The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-07-23
CHANGES AT WEST POINT
 SCHAFF'S ARTICLES :
Discipline Greater Requisite Than a Broader Edu-
 cation.


 ten by MT. schaff and published in the Atlantic Monthly. These articles have been of particular interest to me for reasons that need only be casually re- ferred to. Relations and friends of mine have occupied prominent positions at, and have graduated from the military academy from it's foundation to the present time. MT. schaff writes of a period beginning before the Civil war. It was not till after the close of that struggle that I entered West Point, but to lare extent its simplicity remained as it had for years before. It was not until some years later that the changes began which seem likely to end in the conviction, on the part of most people that there is some other object at the
 military academy than the education of young men to be officers of the army; officers of the highest and best type, soldiers in the real sense of the word
 Certain it is that the consensus of opin- ion seem to be that the graduates of recent years nowhere approach the standard of former years.
 | One reason for this is, think, as Mir
 schaff says, due to the change in the method of appointments of cadets by which the competitive system has been substituted for the former system un- der which a cadet was appointed direct ly by a congressman without reference to a preliminary competition. To some extent the old system still prevails and with good effects. The competitive sys- tenn admits of the appointment of the brightest boy mentally, but does not take other things into consideration
 Boys appointed under that system may be wholly unftted in other ways, may be wholly unknown or have no standing in their home town and may have no military fitness. Of course they have ambition which has success as it's ob- feet, and generally the only one. Such boys, unless specially gifted, are never Impressed by the physical surrounding, grandeur and beauty of scenery, histor- teal associations, etc. Success and ad- vancement is their leading idea. The military side is irksome from start to finish and the esthetic an unknown quantity. They are impressed by the personal and social side of life at West
 Point and in the army. Their ambitions lie in that direction and they see their
 own advancement in the same way.
 Simplicity is a thing to be avoided
 Notoriety thing to be coveted.
 Men with similar ideas have gradual
 ly been gaining control of the army and so of West Point, Hence changes
 there. To these men West Point was toe
 representative of simplicity, was not a
 show place, where foreign visitors, civ il and military, could be taken and fet- ed. So it's simplicity must be modified and changed so as to accomplish the object in view and to conform to | IOI6lRH UlDutl. w Iidl IL III Oi0SI LO NN
 this the effect of natures simple but grand beauty is marred by incongruous buildings which had to be placed in DO
 sitions where by accident alone could : they be made to harmonize with the
 grandeur of nature about them? What
 if the superintendent house must be placed in a (for him isolated spot? Why
 not a beautiful building in the time honored and historical spot known tt every graduate and many others? Wha if an office building must be placed or
 one of the most beautiful spots al West Point, the spot heretofore occu pied by the hotel, more inconvenien' , spot for the purpose could hardly b. fornd? What if the historical "olC chapel" be moved and placed in an out
 of-the-way place on the mountain side
 What matters it If these things oc
 cur? What matters it if the rigid disci pline must be modified and the militar
 academy brought down to the level o
 Harvard and Yale? The West Poin | academy is a military academy, not e college or university It's chief ends ar T military. it is not an educational in f stitution for any other than militar :, purposes, and it's curriculum and meth ! ! ods of discipline must of necessity b U very different from the educational in | should be, made. West Point as a military academ a has had and still has an enviable reI , utation as a military school through - out the world Let it keep it. The sur Il erintendent has three votes now, an Y he will vote me down even thoug ,a Prof. Tillman, with his level head, SUI d ports me. Why not give the superil s tendent all the votes, then 1t would m - be necessary to lose any time in voting g MT. schaff is right; the boy impresst $ by the grandeur of nature about We ], Point or( elsewhere widens his vision s, life and it's work, and while he ma ,- be just as desrous of success and at TO J yancement as others, those objects l. not obscure the higher and nobler en, r- of life. New buildings and the enlarg ,e l ment of others were necessary, but ,- | was not necessary to destroy the histo S teal associations of the place and u al l grand effects of natural beauty. Tl IT, buildings could be placed different
 and in their architecture harmoni
 with the surroundings
 I have said that West Point was n K an educational institution as the ter
 is generally understood. Theat is trU N It was established for the purpose
 training young men for the special d H ties of officers of the army. This r
 quires special and thorough course