The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-04-26
WEST POINT cADETsHlP.

The Independent chooses to think
that the warning given by this paper
| to the young Hawaiian whom Delegate
Wilcox has named for West Point, was
inspired by some aversion to color. The
assumption is wholly gratuitous. Only
lone color line has been drawn in this
affair, and that one is against white
Hawaiians Delegate Wilcox desiring,
perhaps naturally enough, to get the
/ first West Point prize for one OF his
own race. He failed in the case OF
Joseph Aea, as the Advertiser said he
would; and he will probably keep on
failing until he gives the best students
| in the Hawaiian schools chance TO
compete for the scholarship, taking the
Had among them all, assuming his phys
lical characteristics, to be right, who
shows that he has the best education.
! If that boy is of native blood. We'll and
good No fault can be found and the
advertiser will be the last paper to
try and find any.
Wilcox, in making his appointments,
does not care for scholarship-he Is
Hooking for color. He of all men ought
to know how much scholarship counts
lin such matters; for, as the late G.. {.
Moreno said, he went abroad under the
patronage Of the King, TO get into any
military school where the standards
equal or approach those of West Point.
He tried Germany and was promptly
turned down; and then he went else
where veinly seeking foothold until
he got into one of the siipshod schools
of Italy-the place where warriors
were trained to be dashed out of Abys-
lsinnia in after years by the Negus
Menelek, and out of Hawaiian gas
tanks by the missionaries. Forgetting
all this, however, he tries to send young
men to West Point, simply because
they are native Hawaiians, not stop
ping to ask whether they ever won
standing in the local schools or wheth-
Ter they have even a remote chance of
passing the strenuous examination at
the United States Military Academy,
particularly In those Observation-Disclosures
and mathematician which Hawaiians
are least exact.
The Independent shows how little 1t
knows about West Point by saying that
Mr.. Richardson, if he goes there,
will have backing In the city of New
York, besides his own substance, which
neither Grant nor any American Gen
eral can boast Of" "Can" is good, see
ing how long Grant has been dead. And
why cite American Generals" who
are not candidates for West Point? The
truth is, as the Independent should
know, that political or financial inf1u-
ence has no force except to get a boy
a chance to take the West Point test.
It will not help him over the rough
places in an examination. While Cen
eral Fitzhugh Lee was representing his
from the rolls of the academy for weak
ness in scholarship. John A. Logan, Jr.,
afterwards volunteer officer, was sim
ilarly dropped. General Frederick D.
Grant now a volunteer officer in the
Philippines, barely saved himself at
West Point while his father was Pres
dent of the United States, graduating
at or near the foot of his class. A son
of President Hayes, If we remember
of great mems sons on the rejected roll
is long and melancholy. showing how
slight consideration influence has be-
fore the examining board
The Independent assures us that un
less the Advertiser has a care, young
Mr.. Richardson will withdraw from the
task. With all kindness we advise him
to withdraw unless he is sure that he
knows enough to enter great univer-
sity, such as West Point is-a place
where 1t is more difficult to get or keep
a foothold than in Yale. Harvard or
Princeton.