The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-01-18
THE NATIONAL DISGRACE.

The hazing crime and disgrace at
West Point become more and more
horrible and stunning. The congress
sionaI investigating committee is bring
ing out bottom facts, and they are
more disgusting and devilish even than
those first indicated. There have been
more of downright cruelty, brutality
and infernalism than outsiders ever
dreamed of or guessed at. At last af-
ter exceeding inquiry the true story is
out setting forth the barbarities and
the morals ard the standards of West
Point-a veritabIe shame n disgrace
to civilization and the American union.
The committee is doing its work most
efficiently n fully. The senior cadets
have indeed "a tale unfolded' that has
brought shame to all concerned and in
dignation to all decent people. The
Washington Post makes fitting COM
ment upon the shameful ~evelation
we quote the following that shows the
extreme degradation of the ~nationa.
military school. 1t says:
What we gather from the admis-
sions of the senior cadets is that So
called hazing at West Point has been
a tyrannical and cruel persecution OF
the small boys by the big ones; that
the fights required by the academy
code of honor are in fact mere bar
barOus punishments of the weak by the
strong; that in i cases out OF ten
the freshman has no sort or cnance
and that the ceremony is deliberately
contrived with a view to ascerta1nlng
the limit of his ability to survive the
effects of an overwhelming onslaught.
1t has been clearly shown that these
West Point fights are far more brutal
than contests in the prize-ring, for IN
the latter case feeble men are never
pitted against their physical super1orS,
while in the former they are almost al
ways subjected ito that hopeless handi-
cap. In the priZe-ring men are made
TO wear gloves and are invariably pro-
tected against barbarous punishment.
In the West Point fights the little boys
have ito meet the big ones with bare
knuckles. and they are expected TO
fight until they faint, no matter how
hopeless their inferiority may be or
how certain their cruel punishment"
That beats any prize-ring of England
or the United States that has been the
scene of so many barbara displays.
That such things could occur among
American supposed civilized youth is
most astonishing. That events 50 full
of cruelty and Generalization should
have happened at the chief military
educational institution is not only
most surprising n lamentabDe. but is
almost incredible. The Post says OF
the effects of the brutal system pre-
vailing tha 1.-The inevitable tendency
of the system is to degrade and de
moralize those who recognize and prac-
and ruffians of the bigger boys, but IL
involves them in mendacity and false
witness as a necessary consequence"
The Baltimore Sun has a long, force
full, excoriating editorial upon THE
Diabolism ait West Point" and it 5
we'll named. If there was ever an out
put of hell amid civilization it is the
offence at West Point. The Sur lashes
well but o q whit more than the
enormities of h crimes perpetrated
demand. Let us quote from this able,
influential daily. 1t has much We
would k to copy. blu the following
must suffice:
Moved by hunger brutes crafty
their appetite without regard to the
sufferings of their victims. but they do
not torture them. They do not go out
of their way to inf1ict pain, nor do
they delight in needless and malignant
cruelty. If they kill it is after fair
fight; they do not have a committee
to provoke fights and pick IL their
biggest brute to do up a younger.
smaller and weaker one In their case
there is no parallel with the freshmen
of Booz, who was done to death mere
ly to crafty the capricious antipathies
of a coterie of roughs of a higher class,
Intent on driving him from the school,
the roughs violated every instinct of
humanity, every teaching of Christi
anity and every sentiment of a GENTLE
men. to say nothing of h rules and
their oath to observe them. And the
testimony elected last week goes to
show that the officers in charge at