Clothes Decision

For six and a half years the editors of the tabloid Army Times never put their paper to bed without a pin-up girl in it. Like their "Gripevine" column, the pretty creatures helped build circulation (now 375,000), and hold it when mustered-out readers had to be coaxed over to the veteran's edition. But an irate letter from Bastrop, Tex. momentarily shook the editors' faith.

". . . It makes my blood boil," wrote Mrs. Wilson C. Bridges, "to think that children see such pictures. . . . I'm a soldier's wife . . and know there are many women who suffer terrible disgrace just because of such horrible pictures [see cut] which cause straying thoughts and lead to divorce.. . . God has provided us with clothes, so let's wear them."

Last week, letters about pinups all but crowded the bonus out of the weekly's Gripevine. Since none supported Mrs. Bridges, Army Times decided to let the pinups stay. Wrote one reader: "Maybe God does provide us with clothes to wear, but if I remember, it was the Devil who taught us to wear them."

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