Evening star., 1898-09-14
THE NAVAL ACADEMY
Recommendations Made by the Board
of Visitors.
POST GRADUATE COURSES SUGGESTED
Importance of Devoting More
Time to Study.
REQUIREMENTS OF ADMISSION

The report of the board of visitors to the
Naval Academy was made public at the
Navy Department today The board, con-
sisting of Representatives S. G. Hilborn.
Irving P. Wanger. Charles E. Munroe,
Chas. K. Wheeler, A. Babcock, Edward C.
Hinman, John l.. Lampson, James Phillips,
jr.. H. E. Sadler, John VI. Boyer, met at the
Naval Academy May 30. and organized,
electing Representative Hilborn, president;
Mr.. Charles E. Munroe of Washington, D.
c., vice president, and Lieut.. c. NJ. Stone,
U. S. N. secretary.
Recomme M ndations of the Board.
The board makes the following recon-
mendations:
% That the appointment of candidates
be made by July / of the year preceding
their examination for admission in order
to permit them to be more fully prepared.
C2) That those cadets who pass into the
line and engineer corps be required, on the
completion of their first three years cruise,
to return to the academy and pursue a
two years course of advanced studies in
either ordnance. marine engineering, or
electrical engineering.
C0 That the department of seamanship
be provided with a set of models of mod
ern men-of-War, one of each type.
G4) That the department of steam engi-
neering be supplied with modern tools and
machinery.
90 That the board approves of the gen.
eral plan for the rebuilding of the academic
buildings, and believes that if it be faith
fully carried out the result will be betitting
the dignity of this great nation.
90 That a continuing annual appropria-
ton be made for rebindlng in half or full
morocco, valuable books in the library.
% That the efficiency of the board of
visitors will be increased by the appoint
rnent of a portion of the board for two
or more terms, so that at least portion
of the board may be familiar with the du-
ties which the board is expected to per-
form.
Standard of Admission.
The committee On the conditions Of al
missions to the academy strongly advocate
such a standard of scholarship as test Of
admission as can be acquired at the public
schools instead of raising it to a point at
tainable only to those boys who have the
advantage Of a college course. On this i'm
pCrtant subject the report says:
THE committee finds that while a large
number of applicants for admission have
had the benefit of Instruction in secondary
schools, the branches on which they are
examined are such only as are taught in
the common schools, and the Naval Acad-
emy course begins where the common
school course usually ends.
Academic branches and drills occupy the
cadets for three years, and the strictly pro-
fessicnal work is taken up for the most
l.
ticn given by the academy ceases although
the cadet returns after two years at sea
and is examined upon the studies pursued
and work done by him while af1oat.
I'm view Of the rapid changes ard de-
velopnent of modern naval construction
ard warfare, ard the rapidly increasing
departments of knowledge in which COM
petent naval officer must now he an adept
in view also of the number of years taken
by our chronological schools in educating
iii civil life. the men beside whom oar Off
GERS must work and with whom they must
be compare l. II is evident that an increas-
ed amount If time should now be provided
for the instruction of naval officers.
But how shall II be dor.e? The standard
for admission might be raised. but 1ur peo-
pie seela to have determined that every
10y should nave chance to enter the Mil
itary and Naval Academies, and only the
common schools are within the reach of Il
large majority of our sons.
still more, the best seamen have all
taken to the water young, and the drills
and vigorous discipline which are needed
to put the cadets into shape are most el-
feCtive in the years of age between fifteen
and twenty. Indeed 1t is doubtful whether
such discipline should ever be carried much
beyond the age of twenty, and the navy
should have control of its boys before the
average age of high school graduates.
Again. we might lengthen the present
course from four to six years, abolishing
| the two years as cadet at sea, which
every one now comedies has outiived it's
usefulness. But instruction at the academy
| goes fast, and rightly. The commander
must learn to see at a glance. to read as
he runs. The leisurely, digestive, critic
producing methods of the university are
out of place here. Unity and solidarity,
not individuality. are the needs of the sit
uation. Four years of this rushing, ac-
companied throughout by the vigorous and
necessary discipline, are all that the service
seems to require or that the young officer
| will cheerfully undergo.
Obligatory POst-Graduate Course.
| 1T remains only to add a postgraduate
| course obligatory all officers, and this
| being made freely elective and allied more
| closely to university methods, might well
| come at the end of the first cruise of three
years, when, after some experience of the
service and with more maturity, the young
| officer could select those branches in which
| he felt himself to be deficient or for which
he had discoN cred a natural bent.
| Time for this Additional work might lie