The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1901-01-23
The West Point Investigation.

The congressional committee inves-
tigating the charges of brutal hazing at
West Point is not doing job of white
washing. The public is becoming ia
miliar with certain phases of life at
West Point about which little was gen.
orally known. The source of the
trouble appears to be that the seniors,
or first class cadets, have usurped re-
sponsibility for the demeanor of the
lower class men, and the Academy au-
thorities have submitted to the usurpa-
ton with all its brutal tyranny. That
is to say, the first class cadets have
taken West Point law into their hands,
and the result is not unlike the conse-
quences when unauthorized people
take State law into their own hands.
AS the Eagle of Brooklyn puts it, the
long and short of the matter is that the
conduct of the juniors has been super
vised by those whose conduct was mis-
conduct. One of the effects following
this cause. is physical encounters The
scrap followed what was construed as
an affront by the self-constituted guar
disns Of the juniors. AT the end of a
scrap the junior was almost invariably
incapacitated from further ring service
for the time being. Bare fists being
used, he was not presentable spects-
Gle when he was taken to hospital.
If the victim was pummelled into a
jelly the Academy surgeon accepted
the explanation that he had met with
an accident in the gymnasium. dag
nosing the case presented by the facts
the investigating committee has dis
closed the Eagle says:
The point is that the committee ju-
diciously Disseminated, which means
that the junior cadet was to be thrasbed
within an inch of his life, the code die
tating that he should be hammered,
not so long as he could fight, but as
long as he could stand. The difficulty
is to reconcile this sort of thing with
generally accepted ideas of fair play.
Ring experience counts for much. 1t
sometimes places big boxer at the
mercy of little pugilist. 1t always
makes the result foregone conclusion
when other things are equal, when the
adversaries are on even terms in the
matter of height and weight. Occa-
sionally, of course, the representative
of the seniors caught tarter, but, as a
rule, the junior was carried to the hos
pital for treatment. So the first class
stands convicted of violating the regu-
lation which prohibits fighting and the
violation is something more than the
fracture of a rule.
AS West Point is not a nursery e.
tablished with the idea of coddling
either juveniles or adults, it is possible
to talk too severely about fighting. Ii
is not difficult to imagine conditions
under which certain regulations are
more honored in the breach than the
observance. Such conditions will arise
and even the sternest disciplinarian will
persist in looking the other way, but
the West Point case is not of this va
riety. Under the more or less dis
tinguished patronage of the judges en-.
counters which would provoke the in
dignalion of crowd of plug uglie'
have disgraced the academy. The
clumsy have been matched against the
clever. Dispsrities of this description
are as real as differences in inches OF
avoirdupois. There is not a prOfes
sional bruiser on the continent, how
ever brutalized he may be, who woulC
go far out of his way to see clumsines
arrsyed against cleverness. He nigh
cross the continent to witness fgh
between two men, each supposed to b.
equally capable of taking care of him
self, but he would regard as sorry ex
hibition what seems to have commend
ed itself to the seniors of the academy
The first class has filed bid for some
thing stronger than disapproval. Tyran
ny IAN 90 no further than to ordail
that man who has virtually no chanc,
of winning shall be sent into the rim!
to stay there until he is beaten into
> state of Inconsistencies. One stel
J further the seniors might have gone
They might have armed their repre-
sentatives with brass knuckles 30 as t,
make assurance doubly sure.