The Naval Institute Proceedings in its present form includes everything but a safety valve. It is the only magazine of note that to my knowledge has failed to supply its readers with a means of blowing off steam.
The Secretary and the Board of Directors have a bulletin board in the Secretary’s Notes in which to make concise general comments, but not so the reader. Let us briefly survey the situation. The Proceedings is composed of original articles, discussions of articles published in previous issues, notes on international affairs written by the Institute’s staff, book reviews written by those qualified for this work, professional notes or extracts from other periodicals, and the Secretary’s Notes, which may be called the staff bulletin board.
Under this set-up an officer with an idea he wishes to put before the service has but two means in which to do it: (1) to write an article or (2) to write to the Secretary and ask him to include it in his notes. Frequently the idea is not of sufficient moment to require the dignity of an article or is not exactly relevant to the material usually covered in the Secretary’s Notes. In this case the idea is never put in writing, and the service loses just that much general information.
Therefore, it is proposed that the “Discussions” be expanded to include not only discussions of articles which have already appeared but also short articles or letters from members who wish to post a professional idea before the service as a whole.
This has a further advantage in that it appears that all officers can write letters while few can or wish to write articles. If the average service of every officer were 35 years, an average of only one article per line officer would appear in the Proceedings during that period. Further, if the letters were paid for at the rate now prevailing there should be forthcoming many worth-while ideas.
An example of the need for this service occurred recently when an officer suggested that some use should be made of the books that the midshipmen throw away on graduation. He said,
I have 80 enlisted men who are studying for ratings. The Bureau of Navigation rating courses are fine, but these men want to go beyond that. They want books on seamanship, steam engines, electricity, navigation, and gunnery. We have a few books and could write to the Bureau for more, but it would cost $500 to get all the books they need. I know the P. G. students use most of the old books stored in the basement of Bancroft Hall, which I call the basement library, but they don’t take them all. There are lots of old books there, a little dog-eared, a little out of date, but my men would go for them in a big way. The Ship’s Service has agreed to pay the freight, if we can get the books. How can I go about it?
The answer to that particular question is easy; but there are other ships—submarines, destroyers, and other small craft —which could use a good stock of non- “Title B” books. It was suggested that the officer write an article for the Naval Institute Proceedings, embodying his idea.
“But,” he said, “there isn’t enough to that idea to make an article.” Which is perfectly true, but he might have made the discussion column with a letter.
Editor’s Note.—The editor invites members to express their opinions on expanding the discussion column. We feel that if it is done, it would be sufficient merely to enlarge the scope of the present section and not limit it strictly to discussions of articles that have already appeared.
The new department “Discussions and Comments” would then include letters of the type now used and in addition comments and suggestions concerning any timely subject of interest to readers of the Proceedings.