Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-06-12
AT WEST POINT.
Centennial Celebration Reached
Its Climax, Yesterday.
President Roosevelt the Chief Guest
and Principal Speaker.
Dress Parade and Grand BANQUET in
the Evening.

" N'f L oiiit, ~. L JuIC IL IN 49,
bration of the Tooth anniversary of the
establishment of the West Point Mill
tary Academy, which nOminally began,
Monday. reached its climax, today. In
terest was centered in President Roose-
Welt. who was the chief guest.
The days activity began with the
arrival of the President about 10 O'Clock
and then came a review of the cadets,
reception at the home of the superin-
tendent of the academy, Col. Mills, the
formal exercises and speeches in Me
mortal hall after luncheon, and the
dress parade at shutdown. The iliumi-
nations, fireworks and "centenniap
held in the evening.
Favorable though cloudy weather in
the forenoon was succeeded by rain in
the afternoon, but by evening the
storm had almost passed.
President Roosevelt and his party ar
rived on a special train about 10 o'clock.
1t included Sec. Root, Sec. Moody,
Postmaster General Payne, Sec. Cor
telvou and Miss Carew, the Presidents
sister-in-law. The President was met
at the station by Superintendent Mills
and his staff, and the academy staff of
49,
received with a salute of 81 guns. He
was driven to the home of Col. Mills
and later review the cadets. He was
accompanied at the review by his many
officials.
In the course of the review Cadet
Calvin p. Titus was called from the
ranks to face the President, who pin
ned a medal for bravery on the youths
breast and spoke a few words TO him.
Immediately after luncheon the hun
dreds of visitors sought Memorial hail,
n new stone structure on the edge OF n
bluff, where the exercises were heid
The small hall was packed with bril-
| liant throng, including graduates of all
classes, back to 1912 and the under
graduates. Col. Mills made an address
of welcome and then introduced Presi-
dent Roosevelt. The President said:
II am glad to have the chance of say
ing a word to you today There is little
need for me to say how well your per
Torrance has compared with the pro-
phetic promise made on your behalf by
the greatest of Americans, Washington.
This institution has completed its mrs.
| hundred years of life. During that CEN
| tury no other educational institution in
| the land has contributed as many names
as West Point contributed to the honor
| roll of the Nations citizens
Col Mills, | claim to be historian
| and | speak simply as reclter OF facts
| when | say what | have said and more
| than that, not merely has West Point
| contributed a greater number of the men
who stand highest on the national honor
| roll but think beyond question that,
| taken as a whole, the average graduate
| of West Point during this hundred years
to the country through his life than has
| the average graduate Of any other insti-
| tuition in this broad land.
| That is not surprising. That is what
we have a right TO expect from this mil
! itary university, founded by the nation
| OF all the institutions in this country
| none is more absolutely American, none
more in the proper sense of the word
| absolutely democratic than this Here
we care nothing for the boys birthplace,
| for the boys grade, for his social stand
ing; here we, care nothing save for his
| worth if he is able to show it. Here you
| represent with almost mathematical eX-
actness the country geographically. You
are drawn from every walk OF lie by
method of chance, meant to insure and
! which in a great majority of cases does
| insure, nothing but active youth. Here
you come together as representatives OF
| America in the higher and more peculiar
sense than can possibly be true of any
other institution in the land, save your
| sister college that makes similar prep
| aration for the service of the country on
| the sea.
This morning | have shaken hands
| with many OF you and ] have met the
| men who stand as representatives of ev-
| cry great struggle this great nation has
made for the last 80 or 80 years. There
are some still left among the older OF
| you who took part in the Mexican war.
a struggle which added to this country
a territory vaster than has changed
hands in Europe as the result of all the
wars of the last two centuries. | meet
always, when / see any of the older
among you. men who took part in tha
great Civil War when this nation was
tried in furnace, the men who werc
called upon to do the thing which had to
be done under penalty of making the
memory of Washington himself worth
less, because if you had failed there fail
ure would have been written across the
record of his works. Finally. | see the
younger men as well as the older ones.
the men whom | have seen myself take
part in little war; war that was the
merest skirmish compared to the strug
gle in which you fought from 81 to So,
and yet a war that has had almost as IA:
reaching effects, not merely for the des-
tiny of this nation, but upon the destiny
of the world, namely with Spain, and X
was my good fortune to see in the cam
paign in Cuba how the graduates of West
Point handled themselves and to endeav-
or to profit by their example ii has
become my pleasure to come here today
because | was at that time intimately as
ISOLATED with many of your graduates.
II want to be frank. You can't get
conduct, but | am able to say 1t was my
good fortune to see the role of duty per-
formed in way that made a man proud
to be an American and fellow citizen
of such people.
Your business here at West Point has
been to teach men to do well in war bat
it is a noteworthy fact that you have also
taught them to do well in peace. The
highest political positions i'll the lan1
have been held, not exceptionally but
again and again, by West Pointers. Col.
Mills, l make the answer that any man
who is asked the question must make
when say that while we would have the
right to expect that West Point would ID
WELL we could not have expected that
she would have done SO very well as sh"
has done.
II think it is going to be n great deal
harder to be first-class officer in the
future than it has been in the past AS
has been well said the developments of
warfare during the last few years have
shown that in the future the unit will not
be the regiment nor yet the company, !
but the unit will be the individual man. |
If he does not know how to shoot how to
shift for himself how both to obey or
ders and to accept responsibility when |
an emergency comes, then he won't have
any orders to obey If he is not able to do !
all of that, you had better have him out |
of the army. In a battle hereafter each |
man is giOng to be to considerable eX-
tent alone. 1t will be so that the Young
est officers will have to take much of the
responsibility that in former wars fell