The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-11-18
WrLL-pEsERvEp puNIsHMrNT.

At length we are glad to note that there is to, be official action taken of the brutal and cowardly practice of hazing, as it is sometimes carried on. A special printed In the papers, and coming from Annapo- lis. Md. reads as follows:
 Midshipmen Joseph D. Little of Spring. field, O.; Joseph H. Lofland of Oskaloosa, la, and Earl W. Chaffee of Rhinelander Wis. who were expelled from the Naval Academy for hazing were informed of their dismissal this morning, and short iy after were escorted to the gate of the Academy and told never to come back. They are now ineligible to enter any branch of the United States service again. They say that they will appeal to the president for pardon. but it is not be- lieved that they can look for relief from him.
 Although the practice of hazing some times results 4n personal injuries to the victims which, are punishable under the law. dismissal as above is really de- grading punishment and if the young men have any feeling of manhood about them 1t is a punishment that will be keenly felt and 1t may be more effective as a warning to others than any other method of dealing with the offence would.
 We know that some are disposed to re- gard hazing with leniency and to speak of it as merely an excess of animal spir- it's, and as harmless larks of youth but that defence will not do It is quite true that young men and boys indulge in pranks and rough play without intending or doing any harm. but the style of haz- ing that is indulged in at schools and col leges at times is another thing. It Is rot infrequently indulged in with the design and intention of doing bodily harm to the subject of the process, either from feel ing of vengeance or as punishment for real or imaginary faults. That kind of hazing in it's last analysis is only another form of lynching and differs from it only in degree. In fact. it has more than once resulted in the death of the victim. and severe injury is not at all uncommon. Where death is the result it differs from death at the hands of a mob only in the fact that the perpetrators did not intend to commit a murder. The result Is the same and it can be traced to the same spirit. It Is mob law, at last.
 It may be that the President will par don and restore these young men, for no one can predict just what Roosevelt will do. If he does he will utterly destroy the good that would result from the ex- ample made of them and will give his official sanction to a cowardly practice. As cowardice Is one thing the President Is not in the habit of condoning it is to be hoped that he will not do 50 in this case. Their punishment can but result in good, and the students at Annapolis, West Point and other institutions of learning should be glad that these offenders have been punished. They, of all others, should be proud to maintain and deserve the highest standard of manhood and chivalry and should be pleased at any thing which will remove from them even the suspicion that they may at any time be chargeable with either brutality or cowardice. Let them feel proud that they have been selected as opponents of Amer ican manhood, and let them hold them- selves so far above the hoodlum element that no reproach can at any time be wis., ited on them as individuals or as repre- sentatives.
 And in this connection 1t is but just to speak in commendation of the midship- men at Annapolis who came forward and did their duty on the witness stand In some cases of hazing that we have heard 1t has been impossible to obtain evidence against guilty parties, partly because wit nesses have been afraid to tell what they know and partly because, through an ex- cess of loyalty to their comrades, they refuse to testify. Such an example as that at Annapolis can but have a salu- tary effect