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eer a TENET OMORRP I + tome cage + pene General Douglas MacArthur, as a military man, could not understand why he was instructed to go into a war-to achieve a defeat. There was never-o-sstion of insubordination because he led his army to defeat -. as he had been instructed to do. But how to under- / Stand these orders? How to interpret them? How to — make them fit a philosophy of war? That he could not do. And so he spoke out and got fired after serving his country from West Point to a commander of a theater. He was fired like a little boy chased off the block. It was a cheap, an uncouth dismissal. It was Hike sticking one’s tongue out at a great Aistoric. monument, . Blow at. Morale , re : When men speak of morale in the army or clergy, or in schools or anywhere, they really speak of that quality of pride that men have in their work and their associations. The “old tie” may be a phrase for amuse- ment but it represented just this high quality of loyalty to a service that held better than all the. rules books ever devised. When Gencral Douglas MacArthur was dismissed summarily, without even a face-saving de- vice, a blow was struck not at him but-at the morale t _ of our armed services. A noble overtone of service dis-. appeared. It all became nothing but a job for those . who learn how to stand in right, who know just what. to say at the right moment, the apple-polishers. Efficient and competent as they may be, and no-. body doubts that, they lack a moral elan and their lack is conveyed all down the line to the men. A hero's breed must be heroic and these men who knifed Mac- Arthur to please politicians were not herocs. And where are they today? ’ And so there he stands, as noble as ever, Déuglas Mag¢Arthur, -from whom has even been with eld a- nominal honor, the title, “General of the Armies}? On his birthday, I congratulate him that time has $roved himja noble figure in a confused era. . Capsright, 1956, Ring Veateres Kynd., tne.