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PAGE FOUR
REGIMENTAL
M IRRO R J
Office Builduig 73
Published Every Thursday by and fur the Enlisted Men of the Academic
Regiment. The Infantry School, Fort Benning. Ga
THURSDAY. APRIL 20. 1944
The REGIMENTAL MIRROR receives Camp Newspaper
Service material. Republication of credited matter prohibited
without permission of CNS, 205 E 42 St.. N. Y. C , 17
COL E P PASSAILAIGUE
Commanding
SGT. WALTER MILLER
Cpl Johnston C. Woodall
Pvt June Freed
THE ARMY HELPS Gl JOE
EXERCISE HIS RIGHT TO VOTE
“Our job is to assist and encourage servicemen to ex
ercise their voting privilege as far as it is practicable and
compatible with military operations.” Thus has the new
United States War Ballot Commission, headed by Secre
tary of War Stimson, explained its function as delegated
to it under the new soldier vote bill.
From there on the soldier is "on his own.” The Army
will give him all the election ammunition possible to ex
ercise his right to vote. He has the free mail privilege,
air mail if necessary, to make every primary and election
deadline. He is entitled by law to the democracy of se
cret marking of his ballot. No superior is allowed to at
tempt to influence his choice of candidates, but on the oth
er hand he is not prohibited from entering into unofficial
political discussions on the elections w'ith his fellow-sol
diers.
He will be provided with material on all local, state
and national candidates, prepared by his local election of
ficials, delivered to him by the Commission, and confined
in its scope to a statement of the candidates’ names, ad
dresses, party affiliations and offices for which they are
running.
The Army will take as its solemn responsibility the
delivery of postcard applications to each soldier who wish
es to vote in primary, special and general elections, and
will provide him with all the dope he needs, such as dates,
places to mail forms, and ways to insure the legality of
his application.
Any soldier who still needs assistance will find that
“voting officers’’ have been appointed in each unit. Lt.
Hoyt, of the Academic Regiment, is working closely with
Lt. Tilney, of The Infantry School, to amass all informa
tion and material that will help soldier-voters, and to
make it available to them when they want it.
Actually no soldier, charged with a love for demo
cracy and its main characteristic, elections, can find any
thing too complicated here. If the coverall explanations
seem lull of red-tape, it s probably because they lump
all the 48 states, with their varying procedures, into one
article. When a soldier goes through the explanation for
just those few facts which refer only to his own home
state he realizes that it’s quite simple. And even that
will be cut in half by July 15th.
On that date the final procedure for each state will
be decided. Each GI will then know, or can find out very
easily, whether he can use a state absentee ballot, the
Federal (short) ballot, or (possibly) neither. As the Army
Times has summed it all up, the new law puts the respon
sibility on the states and the soldiers.
In the meantime the MIRROR will continue to pub
lish every shred of information on every state contest com
ing up. (Dope on 26 state primaries has already appeared
in these pages during 1944. i As noted a few weeks back,
incidentally, any ballot application already sent in under
the old law for certain state contests already announced
will not be invalidated under the new law.
The only key-word you will need in the future is the
NAME OF YOUR HOME STATE. As the Army gathers
and releases dope on voting in that state, it will appear
here. A few exchanges of cards, applications and ballots
over a matter of weeks and you will have helped keep the
democratic system alive even while serving in uniform.
Phone 3646
LT VERNON C HOYT
Advisor
Editor
Assistant Editor
Secretary
REGIMENTAL MIRROR
c o r. n r x
Post-Easter
Thoughts On
Immortality
By Chaplain Glenn S Reddick
Since Easter the question of
immortality has probably been in
men’s minds more than before.
Them too there are many who
are paying the supreme sacrifice
and we wonder concerning their
future existence. It seems so
useless for a young man just en
tering to life to sacrifice it for a
great cause if death be the be all
and end all.
SOUL AND IMMORTALITY
Belief in immortality hinges
on a belief in the soul. Early
man thought that his soul was
his second self. It was the part
of him that wandered about in
dreams. They also believed in
animism or that all mature «was
alive. To primitive man the
soul was always something dis
tinct from the body. To him
however the soul was not neces
sarily eternal It might wander
about for a time and pass out of
existence. Some early peoples be
lieved in tlie transmigration of
souls. Plato believed this as do
the Hindus today. The Hebrews
believed in Sheol, a place that
was dark and gloomy where the
soul spent a cheerless existence.
IDEAS OF THE SOUL
The early Greek philosophers
thought that the soul was com
posed of the same elements as
were found in the body. They
thought the body was made up
of the elements of earth, air.
fire and water. Anaximines
thought that the basic element
of the universe was air The soul
of man was made up of thin or
rarefied air Heraclitus thought
that the soul was made up of
fire Empedocles introduced
transmigration of souls into
Greek thinking. The atomists
believed that the soul was made
up of finer atoms than those of
the body. Democritus thought
that the soul was to be identi
fied with reason, the thinking
and judging part of man.
Plato believed the soul exist-
McDONALD ON SALUTING
DO YOU THROW YOUR HIGHBALL AT SIX PACES
OR DO YOU MAKE THE POOR LOOIE DIZZY AT THE
LAST MOMENT?
GOSH. 1 I HOPE WE PASS LOCKER.
INSPECTION TODAY.
ed before it entered the body It
had existed in the realm of per
fect ideas It was pulled down
and debased by the body. All
knowledge is recollection of the
soul from its previous existence
The human soul is a pari of pure
reason It is life Plato thought
the ultimate goal of the soul was
to release itself from the body
and in the ideal world to con
template the beautiful, the pure
and the good.
SOUL CAN REASON
Aristotle thought that the soul
was to be found wherever there
was any life. The soul of man
attains to the highest because it
can reason. Creative reason in
man is a spark of divinity, a part
of God, which comes into the
soul from without and is not in
fluenced by the baser side of the
soul.
The Epicureans believed that
the soul perished at death. The
Stoics held that man is both
body and soul, and that the soul
is a spark from the divine fire
controlled by a ruling part situ
ated in the heart. The Stoics
thought the soul is the source of
what we know as perception,
judgment, feeling and willing.
Christianity gave a new con
ception to the soul. Man is a
Thursday, April 20, 1944
union of body and of soul Plot,
nus thought that the human
soul is a part of a world soul.
The human soul at first was in a
realm where it saw the pure
world soul and knew all that
was good. The soul by entering
a material body is corrupted. It
must free itself from matter and
return to God and thus purify
itself
SOUL IS GOODNESS
Christians thought the soul
represented the good in the uni
verse. St. Augustine thought the
body was the prison house of the
soul, the source of all evil. Au
gustine did not like Plato be
lieve in the preexistence of the
soul Aquinus thought the soul
was the immaterial, intellectual
and vital principle of the body.
The human soul is different from
other souls because it is intelli
gent and can will.
The forerunners of the Renais
sance doubted all previous teach
ings concerning the soul.
Francis Bacon believed the soul
to be the seat of reason, imagina
tion, understanding, memory,
appetite and will. Hobbes, as a
pure materialist, thought the
idea of a soul silly There was
no such a thing.
Descrates was a materialist like
Hobbes but wanted to believe in
the soul. He thought that the
soul had powers of willing, feel
ing and reasoning. The soul acts
and has passions. The Soul is a
part of the Whole, or part of
God and cannot disappear Spi
noza taught the soul as a mode
of God.
Locke believed the soul to be
a spiritual substance with the
power of perceiving, thinking
and willing. To him the soul
was the immaterial part of man
that thinks. Hume like Hobbes
was skeptical as to belief in the
soul.
Kant believed the idea of a
soul serves as a focal point to
which we may refer our con
scious experiences. It serves as
a basis for a moral life.
There are, you see, many
views oj the soul If you are a
thinker and love knowledge the
soul of man will at some future
time be able to know the truth.
Heaven or a future existence
will be a great university where
the soul of man that thirsts for
knowledge will be satisfied If
you are in love with justice and
truth and righteousness your
soul will dwell in a future exis
tence where these things are to
their fullest extent. The soul of
man is the divine part of man
that thirst* after God whether
He be a contemplative God or
pure intelligence or a God of
justice and truth and righteous
n«n
