The record-union., 1891-08-15
WHAT Is THE MATTER WITH
WEST POINTs


WEST POINT
Is the United States Military Academy
to decline and go out? Itwould certainly
seem that it is retrograding, from its
standard Of numbers, at least The law
fixes the number of cadets to fill the
corps. That number is now, and for
sometime has been, one-sixth short, and
all efforts to fill the vacancies, sixty in
number, have failed, and this shortage,
be it noted, is not exceptional, but
annual.
The chief reason given for this state of
affairs is Indifference of Congressman in
exercising their right to nominate suita-
BILE candidates. They select and send up
youths who cannot possibly pass, and on
rejection being announced they send to
the examiners a new lot, equally as far
below grade as the preceding one.
Fortunately for local pride California is
not named in the list Of vacancies, but
districts in Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois,
Indiana, Kansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Louis
lana. Maryland, Massachusetts,, Missis-
sippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey,
New York, North Carolina, Pennsyl-
Vania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia,
Wisconsin, West Virginia and Ohio are.
Is the disposition of good material to take
the military course declining? Is the
drift of our youth to purely commercial
pursuits on the one hand, or to the uni
Versity course of education on the other,
so strong that West Point presents no
attraction sufficiently strong, with all its
financial advantages and assurance of a
salary on graduation to fill it's roster?
Evidently the Board of Visitors enter
nominees the standard of the corps num-
Der cannot be maintained. They have
therefore, recommended that the privi-
lege Of nominating be extended to United
States Senators, giving to each Senator
one nominee. This rule, if adopted by
Congress, will enlarge the corps standard
ance does it give that the annual vacan-
cies viii be lessened? The greater num-
Der of nominees does not and cannot
guarantee that qualified youths Will be
sent up for examination.
There ought to be physically qualified
young men enough of ability and ambi-
fiC,, ernour, go 400 400 oF ,,oo,,1o .. q.
themselves to accept the bounty of the
Nation as extended at West Point. Here
is an institution that without dollar of
cost to the cadet gives him a fine educa-
ton, fits him for military duty in any
one Of several departments, and on grad
nation puts him, if he wishes, on duty at
a comfortable salary, yet there are not
found youths to avail of the bounty in
number equal to the number of repre-
sentatives and delegates in the lower
house of Congress.
The next examination takes place on
the 28th inst, and the next after that in
June, 1892. Unless these two examina-
tions fill the roster, will it not be a justi-
liable conclusion that the military acad-
envy has entered upon its decline simply
and solely for lack of material, and not
because of any lack in the system of edu-
cation, or because of want of liberality
upon the part OF the Government? Ii
this shall prove TO be true, as the annual
shortage would indicate, then the causes
must be sought for and the weakness
remedied. That the speculative tendency
of the times, the indifference of youth to
study necessary to fit it for the academy,
the cigarette habit-numbers are rejected
because ofit-the crowding into business,
the struggle TO enter the civic professions,
the multitude of collegiate institutions
near to the homes of the people, and the
dullness Of military life in times of peace,
are causes accounting for the vacancies al
West Point is probable. But there may
be others and that they are of a character
that can be corrected, but since the pre-
fatory educational requirements are not
great, and as physical excellence is more
insisted upon, it is difficult to divine
other causes for West Point vacancies
than those named.