New-York tribune., 1910-01-21
UNDERMINED WEST POINT.

In view of the many measures taken
In the last ten years TO make army SER
vice more attractive it is rather dis
concerning to learn that the cadet corps
at West Point is constantly below its
legal strength and that appointments
to the academy, once coveted as prizes
In most American communities, now
frequently have to so begging. The
superintendent of the academy in his
last report calls attention to shortage
of 123 in the membership of the corps
and says that of the candidates dnclud-
ing substitutes designated by Senators
and Representatives for examination
III 1909 no fewer than 116 failed even to
report. The total number of persons
designated TO take the examinations for
the year was 4S2. OF these D were re-
iected for physical disqualiications, 90
for both physical and mental disqualih-
cations and 137 for mental disqualified
tions alone Nine failed to complete
their examinations, and only IA en-
tered the academy.
These figures seem TO show that
West Point has lost a good deal of its
former power to draw the pick of
American youth into the military ser
vice. Standards of selection have de-
clined when of the candidates to whom
appointments fall-often after a COM
petitive examination instituted by the
Senator or Representative making the
appOintment-nearly half fail to qualify
mentally and physically and nearly
quarter abandon their desire to become
army officers before the day set for the
examinations. Aspirants who are so
easily discoura ged and have to be so
thoroughly weeded out are, as class,
evidently below the American average
in ambition, energy and adaptability.
Since the army was reorganized and
enlarged in the years following the
Spanish war the career of an officer has
been greatly broadened and its compen-
sations have been materially increased.
The old frontier post era is over. Army
life does not now mean isolation and
stagnation. On its professional side 1t
Is far more absorbing for man Of
talent and on its social and economic
side much fuller of interest and COM
fort. West Point, too, offers much
better education than it could give a
generation ago, and even if an appli-
cant for appointment as cadet should
discover as time went on that he had
no special bent for military life he
would find the training which the acad-
emy gives him gratis-and even pays
him for submitting to-of great value
subsequently in any walk of civil life.
Yet with all those added inducements
to entrance there is a greater deficiency
than ever in the cadet corps, and from
1898 to 1908 the academy has been
graduating fewer men than have been
required to fill the vacancies in the army
resulting from ordinary casualties. The
military establishment has been tripled
in size since 1898, but the academy has
not furnished single one of the men
needed to fill the extra places. 1t las
not even been able TO fill the ordinary
vacancies occurring, 81 appointments
from the ranks or from civil life being
necessary each year TO meet the casual
losses in personnel.
The situation is anomalous The
government has an exceedingly valu-
able educational plant at West Point.
In recent years it has expended millions
Of dollars on the academy. But the
plant is not doing the work which 1t
ought to do. The cadet corps should
certainly be kept up to its legal
strength, and since the material offered
in the way Of applicants has become
less promising the field of selection
might reasonably be enlarged. 1t might
be we'll to have more designations made.
But it would be still better if some way
We're TO be found Of lifting the level Of
appointees. 1t ought to be possible to
avoid such a mishap in the operation
OF the machinery of appointment as the
unaccounted for failure of 116 nominees
even to present themselves for the en-
trance tests.