DIY History | Transcribe | World War I Diaries and Letters | Robert Morriss Browning correspondence to Mabel C. Williams, 1921-1922 | 1921-05-22 Robert M. Browning to Dr. Mabel C. Williams Page 1

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Robert Morriss Browning correspondence to Mabel C. Williams, 1921-1922

1921-05-22 Robert M. Browning to Dr. Mabel C. Williams Page 1

Mayen, Germany, 22 May 1921
Dear Miss Williams:
I was surprised at your going over to the Reds the way you did in your last letter but on the whole I must admit that your reasons for the step are unanswerable. My own Corona is still a complicated affair to me so that I hardly ever use it. This Underwood somehow has a homey touch that makes it about two hundred percent easier to use. I found it here in the guardhouse and am writing to you now at four o'clock in the morning. Guard duty is one occasion at least when my University training comes in to good advantage in the Army. If I have to sit up all night it is only an extra couple of hours so that an extra cup of coffee makes it seem perfectly normal.
At  that though I'd like to get back. A few weeks ago the chief of Infantry sent out a circular mentioning the courses that he wanted officers to take in civilian institutions of learning. Applied Psychology, Grading and Testing, was on the list so I sat down and told him how bright I was and that I just loved to study psych and wanted to go to University of Iowa to specialize in tests. I said I wanted to conduct a series of tests to determine more fully the reliability of such tests as has already been tried in the Army although I kindly offered to study any other phase of the subject that higher authority might prefer. I spent a deal of time on that letter and used my best typing ability on it. It got back to the Colonel all right but hit a snag at Coblens and came back to me in about ten days with the 2nd Indorsement reading "1. Disapproved. 2. This officer has not had sufficient foreign service on his present tour to justify his relief therefrom. By Command of GENERAL ALLEN." So I decided not to go to school this fall.
It must be an awful, that demand for officers on school detail. Imagine thirty officers at Iowa! I wish some of that demand would get around to me. I've put in school detail at the head of the column of preference for assignment ever since the armistice and yet the demand has never seemed to be so great that they got as far down the list as I am. I'd pull some wires if I knew where I could get in contact with the right wires. But tell me what those thirty officers do. Would you mind sending me a copy of a catalogue bulletin giving the courses of study? Is Colonel Mumma still there? I'm shocked that an alumna of your standing should take such a superficial interest in the important things in the life of the University. And you didn't know that there wasn't any pitcher in the ball squad. I'm s'prised.
How is that Memorial fund coming along anyway? I suppose I should kick in with a handful of marks, but I think I'll wait until I get back home and can pay in real money.
While you people were so interested in the answer of the Germana ot the reparations demands on May 12 we were having a rather interesting time over here ourselves. The day after you wrote your letter I was on my way to the club about seven thirty or eight o'clock when I met Captain Burney or "I" Company who told me that an orderly was looking for me to tell me to report to the Major's quarters. we went up together and found the Major and the other company commanders standing at a table studying some maps. Then we were handed a flock of orders marked "SECRET" in impressive capitals and sat down to read that we were to prepare to entrain early next morning for field service. I had visions of going into the Ruhr valley with the frogs thinking that perhaps our batallion had been selected as the one with which the United States would make a friendly gesture to show that we were in sympathy with the French advance. It was a disappointment to read that we were merely to guard some railway lines in the American area over which the French troop train would pass. Believe me we had a busy time of it for a while though getting everything set in a hurry that way. If you have never had to do it you can't realize just what has to be done before a thousand men are moved out of billets scattered all over a town of fifteen thousand are are moved a hundred miles or so in other billets

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Mayen, Germany, 22 May 1921 Dear Miss Williams: I was surprised at your going over to the Reds the way you did in your last letter but on the whole I must admit that your reasons for the step are unanswerable. My own Corona is still a complicated affair to me so that I hardly ever use it. This Underwood somehow has a homey touch that makes it about two hundred percent easier to use. I found it here in the guardhouse and am writing to you now at four o'clock in the morning. Guard duty is one occasion at least when my University training comes in to good advantage in the Army. If I have to sit up all night it is only an extra couple of hours so that an extra cup of coffee makes it seem perfectly normal. At that though I'd like to get back. A few weeks ago the chief of Infantry sent out a circular mentioning the courses that he wanted officers to take in civilian institutions of learning. Applied Psychology, Grading and Testing, was on the list so I sat down and told him how bright I was and that I just loved to study psych and wanted to go to University of Iowa to specialize in tests. I said I wanted to conduct a series of tests to determine more fully the reliability of such tests as has already been tried in the Army although I kindly offered to study any other phase of the subject that higher authority might prefer. I spent a deal of time on that letter and used my best typing ability on it. It got back to the Colonel all right but hit a snag at Coblens and came back to me in about ten days with the 2nd Indorsement reading "1. Disapproved. 2. This officer has not had sufficient foreign service on his present tour to justify his relief therefrom. By Command of GENERAL ALLEN." So I decided not to go to school this fall. It must be an awful, that demand for officers on school detail. Imagine thirty officers at Iowa! I wish some of that demand would get around to me. I've put in school detail at the head of the column of preference for assignment ever since the armistice and yet the demand has never seemed to be so great that they got as far down the list as I am. I'd pull some wires if I knew where I could get in contact with the right wires. But tell me what those thirty officers do. Would you mind sending me a copy of a catalogue bulletin giving the courses of study? Is Colonel Mumma still there? I'm shocked that an alumna of your standing should take such a superficial interest in the important things in the life of the University. And you didn't know that there wasn't any pitcher in the ball squad. I'm s'prised. How is that Memorial fund coming along anyway? I suppose I should kick in with a handful of marks, but I think I'll wait until I get back home and can pay in real money. While you people were so interested in the answer of the Germana ot the reparations demands on May 12 we were having a rather interesting time over here ourselves. The day after you wrote your letter I was on my way to the club about seven thirty or eight o'clock when I met Captain Burney or "I" Company who told me that an orderly was looking for me to tell me to report to the Major's quarters. we went up together and found the Major and the other company commanders standing at a table studying some maps. Then we were handed a flock of orders marked "SECRET" in impressive capitals and sat down to read that we were to prepare to entrain early next morning for field service. I had visions of going into the Ruhr valley with the frogs thinking that perhaps our batallion had been selected as the one with which the United States would make a friendly gesture to show that we were in sympathy with the French advance. It was a disappointment to read that we were merely to guard some railway lines in the American area over which the French troop train would pass. Believe me we had a busy time of it for a while though getting everything set in a hurry that way. If you have never had to do it you can't realize just what has to be done before a thousand men are moved out of billets scattered all over a town of fifteen thousand are are moved a hundred miles or so in other billets