Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-09-02
West Point and the District.

To the Editor of THE EVENING STAR:
II the substitution OF civil engineers to army
officers in the administration of the local gov
ernment were put to popular vote the ayes
would have it almost unanimously This pub
lie opinion is not due to prejudice against army
officers as SUCH As class they recognized
as brave, hardy, intelligent and honorable. and
their peculiar professional knowledge has pre-
pared them to be Of great service TO the coun-
try on the frontier, or in time of foreign war or
local instruction. The government needs men
who understand coast Notification. torpedoes,
the force Of powder, the manufacture of can
non, the flight OF projectiles and tho qualities
OF fire arms, and it has established at West
Point an academy. the chief purpose OF which
is to teach military engineering. IL Washing
ton city needed Notifications, with heavy guns
on them. the professional knowledge of army
officers would be required; and every citizen
recognizes the propriety of putting Gen. Ord
way at the head Of the District brigade of vol
unteers. The tools to those who can best use
them! But why has Congress stripped a few
army officers Of their uniform and ordered
them to be detailed for work on sewers sewer
traps, water pipes, sidewalks, asphalt pave
ments and the thousand practical details of
municipal engineering? Why has Congress
wrested from these men the sword and put into
their hands the surring stick of the asphalt
kettle? Is it possible that our Legislators do
not know the radical difference between the
four branches of engineering military me-
chanical, municipal and electrical? That
man may understand gun locks and pontoon
bridges and know nothing about furnishing a
city with water or Riding il OF its sewage?
Would any city in the Union place a man in
charge of its street improvements because he
knows how far an ounce OF powder will project
a minnie ball from muskeR The Presidents
have, no doubt. made the best appointments
possible, and the officers appointed have not
been free TO refuse. They have simply obeyed
orders. And they have honestly tried to mas
ter business entirely new to them. But,
being novices they have either adopted the
periments. Ninety-nine out of hundred of
these have affected local interests only and
have not attracted public attention. 1t is only
when the chimerical folly of running a FIVE
mile tunnel through an imaginary solid rock,
ending in an abandoned sixty-acre reservoir,
which looks as blasted and desolate as the lava
lined crater OF Vesuvius. figures for a round
million in the government charges against the
District. that our taxpayers are stirred to pro-
test against military men in the unaccustomed
role Of municipal engineers. IL the District
were allowed TO keep these army officers, after
educating them through costly experiments,
the situation would be more tolerable. But
when we &c: one taught so as TO understand
his business he is whisked off by army order to
the Pacific slope or elsewhere to make way for
the education of another novice. Civilian
commissioners, with an improvement depart
ment conducted by civil engineers, would be a
profitable change for this District
Ex-CAPTAry