OPINION: Civic-Minded Citizen

Although he now lives quietly in Coronado, Calif., Admiral William H. Standley, wartime ambassador to Russia, still keeps a keen eye on civic affairs. Last week he protested an outrage-in-the-making which had escaped almost everyone else in the state. The city of San Diego was about to dedicate a veterans' memorial building to "those Americans who have fought for the Four Freedoms." The old (77) admiral wasted no time in hurrying down to the city council.

In his considered opinion Americans hadn't been fighting for the Four Freedoms at all; at any rate, they shouldn't have been if they were. Freedom of speech and worship might be all right, but the other two didn't deserve a three-minute round with a waltzing mouse.

Freedom from want was downright Communistic propaganda. Said he: "A fellow who is free from want is dead." And freedom from fear was just "a political slogan. Our American pioneers didn't have to apologize for their fear of the Indians." The council hastily reversed itself, and instructed the city manager to look through the Constitution of the U.S. for a "more appropriate quotation."