Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1891-10-15
SEVERE REPORT.
The Military Academy at West
Point and IT'S Defects.
DRILLED IN ANTI0UAIED METHODS
The Board of Visitors Recommends
Wooden Models If Modern Ordnance 10
Not Provided-Benedt of Competit-
i've Examinations.

OF war has received the report OF the
visitors to the military academy of
West Point through Maj. John Carson,
of this city, a member of the board and
its secretary, by whom it was prepared
1t is elaborate and comprehensive, COW
| ering upwards of 100 printed pages and
treating the subjects discussed in a
novel and striking manner.
The first question considered by the
board was whether the strength of the
corps of cadets as now established
should be increased. The board agreed
to recommend the passage of an act
fixing the strength of the corps at
maximum of 400. The board recon-
mends that, in addition to the present
allotment of one cadet to each repre-
sentative and delegate in congress, two
cadets be allowed to each state at large
to be nominated by the senators re-
spectively. and that the president be
| authorized to nominate from the
country at large twenty. The board
calls attention to the inefffciency OF the
| present preliminary examinations as
shown by the failure to graduate of
| more than SO per cent. of the cadets add
mitted AS showing the merit of the
competitive system of selecting candi-
dates for appointment the board pre-
sents tables to show that under the
competitive system 60 per cent gradu-
| ated and 40 per cent failed to graduate,
while of those appointed direct only AZ
per cent graduated and IS per cent.
failed.
| The board strongly condemns the
practice of filling the professorships at
the academy entirely of army officers.
They might, it is said, hold such places
science of war, not otherwise. The
| deficiency in English is said to be pain
fully apparent in the academy and it is
| urgently recommended that more at
| tention be given to the subject In this
connection the board also says very
| pointedly: None of the instructors in
the department of modern languages
has a speaking knowledge of either
| French or Spanish, the two modern
i languages taught at the academy. The
i ability to speak these languages does
not seem to be regarded as essentially
| instruction at West Point
The board says: ''While the corps of
cadets is thoroughly instructed in all
| field movements, certain details are
omitted from the scheme of military in
struction to which we respectfully di-
rect the attention of the proper au-
| thorities- In the school of the soldier,
mounted, the cadet receives no instruc-
| ton in the care of horses. He never
sees horse groomed and knows moth
ing about saddling and bridling, unless
he obtained such information before
entering the academy. 1t seems to the
| board that instruction on these points
! is essential"
Again the board directs attention to
the utter lack of proper arms and
equipment for field exercises and par
| ticularly to the need for modern ord
nance. Having in view the failures of
former appeals, the board says: I'm
til the government can supply the
academy with modern guns to take the
place of the antiquities now in position
in the seacoast and siege batteries, we
recommend that these two worse than
useless batteries be dismantled, and
that wooden guns, fashioned after the
latest approved models and furnished
with modern carriages and cranes,
| be mounted in their stead. Such a
course would not avert the ridicule
to which the United States is now Just
ly subjected by maintaining obsolete
| armament in these two batteries for
| the instruction of future officers of its
army, but it would furnish evidence
| that our military men are cognizant of
the fact progress has been made in the
fabrication of great guns, and that they
fully appreciate the Importance and
value of the improvements. In addi-
ton to this wooden models of modern
fashion would at least give the cadets
an idea of the kind of guns likely to be
used in warfare and of the methods en-
| ployed in serving them"
The members of the board are Sen
ators Henderson and Pugh; Repre-
sentatives Burrows, of Michigan;
| Scranton, of Pennsylvania, and Lam
ham, of Texas. in addition to the fol-
lowing appointed by the president:
Rev. Frank A. O'Brien, Kalamazoo,
| Mich. Col ]. T. Murfee, Marion. A la !:
Hon. James A Waymiere, San Fran
cisco; Maj John NJ. Carson, Washing
ton; Mr.. David w. Payne, Elmira, n.
Y; Gen T. S. Peck. Burlington. VT !,
and Hon. Robert o. Fuller, Cam bridge,
| Mass
| Depot Burned.
| not