Apathetic Males

Since Dec. 7, the American Legion has been trying to get the Government to give it a defense job to do. But the Office of Civilian Defense has insisted that Legionnaires should do that job as individuals. There is a widespread feeling of resentment in the Legion against the social-service workers who have moved in on defense jobs. Fortnight ago the Legion got its first chance to show what it could do. It was handed the big job of training men & women for the Citizens' Defense Corps.

The Defense Corps includes air-raid wardens, decontamination squads, auxiliary police and firemen, many another defense category. Instructors, mostly city policemen and firemen, now get their training at the Chemical Warfare School, Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland. So far, out of 5,000 needed, 508 have been trained. Under the new plan, training centers will be expanded to seven. Legionnaires will be selected to attend and establish State schools until each State has at least one. It will be up to the Legion to finance the State schools, add other training centers at all of the Legion's 11,780 posts.

Toughest part of the Legion's new assignment will be to find the necessary men to serve as pupils. For, in U.S. defense volunteer ranks last week, women outnumbered men. The U.S. male couldn't participate in all the activities open to the ladies. Only a sturdy soul could brave the jesting excited by such defense occupations as knitting. Defense officials were worried.

But in the places where the U.S. male felt real danger, he was doing a real job. One of the bright spots on the defense front last week was Seattle, where 35,000 of the 45,000 defense workers were men. Another was San Francisco, where 3,000 Legionnaires were being trained by policemen and firemen to serve as auxiliaries. In Georgia, Legionnaires made up 90% of the State Guard officers, and were acquitting themselves so well that, two days after the declaration of war, its men were able to relieve regular Army troops in the task of guarding bridges, airports, etc.

Not all other U.S. men's activities were so well organized. In Seattle, Leader Gene Mahoney of the Home Defense Infantry Regiment had appointed captains, majors, lieutenants with no advice from the military. In Mound City, Mo., Legionnaires were training with bow & arrow. In Omaha, stylish horsemen set themselves up as "Paul Reveres." In Louisville, Ky., the Legionnaires started to conduct a city-wide registration in competition with local authorities, were sat on by OCD.

If apathy was the word for what ailed him, the apathy of the U.S. male toward defense was based on his feeling that, if the U.S. wanted him, it could call him. Supplementing this feeling was the conviction among many men that OCD was hopelessly confused, most of its enterprises silly. Perhaps the Legion, with its training program, would end all that.

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