Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1912-12-10
OUARTETTE OF MIDDIES
SLATED FOR DISMISSAL
Plebes Guilty Of Persistent Mai
treatment of ClassmateyN
E. H. JONES THE VICTIM.
Fistic COmbats and Other Forms Of
Abuse Perpetraled Over a Period
OF Months.

Although the offense charged
against them was not within the real
category of hazing, as defined by the
Act of Congress, because the often
ders and their victim all are members
of the same class, the fourth, Capital
John H Gibbons, superintendent OF
the Naval Academy, acting upon the
report of board of investigation, has
recommended that four anidshipmeI be
dismissed from the naval service for
the maltreatment" OF one OF their
fellows.
The record OF the boards investi-
cations and the Superintendent ap-
proval has been forwarded to the Navy
Department for its action. The mid
shipmen slated for expulsion are
Jonathan d. Reed, OF Kentucky; Will
liam H. Saunders, of South Caro-
lima: r. C. Nevill, of Missouri. and
Earl Wagner, of Pennsylvania.
The lad who fell victim to the
persistent mistre atment and nagging,
consisting of fistic combats as well as
force to do humiliating acts, is E. H.
Jones, whose home is in Pennsylvania.
The investigation has been under
way for q month, and was conducted
so quietly that not until today did the
real import, or the seriousness of
the offense become known.
The authorities were rather reluc-
tant to discuss the matter at all,
pending the Navy ID apartments ac-
tion, although they wanted the true
facts known. Today they admitted
that the four youngsters named above
have been recommended for dismis /.
sal For what reason these four lads
should have formed themselves into
clique" to poster one Of their class
mates, is question that has not been
answered, but from what has been
gathered, the case is without prece-
dent in the history of the Academy,
and according to reliable information,
Jones was in many instances very
brutally handled by his torturerJ.
1t is said that he had been sub
jected to the toFtures, with frequent
fist fights ever since the fourth class
was taken into the Acsde my last sum
mer, but that the authorities only
got wind Of it month ago The four
middies Of the clique" are what is
known as "bilgers, having formerly
belonged to the present third class,
who resigned and re-entered the
Academy 1t is said they assumed
that they rated" the privileges of
an upper classman who, in the past
have exercised unwarraned authority
to the humiliation and mistreatment
Of the ''Plebes" But at that they
were over stepping the line.
1t is stated by the authorities
that altogether about thirty midshiB-
men were up before the investigating
board as Witnesses as Superintendent
Gibbons determined, upon reports
received, that the investigation should
be a thorough one. Details of the
testimony given before the inquest
would not be discussed by the off,
cials, but it was strongly intimated
that the treatment administered to
young Jones was sufficiently grave as
to warrant the most severe condem
nation of the perpetrators.
1t is said, however, that Jones was
not injured by any of the hardships
which he was made to endure, though
it is admitted, that he participated in
frequent fstic encounters, with one
or the other of the quartette, with the
result that each time he was worsted.
The fights, it is understood, were con
fined TO the rooms of Bancroft Hall.
The first intimation of this trouble
was gained with the arrival here of
the father of young Saunders, one of
the four recommended for dismissal.
Two years ago Saunders, then a
mere lad, was dropped from the rolls
of the Academy for running afodl of
the regulations. Certain influences,
it is said. were brought to bear, with
the result that he secured another ap-
pointment to the Academy aud was
admitted last summer. In this con-
nection a visit Of Senator TiIlman, of
Saunders home State of South Caro-
lima, together with the father of
Saunders, to Annapolis early in the
summer is recalled.