Mr. DUCANDER. No, sir, Mr. Devereux. They are writing the section of the law. At the present time the law reads, "one permanent professor of each of the following subjects: law, ordnance." This would rewrite it to include physical education. Mr. VAN ZANDT. I move its adoption, Mr. Chairman. Mr. REECE. Mr. Chairman. Mr. KILDAY. The gentleman from Tennessee. Mr. REECE. If you do not mind. Mr. KILDAY. Yes; the gentleman from Tennessee is recognized. Mr. REECE. I have been trying to get recognition for a long time. It is pretty hard for a man this low on the totem pole to get recognition. Mr. KILDAY. The gentleman is recognized. Mr. REECE. One of the outstanding directors of physical education was Colonel Keller. General THROCKMORTON. Yes, sir. Mr. REECE. Who served there in the teens. He probably brought greater recognition to the Academy in the field of physical education, or as great, as any man who ever served in that capacity. For how long a period did Colonel Keller serve? General THROCKMORTON. I believe it was about 20 years, sir. I am told 24 years, sir. Mr. REECE. I had the impression that he served for a long period of time. Would this bill make it impractical, if an outstanding man such as Colonel Keller was found in the services-make it impractical for him to be assigned as professor? General THROCKMORTON. If a permanent professor of physical education had already been appointed, sir, and another one happened to come along, you would have to get rid of the incumbent before the new man could be appointed, I would say, sir. Mr. REECE. I am not speaking now in any way to reflect upon the civilian instructors in physical education, but I think the services are outstanding in that department and, Mr. Chairman, I have some question about the advisability of setting up a system by which these outstanding men in the services will be their services would be deprived the cadets at the Academy. I am taking Colonel Keller as probably the outstanding example. I am wondering about the necessity. Why the necessity? Whom would the Army have selected during this long tenure of Colonel Keller that would have been better than he? Was there anyone available that might have given the Academy greater prestige or would have imbued the cadets with a higher spirit in that area than did Colonel Keller? General THROCKMORTON. Sir, I cannot answer that question. However, I might say this, and that is our physical education program has made its greatest strides when we have had a man in the position who was there longer than the normal 3-year tour. Now, we have had three cases of that. The first cause you mentioned, Colonel Keller, for 24 years. Then in 1944, that is from 1944 to 1953, we had Colonel Green. During that period the department made great strides in the work which they did. The same thing is true now, sir, with the present incumbent. He started in 1953. He has been in that position for 5 years and again we are making strides, based on the fact, I am sure, that those people develop their professional ability along these lines. They develop contacts with outside civilian physical educators. They take special courses. They have a much deeper interest in this particular field, I think, than you would find normally in a Regular Army officer; the Regular Army officers who would be considered on this present rotating basis would, of course, be colonels. They have the requirement to maintain their military proficiency insofar as their profession is concerned. They are not particularly interested by and large, I would believe, in an assignment of this type because it is so specialized. Furthermore, the better officers have certain musts in assignment which they must accomplish in order to round their career. Mr. REECE. Mr. Chairman, I will not interpose any objection. I question the advisability of the approach that is being taken by this bill. The approach that would appeal to me as the logical approach is one that would enable the Academy to utilize the services on a continuing basis of such basis as Colonel Keller and Colonel Green-the two men who have established the reputation of the Military Academy in physical education. Mr. KILDAY. Thank you, Mr. Reece. Mr. PHILBIN. Mr. Chairman, I would like to associate myself with the views expressed by the distinguished gentleman from Tennessee. I am quite at a loss to understand what the need for this will be. Mr. REECE. And I do question if this bill has been studied as thoroughly as it should be studied. Mr. PHILBIN. My thought, Mr. Chairman, was: I would like to hear some statements concerning the need, whether there is dissatisfaction with the present program or with the way it has been conducted throughout the years, whether the authority is asked because you have in mind that some change is needed to improve or change or better the program, and in general what need would be and what the justification for requesting this legislation is. Mr. SMART. May I make one remark, Mr. Chairman? Mr. SMART. I have looked into this, I will admit, rather briefly, Mr. Philbin and Mr. Reece, but this is my feeling about why they need this legislation: By the time an officer has proceeded through the ranks in the Army to the point where he would be worthy, have the rank and experience to come into this position, he has carved out for himself a general career in the Army. I think he does not want to sit there and be the physical-education director at West Point. He wants to, perhaps, pull that tour of duty and go onto the next tour in whatever he has been trained, as a well-rounded career. Now, this bill gives the Academy three alternates, whereas today they have only one. They have to take an active-duty officer today and assign him to this position. If this bill is passed, they can continue to do that if they want to. By the same token, they could take a civilian and put him in the position, if he were an outstanding man worthy of a professorship. They could also take a retired officer who cannot continue an activeduty career, but who perhaps is outstanding in many ways, and even though retired, he would still be physically able and have all of the attributes required for this job. So it gives them the latitude they need for this position and at the same time permits the active-duty officers to go on through their career in the service. Mr. PRICE. I think you can make another point also. Once he accepts this assignment, he will make quite a sacrifice because he is stymied in rank from then on. Mr. SMART. That is correct. Mr. KILDAY. I think there is some confusion on the part of some of the members of the committee perhaps with reference to the status of a professor at the Military Academy. I believe at the present time practically all of your professors come from the service, do they not? General THROCKMORTON. Yes, sir; they do. Mr. KILDAY. Whereas at one time you would select an able professor from somewhere else and give him the relative rank of colonel and he would become a professor? General THROCKMORTON. Yes, sir. Mr. KILDAY. But when he becomes a professor now, he has enteredhe comes from the service and enters a career field where he stays permanently. General THROCKMORTON. Yes, sir. However, in the selection of our professors, we do not confine ourselves, sir, to military personnel. Mr. KILDAY. I understand. I thought General THROCKMORTON. Any qualified individual, civilian or military, might be selected as a professor. Mr. KILDAY. And he then takes the rank of colonel? Mr. KILDAY. And continues permanently at the Academy? Mr. KILDAY. Now, of course, physical education is not only a question of calisthenics and exercises. There are people who major in college in physical education, so that this is one of your educational departments at the Academy, is it not? General THROCKMORTON. It is very much so, Mr. Chairman. Mr. KILDAY. As distinguished from just exercise or something of that kind? General THROCKMORTON. That is right, sir. It works into our military training. It works into our leadership training. It is an integral part of the whole program, exclusive of the academic depart ment. Mr. KILDAY. And it includes the ability of the officer when he graduates to provide the proper physical training for his troops, after he joins them in the field. General THROCKMORTON. Actually, you might say, sir, that the physical education program at West Point is sort of the fountainhead of the physical education program in the Army. Mr. KILDAY. So it is physical education, just as you take any other education course, so that he is capable of instructing and educating in General THROCKMORTON. He is capable of administering and instructing physical education out in the service. Mr. REECE. Mr. Chairman. Mr. KILDAY. One question, please. In all of your other departments you have professors such as it is proposed to make a professor of physical education, do you not? General THROCKMORTON. Yes, sir. Mr. KILDAY. And this is the only one left where you must depend upon a line officer pulling a normal tour of duty? General THROCKMORTON. Yes, sir, except, Mr. Chairman, in the military training, where the commandant has control over that. Mr. KILDAY. Yes. Mr. PHILBIN. And there is no purpose here in this bill to change the existing status quo with reference to your intercollegiate competitive sports program at West Point? General THROCKMORTON. None whatever. Mr. KILDAY. Mr. Reece. General THROCKMORTON. Congressman Philbin, they are two entirely separate and distinct programs. Mr. DURHAM. Well, this is patterned more or less after any good college's physical education program because you have as many classes of instruction and books. General THROCKMORTON. Yes, sir. Mr. DURHAM. As in any other college. General THROCKMORTON. As a matter of fact, I have a list of some 19 or 20 colleges where the professor of physical education has been on duty for 10 years or more there and it includes Mr. KILDAY. Do you have that list, General? You can supply it for the record. You do not need to read it. You can give it to the reporter. (The document referred to is as follows:) Permanent assignment for the duties of director of physical education is universal among colleges and universities. Following is a list of nationally known directors who have been in their positions for 10 or more years: Prof. C. H. McCloy, University of Iowa, 20 years. Prof. C. L. Brownell, Teachers College, Columbia University, 18 years. Prof. Nelson Walke, Brooklyn University, 12 years. Prof. Elmer Mitchel, University of Michigan, 20 years. Mr. KILDAY. Mr. Reece, you are recognized. Mr. REECE. Mr. Chairman, the general, I think, put his finger on the point that has been uppermost in my mind, that the department of physical education at West Point is the fountainhead of physical training for the Army in all of its centers throughout the country in contrast to the relationship of the physical education department in any other particular university. Personally, I think since it does occupy that relationship, that it is very fine to have an outstanding officer in that area of accomplishment as head of the department of physical education. I think it carries more than mere a connotation of more than mere physical training. I think when Colonel Keller came before a corps of cadets, as he did all over the United States in 1917 and 1918, that it was a source of inspiration to all of those men, and he was a colonel in the United States Army. He is able to inspire the men in a different way than an ordinary professor of physical education, but again, I have no objection if the committee wants to go ahead and approve it. Mr. KILDAY. The professor of physical education would carry the rank and title of colonel, would he not? General THROCKMORTON. Yes, sir. Mr. KILDAY. Because he is a professor. Is there an objection to favorable report? Mr. O'KONSKI. Mr. Chairman, I move the bill be passed. Mr. KILDAY. Is there objection to a favorable report? The Chair hears none. If not, the bill will be favorably reported. The House is in session. We have one more bill on the agenda that we may be able to dispose of. It is H. R. 11041. It is to provide that the United States shall furnish the services of a chaplain to conduct certain graveside rites in national cemeteries. Mr. SMART. May I make this brief statement? There are no witnesses here on it. Mr. Gubser is the author of the bill by request of a veterans' organization in California, I understand from conversation with him. We have an adverse report on it. In giving the adverse report, the Department states that there are 85 national cemeteries which cover a wide and remote geographic area and this bill would require that a military chaplain be present to conduct the services for a deceased service member, a reservist or their dependents, when buried in a national cemetery. Many of them are so remote from military installations that the Army states that it would be necessary to increase the number of active duty officers, as chaplains, in order to cope with this. It would be quite expensive. They recommend against it. Mr. KILDAY. I would think the House being in session- Mr. KILDAY. The gentleman from New Jersey. Mr. OSMERS. I move this bill be tabled. Mr. KILDAY. I think maybe it would be-is there objection? (No response.) Mr. GUBSER. Mr. Chairman, the reason I am asking for a decision on this at this time I recognize that it should be studied by a subcommittee in light of this adverse report, but there is considerable pressure in my home district for a decision on this bill. I would just as soon have the decision now. Mr. OSMERS. You have my motion. Mr. KILDAY. A motion has been made that the bill be tabled. Those in favor signify by saying "Aye." To the contrary, "No." The ayes have it, and the bill is tabled. (Whereupon, at 11:03 a. m., the committee recessed to the call of the Chair.) о |