, especially at the present time, be ready to sacrifice anything and everything which does not obviously serve that end...
...Bread, Butter and Meat Army vs...
...This is the danger which now confronts institutions of higher learning in the United States...
...The Share-the-Meat Program will restrict them to 2...
...These are words which America's war leaders might well keep in mind...
...beyond and above all, spiritually, to make whatever sacrifice we are called upon to make...
...Our production of truck crops for the fresh vegetable market exceeds that of 1941 by 8 per cent, but production will probably be somewhat smaller this year...
...1. We must be willing to go as far toward the temporary abandoning of...
...We must then take functional means of making up those deficiencies...
...Women have fought and died, and we in our country know of our pioneer women There are hundreds of thousands of us in America who are equipped intellectually and physically, and...
...He specifically says that "there has been no illustrious captain who did not possess a taste and a feeling for the heritage of the human mind...
...The Food Stamp Plan has been discontinued...
...a million strong, are ready to fall into step with the men...
...Thia stupendous job is clearly one of educational and net of military leadership.By WILLIAM H. BJLPATBICK...
...Years passed before even the first faint cries of victims in Europe were heard...
...Let us rather hope that they may find those institutions to be, more than they have yet been, aggressively and intelligently devoted to the realization of a better society, a society that offers to everyone a real chance to make of life a happy and...
...In the following article Mr...
...It was an inactive sympathy...
...Paul Klapper, president of Queens College, will appear shortly...
...Meanwhile, the dried fruit pack is largely absorbed for overseas because economical to ship...
...Our Brooklyn experience shows that we have placed as many of our language graduates in essential war work as we have in fields like Physics and Mathematics...
...Production of food crops may even run 11 per cent above 1941...
...That's how I feel...
...fT was only a few days after December 7th * that I knew that I could not remain idle and continue content in my own little world...
...Food management "teaches tos to share scarcity under hardship...
...When Poland was blitzkrieged it was difficult for all sensitive young people to remain complacent...
...Education — Food — Women — Go to War Campus Educators Criticise New Army Plan, Favor Navy Program for Colleges By HARRY D. GIDEONSE President of Brooklyn College •¦'HE situation of the liberal arts colleges in the country is bad...
...2. As to institutional survival, few colleges will in probability actually close, mostly smaller men's colleges dependent on current fees for support...
...This is truei The women in the service have proven that they think always first of the service It is not an easy life, but all of us have accepted it on a volunteer basis...
...as the war proceeds, these needs will develop as our armed forces make progress...
...3) As to the confusion of means and ends in a "liberal arts" education...
...we are pretty good" spotters...
...Hence we must establish widespread industrial-plant cafeterias and canteens tor workers, wherein they can scarecly avoid getting a good diet...
...Harding's central point is as valid and effective as ever...
...answer to the question of the army's *"* -educational program must, I regret, be made from the point of view of general education only, not from any detailed recent experience in the college field...
...The same situation holds with canned and dried fruits...
...There are many places whese^ the skill and training of women can be mors effective than that of men...
...It is a little ironical today to i observe that of the two programs for the 1 colleges in war-time America, the sugges-I tions of the Navy are by far the more lib-i eral and education-minded...
...We, have just really begun to prepare ourselves for^ the fight, but we shall fight and fight hard...
...We must adopt these and perhaps many more measures to see that our entire population is properly fed...
...I was a student in France, at Grenoble University, when I became aware of the deadly force loose in the world, a force threatening everything in the world of the forward-looking...
...Such a broad education should be a part of the preparation for either service...
...We depend upon it primarily for high-grade protein, to some extent for fat...
...It is not true...
...This is enough food to take care of our large military and Lend-Leaae requirements, and to leave civilians about as much as they had, say in 1936...
...They are to acquire skill in discovering and weighing alternative idea* and actions, and to perfect themselves in the abilities on which the physical and spiritual improvement of society depends...
...We want our land to be free...
...freedom from want...
...We cannot voluntarily permit the military authorities to "take over the colleges...
...and, sad to say, the history professor has often too much of an ivory tower attitude about his chronological content, neither selecting nor stressing as best possible to build social understanding...
...Lacking a trained military force we risk defeat on the battlefield...
...Restriction Order No...
...But we should get 10.6 pounds of fish each year as compared with 13.5 pound sin 1942...
...In England also all babies get free fruit juices and codliver oil...
...It takes a greater variety than either or both...
...A surrender here would be a flat betrayal of the democratic way of life...
...But it was only realized generally...
...We have an unusually large production of grain crops to add to huge supplies already on hand...
...However, if, under stress of war, we must slight either (a) or (b), it is (b) and not (a) that is to "suffer...
...But consumers today have a great deal more money to buy food than they had in 1936...
...Civilian defense was not enough So, when WAAC was created, I was among the thousands who stormed the recruiting offices, anxious for a chance to serve...
...Under scientific government planning, pri-\ate enterprise does its part during war...
...that they are jealous of each other and petty in their dealings, and the* were some who said that women will not put self aside in the interests of a higher goal...
...But the public good demands that the changes be directed by men and women who are experienced in dealing with educational problems and who are vitally interested in the purposes and values of higher education...
...This is a great lessoa to be learned...
...But out of our abundance we are obligated to do much for others of the United Nations who are in need, for we have pooled our resources with them...
...and most of these, as the South saw after 1865, will probably later reopen...
...It will foster the Share-the-Meat Program and be purely educational in character...
...There are some few who are here because of personal reasons...
...For civilian demand for canned fruits and juices is greater than the available supply...
...No one questions that the men who must conduct the war have a right to make demands upon colleges and universities, and no one questions that it is the duty of colleges and universities to meet those demands in the fullest possible way...
...The proper end, the-chief end of the liberal arts college, is building the needed social intelligence...
...One of the saddest facts of cultural history was the suddenness with which the great German universities collapsed under the impact of military demands...
...The 1943 fish supply Will probably be smaller still...
...Part of that ability and experience should also be devoted to the task, however, of getting as rapid a revision of these plans as is compatible with the needs of a large sprawling military organization...
...Canned foods are now being rationed, and some of the statistics presented are a little dated...
...That was not true in 1936 by a long shot...
...Universities and colleges therefore cannot remain as they have been...
...Compared with 1941 civilians will, in 1942 as a whole, maintain or increase their per capita consumption of cereals, dairy and poultry products, and fresh^ vegetables, but they will have less sugar, fruits, meats, and possibly less fats and oils...
...To understand this is the supreme demand on us all...
...in defense of our country...
...Others, more excited, use such vague general terms that we remain in doubt whether they really seek (a) a socially Useful breadth of view, or (b) an intelligent and esthetic enjoyment of literature, or (c) possibly an ivory tower escape from the world as it is...
...KTOW I feel that more strongly than ever be-* ' fore, for I have come in contact with the temper of my countrywomen, no group of pretty lassies, but a band of strong women—strong in the knowledge that they are doing a good job in a great cause and that they are not alone...
...Why are we here...
...England, and in the conquered and occupied countries, in the underground movement, women are on the fighting fronts...
...This last divergence permits us, without charge of disloyalty, to re-examine this problem of content on its merits...
...Studies have shown that many persons will not act on this information even when it is made available to them...
...The Army's plans in particular seem to indicate that hundreds of' colleges will simply fold up—and it will prove to be very hard to re-assemble these institutions after the war, or even next year if the present Army policy should turn out to be a sad mistake...
...The New Leader has asked some of the nation's leading educators to comment on the crisis facing the American university...
...I have been asked many times what prompted me to join the WAAC, and when was the first time I felt that I, as an individual and those of my generation, must play a part in the struggle against destruction...
...And we also have our own buddies in the service...
...V^E can do a great deal: the mean work, no> matter how mean...
...All recognize that the outline submitted by the Navy is a distinctly more enlightened document which, if put in effect, will have a constructive (rather than a short-sighted) influence on the Home Front...
...livestock will rise at least 10 per cent...
...Whatever the motive was that brought us together in the WAAC, we have all dedicated ourselves to our country end to world freedom...
...we are pretty good cooks...
...When I came home it seemed odd to me that life was continuing as it always had been...
...Those who believed ourselves to be impregnable, because of our oceans, were shaken into consciousness "December 7, 1941...
...Our meat situation has already been discussed...
...we are telephone operators...
...But we must go further than that...
...dieting the character of our present war in 1934...
...Furthermore, only 27 per cent of our protein came from meat in 1940, including fish and poultry, while 21 per cent came from milk and 29 from grain products...
...On the day when we heard of the heroic struggle of the Viennese I knew that I could not sit by in a state of complacency...
...3. The problem of the proper content of education is far more important and directly concerns us alL On this there are divergent views both among educators and between army and navy...
...Men and women didn't seem to realize what was taking place on the European continent, nor did they dream how closely it touched us here...
...But the Army, Navy, and Lend-Liase requirements are at least 6hb billion pounds alone...
...when Czechoslovakia was raped...
...6. The conclusion seems to be (1) that the navy is nearer right than the army and, (2) that...
...the liberal arts college as the war needs do in fact demand, but no farther...
...We never pro-*>iticed so much meat in our history—24 mil-lieli "pounds...
...There is no provision for civilian needs, for professional or technical service, for instance...
...But that advertising will not be directed at increasing meat consumption...
...In 1942, our consumption of butter, fluid milk and cheese will be greater than in any recent year...
...Nor did we have all the means of educating the public about nutrition and of distributing good food to low-income groups in 1936 that we have now...
...It is important to note that de Gaulle's comments on education make it crystal-clear that he had a low opinion of merely...
...when Sudetenland was surrendered...
...I TLTIMATELY we must have Govemraent-^ owned and Government-sponsored restaurants like the British restaurants, where whole families can get good, low-cost meals, capable of serving a thousand units at 20 cents a mead...
...Since Mr...
...in either service will fight the better for understanding what is at stake, while in the immediate post-war period they will serve immeasurably better as citizens by having a fair grasp of the essentials of a lasting peace...
...They normally consume 3 pounds of meat per person per week...
...Many of us are not shackled by ties, ties of the heart, ties that children wssd around us...
...We must keep the educational home fires burning as brightly as possible in loyalty to those who are fighting and dying...
...The average housewife usually knows but four or five of the commoner dozen cuts of meat, yet there are hundred* of cuts...
...Our situation is certainly not more critical than that of the British, and it is hard to see why we should have to make a sharper curtailment in liberal education than was found necessary in Great Britain, The Army talks about liberal education as if it were irrevelant to the conduct of the war, and also as if it were something that can be turned on and off at will...
...Sharing i "COUP'S on...
...We're all in the ???» now...
...We are not women to the men folk who have been trailing us, and who meet us on an equal basis, we are buddies...
...In nutritional terms that means less fats, carbohydrates, and vitamin A than in 1941, or more nearly what we consumed in 1936...
...The cut will be 39 per cent for persons in families with incomes of $5,000 and over because they normally eat 4 pounds of meat per person per week...
...Neglecting to educate our minds we invite defeat at home...
...In the emergency, then, we need be little concerned for it...
...Thus food management in wartime extends from the farm to table...
...CIVILIANS must learn to improvise and to substitute as well as to accept new foods and old foods prepared or processed in new ways...
...We are typists...
...In fact, the continuous cultivation of liberal and humanistic education is part of the freedom we are supposedly defending, but it is also, as General de Gaulle's writings show, an essential part of adequate war training...
...If civilians were permitted to buy as much' meat as they desired they would purchase 21 billion pounds...
...A proper food management program, he ______ . _¦ says, "is a form of democratic sharing...
...General de . Gaulle, pioneer in modern technical warfare, once wrote: "There has been no illustrious captain who did not possess a taste and a feeling for the heritage of the human mind...
...And to stand up to that danger is the inescapable responsibility of every person who values the increment of livableness and distinction which cultural workers, scientists, scholars, poets, artists, musicians, contribute to our common life...
...Those who return must not find our institutions of higher learning rendered powerless to oppose the men and the organizations that are even now maneuvering to take charge of the world for an exploiting class...
...Cereals we can write off at once...
...No scarcity can develop there soon...
...General de Gaulle, the professional prophet •of modern technological war, wrote a book pre...
...Our men folk have answered their call, and we women, 150,000 strong, and, if need be...
...I shall long remember the day that I waa notified that I had been selected for the Officers' Candidate Course, at Fort Des Moines, Iowa...
...It is exactly the reaction of this WAAC j to this Women's Army...
...And just now they must be adjusted to war necessity...
...but we can now, in general, get this better without giving the time and effort needed to learn either language...
...That is what food management means...
...Vengeance has brought them into our ranks...
...5. Taking these three in the reverse order, we can assert with considerable assurance: (1) The old doctrine of a general "mental training" to follow from a specific mastery of the classic languages and mathematics such that one so trained is equipped (as well as education can effect it) to face life's problems— that doctrine is dead and ought to be buried...
...HERMOINE JUNE ? ANKEN ?T now seems a thousand years since I first * thought of the war, in a personal sense...
...Already...
...that (b), the rich understanding and enjoyment of literature is the proper right of everyone, and broadly taken, perhaps in normal times one of the two excellencies of man (intelligent morality being .the other...
...That can cause scarcity...
...THEREFORE we are not faced with food * scarcity this year...
...4. Some proponents of a "liberal arts" edu-catieei shift, illogically, back and forth between emit, to be sought and means to be used, arguing convincingly for a properly broad social content but assuming, unconvincingly, that "the classics" remain the best if not only adequate means...
...They too must change...
...Even the most undo-mesticated among us know by now why fish i crops up more often than Friday, and why ! sometimes we can't quite tell which side our i bread is buttered on...
...but the war has been mak-: ing considerable changes in the average i American's dinner...
...Women in other countries fight side by side with their men folk...
...We should also have as many eggs in 1942 and 1943 as in 1941...
...The Navy took it thick j and heavy...
...On the other hand, we have the largest supply of poultry in our history, 29 per cent larger than in the 1935-39 period, or 22.6 pounds for each of us compared with only 20.2 pounds in 1941...
...Others, including the comments of Dr...
...1 limits deliveries of pork, beef, veal, mutton, and lamb to,eiyilian outlets...
...It is a form of democratic sharing...
...The Navy plans are quite balanced and educationally sound, but in my judgment the Army plans for the use of educational facilities will break down inside of another twelve months...
...Harding wrote his articles, the quick-moving rationing scene has shifted somewhat...
...Yes, the WAAC has been a fine equalitariaa force^ The college woman and the highechool girl, the professional woman and the working woman, the woman reared in riches and the one who has risen from poverty, all are on equal footing...
...hence civilians will be permitted to purchase only 17% billion pounds...
...Should that stop when peace comes...
...We want to save them frosB fear, from oppression, and from persecution...
...It has produced a healthier, more vigorous population in Great Britain than ever existed at any time during peace It produces, processes and distributes food with scientific efficiency, thus making far better use of limited supplies than were ever made of unlimited supplies during peace It teaches us to share scarcity under hardship Later it should enable us to share abundance equitably in peacetime...
...The book was read by the Germans who provide for adequate training in foreign languages, but it was overlooked in English and American .military circles...
...At the root of Alexander's .victories one will always find Aristotle...
...We must insist upon retaining control of our method of instruction, class-room procedures, and programs of liberal arts education...
...Like others, I was shocked when the Munich peace pact was signed...
...Yet others, even in 1942, still speak of "mind training" in the old sense as if that is the aim to be sought...
...school children get hot meals and cheap or free milk...
...That would leave a-billion-pound deficit...
...Though that should still leave civilians as much as they had last year, they will be able to purchase still more and will doubtless seek to do so...
...we are good soldiers...
...military or technical education...
...Take meat once more as an instance...
...But Mr...
...But along with this obligation we are under another...
...While the 1942 production of canned vegetables will probably be 14 per cent greater than the previous year, military and Lend-Lease requirements will take 18 to 20 per cent of the pack...
...Some of the statements received are printed now...
...That is what food rationing means...
...It is not a soft life, but the reward is great...
...We heard murmurs of sympathy from all corners and from many sources, but that was very impersonal...
...It is also a good source of iron and of those fragments of the old vitamin ? now called by fancy names like thiamine, niacin, and riboflavin...
...The present manpower situation will not permit such a policy very long without disastrous consequences...
...Joseph College, PFC HISTORY has its little ironies...
...We cannot afford a high level of draft rejections or of illness and fatigue among industrial workers due to malnutrition, another luxury of peacetime we must now renounce...
...Therefore, we can substitute any or all of the following for the restricted red meats: Milk, cheese, poultry, fish, eggs, dried beans, dried peas, lentils, soybeans, and peanuts, not to mention the so-called variety meats, the supply of which remains unrestricted—hearts, livers, sweetbreads, and meats made from heads, tails and feet...
...2) As regards the three diverse aims, (a), (b) and (c), set out above, it appears that (a), the socially broad view, is a positive duty on all citizens and an even more crucial duty as now we face the causes of the war and the consequent conditions of a lasting peace...
...General Eisenhower's armies right now have - acute language needs in French and Italian— and...
...Meat advertising will broaden the knowledge of such matters during war...
...It was important work but not completely satisfying to answer the drive within me...
...It is true that some of our heaviest users of fats and carbohydrates have been shifted from civilian life to the Army...
...has not exactly become k-> "soup's off...
...We want these things for ourselves, but we want them even more for those who are to follow us...
...The American Meat Institute has already announced that it intends to spend two million dollars in advertising this year as it did in the past year...
...We shall probably have to look to the civilian management of the War Manpower Commission for such a process for continuous reconsideration of our total needs, including those of the armed forces...
...As for history, we need, invaluably, what it alone can give, but it does not of itself suffice...
...The Distaff Side ThisWomen's Army -The Fighting Faith of an AmericanvWAAC , By LIEUT...
Vol. 26 • January 1943 • No. 2
