The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-02-04
THE WEST POINT TRAINING.

Now that public attention is aroused
on the subject of the failures of the
army staff, it should be directed to one
of the sources of this weakness. One of
these is the character of the training
given at West Point. 1t is we'll known
that there is annually appointed board
of visitors to visit West Point and make
a complete report on its wants and con-
dition. This board reaches the Point on
June I and remains until June ~. 1t
has regular programme of duty which
keeps it's members busy during these
twelve days, and it's work Is in almost
all cases very we'll done. The personnel
of these boards has, since the civil war,
| been exceptionally good There have
been upon them graduates of West
Point, soldiers of the war of 1861, educa-
tors and physicians of high standing.
| If the reports of these boards for the
| last twenty years are examined it will
be found that there are constant re-
concentrations that the standard of adj
mission to the academy should be raised.
The low standard of admission makes
the first two years, so far as the mental
discipline is concerned, a work of ela-
mentary training-a training which the
cadet should have received before enter
ing the school. This crowds the strictly
professional training into the two last
years. For the upper grades of the SER
vice-engineers, artillery, ordnance and
staff-this is not sufficient and cannot
be sufficiently specialized. The board of
1895 in it's report made all elaborate
comparison of the West Point course of
study with that Of the principal govern
ment military schools of Europe, and
there were appended to the report tables
showing the course Of instruction in
these schools. In one sentence the re-
suit Of the comparison was that the Eu-
ropean schools are strictly professional
schools, and West Point is partly ele-
mentary and partly professional.
In all of these schools the staff re-
ceives the very highest training. In the
nited States the necessity for higher
staff training resulted, some time since,
in the establishment of what may be
called post graduate schools at Fort
Leavenworth and Willets Point. These
have done something to supplement the
defect in specialized training at West
Point but the shifting Of corps of in
struction, changes in the personnel of
the student body and the voluntary
character of the work make them poor
substitute for an institution giving sys-
tematic instruction.
1t is not disputed that the education
given at West Point is good one, nor
do we intend to charge the failures of
the staff during the recent war to West
Point The point we make is that the
training there is partly wasted in nom
professional work and is too little spec
ialized, with little or no special staff
training. The result is seen when we
find that at the beginning of the war
there was no special staff to which the
president could commit the staff duties.
If he turned to the line officers he ran
the risk of weakening the efficiency of
the regular army by decimating its Of
ficers, and he would get men we'll
trained as soldiers generally, but made
quately trained for staff posts. This
forced him to some extent to go to the
country, and inevitably this meant in
f1uence politics, ''the sons of fathers"
etc.-Ealtin ore Sun.