The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-01-09
The Cure fer Hnztng.

Notwithstanding ----sr'f'Ifvn- to erTv
contrary, which however, is growing to
De less and less in evidence, we are en-
tirely satisfied that The evidence given
before the Brooke army board, and, more
recently, the Congressional investigating
committee. amounts to proof conclusive
that the practice Of hazing at West Point
Is brutal. subversive of good order and
military discipline. and alike destructive
Of true manliness, not to say gentlemanly
instinct. both in those who pursue and
those who suffer under it.
It is often said thai the frequent ten
deacy noticeable in children to abuse and
even torture dumb beasts and birds is
referable to atavism, and represents in
the present juvenile type a reversion to
an undeveloped ancestry living in a pc
riod Of paleolithic or even an earlier stage
OF development, when mankind had not
yet been essentially differentiated from
the other animals with whom it battIed
sn the struggle for existence and when the
most primitive conceptions of justice or
mercy were yet to be evolved. Whether
innate impulses to cruelty in the young
of our race are attributable TO atayism
or not, there is no difference of opinion
as to their undesirability or the necessity
OF suppressing them. The humanitarian
and the biologist agree that such mani
festations Of our close relation to the
less civilized carniyOra, when they con-
iinue beyond earliest childhood. are TO
be considered as evidences OF individual
degeneracy and so treated
When we find boy of a dozen wears
whose chief delight it is to drown the
family dog in the well, or catch a stray
cat and skin IT. we do not generally in
sis. that such exercises tend to make
manly men. On the contrary, We usually
Justify the father OF that boy in taking
his son to the woodshed to examine him
in supplementary proceedings. There is
nothing manly in taking advantage of the
helplessness of creatures OF our own or
another kind to inhict upon them injuries
or fortunes which they are powerless TO
resent or to resist. This applies as well
to the eighteen or nineteen year-old hazer
OF West Point, who pours tabasco sauce
down the throat Of lad few years
younger. as IT does TO the iend in Ken
lucky the other day. who tortured his in
FAINT step-ehild to desth with red hot
poker.
When a green, soft country boy enters
West Point as a 'plebe" and is compelled
by the upper classmen to go into the ring
with a tough young athlete who has had
two or three years experience in the man.
ly art under the best instruction and the
former is punched about, beaten TO
Jelly. and finally knocked out. that is NOT
the way to make officers and gentlemen
out Of the participants, or out of
those who look on and approve the
proceedings. Such things sipply amount
10 vulgar and cOwardly cruelty and brutal
fly. The victim never has a chance to
win or quit even. His tormentors are
repetitions OF the little devil in knicker-
boclSers who browns The dog and skins
the eat for his amusement. in a somewhat
more mature but not less obnoxious form
1t is unnecessary to repeat that public
opinion>is strongly in favor of roofing
out this evil and disgrace in our Govern
ment schools. The sentiment against
hazing is shared by our legislators TO
great extent, and many of them are try
ing around for remedy. Senator Vest
on Monday, offered an amendment to the
pending Army Reorganization bill which