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wists, 195] CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—sEN TOR) no @Srst-hand knowledge of tha -oo. 70s of the Coase Guard Academy, in torr utasun, Mt me say, with the Callforots, I if Techoolugy or MIT—as techni- ' + t-8—Or with nearby Williams or Wes 'D othe felds of hberal arts, But ate t T quesuion whether the faculty ie not t u7eG Win officers whe are not trained bet hati Tr" seem periodically to be given a Go. 7 leave of absence to pick up teach- 33 GS I Were, and go off and spend a period at one of the Academies a5 a er— fiher the gteff ie not deficien: In the : teacbers Who have received the f adianee instrucvco at the wooa! the country. Sold recommend that a apes Committee af educator: he fowith the Academy un the its pcademic standards. ine crisis. and the increvs- ne mast btohly trained tech- en the Coast Guard. as well as branes of military service, I would Cuike lo Bee the question af academic sed one! omy for the Coast 3. but for West Pent and This subject ts a» matter mal import T am conse- cepy cf thls letter tc Gene “that. through Ris Sides, my be reviewed and, 2 bope, ep- wie the Muiitary and Maval Acudemies. Mr President. I shail not read further frcm this letter, but I ask unanimous consent that it be printed in the Recorp in full at the conclusion of my remarys Boul the service Academies The VICE PRESIDENT. Is there ob- fection” The Chair hears none, and it is so ordered. (See exhibit 1) Mr. BENTON. Mr President. mr pre- scription for this West Point scandal is threefold. and is as follows: Firs:, Aboli:h intercollgiate football Qt OT service Academies Second. Concurrent with this action, Tet the 90 accused cadets at West Point Temuinm in the institution on probation, and subject to the strict discipline which they themselves, after the shame and Punishment which have been visited up- on them, would be the first to admit should be theirs Third. Undertake an immediate in- Festugation, by the most competent peo- pic in the academic world. looking toward the reorganization of the curricu- Jum, the teaching standards and the fac- Wes of our service institutions if these three steps are taken then we may have hope that the dismaying revelation we have had from West Point will have served a useful and construc- tive purpose, Mr. President, J shall today transmit these recommendations to President Truman, General Marshall, Secretary Pace, and the Superintendents of the two Academies, and shall urge them to strike while this tren 1s hot, because it is not Lely to crow so hot again ‘This opportunity—to turn this seeming dis- aster into a great opportunity for our service Academies. and, indeed, for high- @#r éducation in this eountry—should he seized. Jt May pever come again, and we must ai hope it will never come in this form again. TOT A Ra oe Mr. CASE. Mr. President, will the Sen- etor yield for a question? Mr. BENTON. No: I shall not Fiell until I conclude this brief statement. I @m leaving the subject of football. If the Senator has a question on the subject of football. I am glad to yield. Mr. CASE. It touches on the subject of football. Mr. BENTON. I am glad to yield to the distinguished Senator. Mr. CASE. Having reference to ohne of the recommendations the distin~ guished Senator made, namely, that foot- ball at the service Academies be abol- ished, does the Senator recall ever having heard that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the Playing flelds of Eton. and similarly that many of the offensive tac- lics und the matter of the deployment of troops and airplanes have been learned In the offensive tactics of football? Mr. BENTON. Mr. President, I re~ Ject any such theory wholly, completely, and absolutely. If boys are spending their time during 4 years of college play- Jog football following a theory of the kind mentioned by the Senator from South Dakota. when they should be Mastering complex questions in the Fcientific fields, for example, in the fields of technology around which the future development of the military service will be centered—i reject the football theory Bsa Mistake. Big-time professionalized footbal is not & Proper function of our Military Academy at all. If the Senator from South Dakota's theory were ten- able, we ought to have 50 football teams at West Point, and every boy at West Point showd have to take football as a compulsory subject and possibly a5 the first paint of his education. Manifest}y, that theory is not the behef of the heads of the Academies themselves. They train in football only a few picked boys, proselyted from around the country, and have them spend all too much of their time playing football. Did General MacArthur, who was No. I man in his class, did he or did he not play foot- bal)? Perhaps he did but no one now Enews. TI have no doubt that that un- certainty is true of many others of our distinguished generals. Right now T tall on the Defense Departwient to give us an analrsis of its generals and ad- mirels. How big a percentage were football letter men at the Academies? How many stood in the top quarter of their class, or even the top 10 percent? Mast of them, however, antedated the days of professionalized college football. But ft is the kind of a belief expressed by the Senator from South Dakota which confuses the issue and corrupts the thinking of the American people about the problems raised by the affair at West Point. Mr. President, on the same day when the West Point story broke, last Friday, there was another glory in the news- Papers dealing with charges of corrup- Hon of a different kind. There has been @ great deal of oratory, there have been editorials and news stories, on the sensa- onal and shocking development at West Point. There has been very ittle Public comment, and I have heard no comment on the floor of the Benate to- F 1 f