The times., 1901-05-24
Politics at West Point.

I
to be content with something lower
Politics at West Point.
| Some of the cadets who have gotten
themselves into trouble at West Point
| by failing in a soldiers first duty-re-
spect for authority-are now pulling all
the strings they can find which connect
with influential friends in Congress and
| elsewhere This is a sequence to the
mutiny quite appropriate and natural.
Failing to convince the authorities at
West Point that they were right in the
! late unpleasantness, the young men are
now using their best efforts to compel
the authorities to remit their penalty
! whether it is just or not.
| If there is one place in which polit-
tcaI considerations should be absolutely
barred from interfering with discipline,
it is at West Point Bad as it is to
have politics ruling the volunteer Army
| in time of war, it will be worse still
! if the officers of the Regular Army are
bred in the belief that 'pull' will atone
for everything. West Point is no place
! for democracy; still less is it place
! for machine politics.
The first lesson for an incipient SOL
! dier TO learn is obedience. He should
| allow nothing to knock that out of his
| head 1t would have been rather bad
| if Colonel Mills and his coadjutors had
been accused of using discipline so Sc
we're as that inflicted by the upper
| class men on the unlucky plebes, but it
would not have been as demoralizing,
all things considered, as the unpunished
abuse of privilege by the cadets them
| selves. In the one case it would at
! least have taught the cadet to respect
authority, just or unjust, gentle or Sc
we're, and he might, remembering his
! own suftarings, have been gentle with
the enlisted men under his control when
he came to be an officer But in the
! other case the cadet learns to ride
roughshod over the rules of the school
and the express commands of his su-
periors. a lesson which it is not desir-
able that he should either put in prac-
tice in time of war or teach to his men.
Mutiny in the army, with no more ex-
cuse than that of the cadets, would be
rather serious thing in some circum-
stances.
1t is of the utmost Importance, then,
that the lesson taught the rebellious
! cadets should not be unlearned. In
that case there would probably be a
much worse state of things later on.
The formation Of an aristocracy in the
Academy, composed Of young men with
political influence, is not an impossible
| or a desirable thing. and there is moth
ing that would do more to prevent it
than the notification of a well-deserved
punishment through personal interest.
While President Mckinley is waiting for
his invalid wife to recover sufficient
strength for her homeward journey, he
is enabled to give the people of San Fran
cisco, at least. many chances to meet
him. He has reSfewed the Knights Tenn
! plar the school children, and some cadet
| organizations and is not neglecting his
| opportunities to see what is going on
about him, any more than he can help.
From a recent consular report from
| Hungary it seems possible that coal from
| the United States may be successfully
sold in the markets OF that country be-
fore long. Germany has little and Aus
tria not a great surplus for export. If
half the Morgan stories that are told are
true, we could compete with the United
Kingdom in the coal trade even in the