To the Editors of the Crimson:

Your editorial in the December 19 Crimson praising the War Department Information and Education Program strikes an old I & E non-com like myself as being a bit tragic-comic.

The program was probably conducted with the loftiest ideals in the higher echelons. It was spark-plugged by General Marshall himself, and the men who ran the show in the Pentagon were of topflight ability. The I & E School at Washington and Lee University had the reputation of being one of the finest in the Army. I can vouch for the efficiency and evangelistic zeal of its faculty; for a month I was impressed with the importance of my military mission and imbued with a love for my fellow-soldiers. When I was handed my diploma, I was all set to go out into the world to teach my bunkmates the 'facts of life."

I soon found myself butting my head against a stone wall, however. I can point out four reasons for the fiasco, the first of which your writer touched upon--"lack of interest by local commanders." Second, the ability of the I & E personnel themselves was inadequate. The War Department Circulars regarding the selection of I & E personnel prescribed men of professional training and caliber--lawyers, newspapermen, etc. I was flattered when selected, considering myself a green college undergraduate who hardly satisfied the prerequisites. When I arrived at Washington and Lee, however, I found my classmates were everything from butchers up, the majority of them being white-collar workers with a high school or a year or two of college education at best. Only a handful met the circular requirements.

Third, I & E materials and supplies maps, fact sheets, etc.,--were hopelessly inadequate until the end of 1944. The greatest obstacle to effective I & E functioning was the psychology of the average G.I. Coupled with his dislike and distrust of anything military was his resistance toward compulsory education. The average American, brought up in perhaps the closest knit individualistic environment in the world, doesn't like to be told anything. Rabble rousers and the Hearst press can fool him easily with sly propaganda, but direct instruction, though conducted with the finest intentions, leaves him cold and unaffected. In effect, the Army was trying to break a bad American habit by one hour of orientation a week.

But the sooner we realize that our elementary education system is responsible for the average American's political naivete and gullibility, the sooner the necessary steps can be taken to correct the conditions and institutions involved. It would be far wiser to divert the funds involved from Army Information and Education to the subsidization of school systems. Willard Hertz '45.