Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-12
MIDSHIPNEN FINISH
SECRETARY BoNAPARTE MAKES
AN ADDRESS TO THEM.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
ANNAPOLIS. Md. September 12.-Eighty-
six midshipmen, composing about one-third
of the first class who had qualified for grad
uation in advance of their fellows by SUI
perior scholastic work, received their di-
plomas from the hand of the Secretary of
the Navy this morning and Immediately
received orders to return to their homes to
await a call to active duty. The ceremonies
were very simple, and the only midshipmen
present besides the graduates were the
members of the new fourth class. The ex
ercises were held in Memorial Hall. part of
Bancroft Hall, the main building of the
academy.
In this room the remains Of John Paul
Jones rest and today was the only time
Memorial Hall was used for public &C.
caSion since these remains were deposited
Notwithstanding the simplicity which
marked the exercises Of today. the gradua-
ton was unique in It's character The grad
uates represent the notable third of the
class who have qualified for early gradua-
ton by reaching certain high average In
studies for the whole course, and who have
been prepared to enter into more active
duty by a rigid special course in profess
sional branches during the summer. VI
the eighty-six who received diplomas to-
day thirteen graduate with star rank,
having received better than IS per cent for
the whole course.
All made 50 per cent or more for the spe-
cial course First honors were talen today
by Gordon L. Caskey of Detroit, Mich. ana
second by John B. Rhodes of West Chester
Pa The other star" graduates were Philip
G. Lauman, Des Moines, Iowa; Albert Z.
Read, South Hanson: Mass; Arthur w.
Frank. Mobile. Ala; George II. Bowdey,
Pittsburg Pa; Felix F. Gross. Brooklyn,
n. Y; Richard Hill. Fort Dodge. Iowa;
Robert A. Theobald. San Francisco. Cal. !;
Ralph T. Hanson. Perrysburg. Ohio; Gar
rett l.. Schuyler. New York. n. Y; Fletcher
C. Starr, Sewickley, Pa; William l.. Beck.
Sedalia. Mo.
These were handed their diplomas In
the order of standing and the others were
delivered Unfortunately. Nine of the
members of the class have applied to be
designated for the civil engineering depart
ment of the navy. 1t Is understood that
A. A. Baker of New Hampshire, Who has
been declared physically disqualified for ac-
tive line duty. will be so designated.
Mr.. Charles ]. Bonaparte. Secretary OF
the Navy, addressed the class as follows:
Young Gentlemen: You begin today the
work of your profession; for three years
you have tried to learn how to do this
work: with what success the days before
YOU will show. Hereafter you belong to
your profession. and, in my trespass on
your attention this morning, l shall say
but a few words as to what that profess
sion is.
i First. 1t is the profession of a gentle
man; to say this In your case is not an
ebullition of snobbishness, but the state
ment of a matter of law. For each one
of you it Is a legal duty to behave as
gentleman. and each one of you may be
tried and punished as for crime If he
fail In this duty. Some little time since
had no difficulty In sustaining the find
ings of an examining board that an officer
who had not the sentiments. habits and
manners of a gentleman was profession
ally disqualified for promotion. Now what
is a gentleman The question may we'll
be asked. for the word is grossly abused;
in common usage. 1T means sometimes much
and sometimes little and often less than
nothing AS used in the laws and regula-
tions governing our navy its essential
meaning is that you, and your brother offi-
GERS have duties beyond the duties of others;
that you have obligations which do not
rest on all members of the community;
that of you are required a measure of self
control, readiness for self-sacrifice, SEN
sitiveness In honor which it might be
neither reasonable to expect nor charitable
to exact of all your fellow citizens. More
over since whatever else a gentleman
may or may not be. he is and Is thought
of always and everywhere as a man en-
titled to respect; it is a part Of your pro-
fessional duty. part of the service due
your country at your hands. part of the
solemn and eternal obligation of your
oaths, that as officers you be known for
such simplicity and TRUTH such modesty
of demeanor and such purity of life as will
earn for you the respect of good men.
From others, these things may be de-
manded by religion or philosophy; from
YOU they are but the fulfillment of your
promise; without them you will not be
gentlemen in that sense wherein every good
officer must also be gentleman.
The Profession Of Arms
Secondly: Your profession is the profess
sion Of arms: you have chosen a military
life When the President reviewed our
feet some persons saw. or affected to see.
some incongruity In his choice of Labor
day for the purpose Why? He saw aligned
on the ships he passed some fifteen thou
sand American citizens. all of them, wheth-
er officers or men. fairly entitled to be
called 'workingmen: why should not such
workingmen pass in review before the chief
officer of our nation appropriately on
Labor day as on any other, or as
any other workingmen on any day? The
distinction really lies. not in the labor, but
in the motives and methods of the laborers;
men who serve their country In arms work
not for their good. but for hers, not that
they or those dear to them be the better
for their toll. but that she be safe and
to other ends. so they think and speak of
other things, they have little thought of
their rights. but great thought of their
duties: they are not concerned lest they
give more or get less than their just dues:
what they shall get Is left to their coun-
try's laws, what they shall give, be it Of
labor or suffering or life itself. rests and
rests only in her need. Your profession is a
school. lifelong school of self-sacrifice
and obedience and never has the teaching
of such a school been more timely to our
country's happiness and honor than it Is
today.
War as a Lost Art.
II saw not long ago the prediction that
1n forty years war would be lost art
This sapient deliverance rolled along In
that flood of talk about the beauties of
peace and the horrors of war which ripples
around us just now. as it has from time
to time during all the history of civilized
mankind, too often as prelude to bloody
and disastrous wars. l am not prepared to
say that war will never become lost
art" for 1 am not gifted with that conf
dence in my own omniscience which has
been vouchsafed to some among my coun-
trymen. but l am quite ready to say that
this happy contamination will not be at
tanned in forty years. or eighty, or until
men have become either better of worse
than men. Mr.. John Stuart Mill thought
there might be planet wherein two and
two made five, and a day may come when
we shall have no need of policemen or
iailc Of IauyarS courts of f,hvStcia q