The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-06-12

with Spain; and it was my good fortune
to see in the campaign in Cuba how the
graduates of West Point handled them
selves, and to endeayor to profit by their
to come here today because I was at that
time intimately associated with many
OF your graduates.
"On the day before the San Juan
fight when we were marched up into
a position we lost communication with
our baggage and food, and for supper
that night ] had what Colonel Mills gave
me Daughter and applause) and il
tasted very good, and the next morning
Colonel Mills was with another West
Pointer, Shipp, from North Carolina.
The next morning we had breakfast to-
gether, and I remember well cOngratu-
latlng myself that my regiment-we were
all volunteer regin1ents=could have as
an example men like Shipp and Mills.
whose very presence made the men cOoi
and made them feel collected and al
ease. Mills and Shipp went down with
our regiment to the action. Very shortly
after it was begun Shipp was killed ana
Mills received wound from which no
one or US at the time thought he would
recover 1 had at that time in my regi-
ment acting as second lieutenant a
graduate of West Point who was hay
ing his holiday and took his holiday by
going with US, and just before the as
sault he was shot, the bullet going, I
think, in his stomach and he said
Goodbye, colonel, I'm going to get
Well
But 1 did not think he was. He is
here, all right here, and his name is
Haskell (Applause) And there was
never a moment by day or night that I
was not an eyewitness of some per
IOrmance of duty being done by a West
Pointer, and never saw a West Point
er failing in his duty. I want to be
frank, gentlemen sYou cannot get a
BODY Of men Of absolutely uniform good
conduct, but ] am able to say it was
my good fortune to see the role Of duty
performed in way that made a man
proud to be an American and a fellow
citizen of such people.
Your business here at West Point has
been to teach men to do we'll in war
but 1t is noteworthy fact that you
have also taught them to do we'll in
peace. The highest political positions
in the land have been held not excep-
uonally, but again and again by West
Pointers. Colonel Mills, I make the
answer that any man, who is asked the
question must make when 1 saw that
While we would have the right to expect
that West Point would do we'll we
could not have expected that she would
have done so very we'll as she has DONE
lApplause)
I found in my regiment that the best
man was the man who had been in the
/ regular army in active service out in
western campaigning on the plains; that
II he had been good man in the regu-
i lar army out on the plains. he was the
jest iI4dL Aidl 4 COa4Q 8GL IOlU OF. and.
on the other hand, if he had served in
time of peace a couple of years in an
eastern garrison, he practically had
next to nothing outside of the parade
ground and barracks to do, or If he had
/ been in an ordinary national guard reg
inent, that one of two things was true
if he had understood that he had only
learned 5 per cent of war he was that 5
per cent better than any one else and
that was q big advancement and if he
/ had ThO17gHf that he "a Ha
other 95 per cent he was worse than any
ane else daughter and applause)
recollect perlecsly one man who
had been a corporal in the regular
army young fellow who had Joined
US, and he was apparently convinced
that war in Hicety was parade
ground for maneuvering, and it was al
most impossible to make him turn his
attention to teaching his men so that
they could do the best fighting when
the occasion arose.
Now. gentlemen, I do not intend to
I preach to you on the performance Of
/ your duties here, but It is your special
/ business to learn them. I do ask you
to renen Der the difference in the mil
/ itary profession from what it has been
/ in the past and to remember continual
| " that soldiership does not consist of
| excellence on parade ground but eff
! cheney IN actual service in the field, and
! that the usefulness, and really great
/ usefulness of the parade grounds and
! barracks work comes in its being used.
not as an end, but as one of the ele-
ments to the end I ask you to remem-
Der that 1 do not ask you to remember
what you can't forget the lesson of
/ loyalty, of courage. of steadfast adher-
enee to the highest standards of honor
which all men draw in when they
/ breathe the atmosphere of this great in
/ stitutiOn."
The orator of the day was General
Horace Porter. ambassador to France
The secretary Of war was the last
speaker.