The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1913-08-13
By Burton h. Standish
Written for the United Press

written for the United Press
WASHINGTON, Aug. 13.-The Hon
William S. Howard, representative
from Georgia, doesn't like the ques
tons which the examining board asks
of all candidates for the United States
naval academy, and he recently de-
livered himself of his opinions on the
subject and the reasons why before
the house.
Representative Howard left abso-
lutely no doubt in the minds of his
fellow congressman as to his exact and
innermost thoughts about some of the
entrance examination questions asked
would-be future naval officers. One
of the questions upon which the re-
preventative who came from the state
made famous by Ty Cobb lit with both
hands and feet was, Trace the
growth of democracy in Rome, previous
to the Punic war;
why shouldn't the candidate be
asked instead to trace the growth of
Bull Moosism in Pennsylvania pre-
vious to the last presidential election"
demanded the fiery southerner. know
ledge of democracy's growth in Rome
previous to the Punic war;" said How
ard, sis just about as helpful to a flu
ture sea-fghters as would be the know
ledge of what's inside of lima beans"
Ridiculous Questions.
In a recent entrance examination
the candidates were asked to locate,
among other places, Aganta, Punta
Arenas, Pechili, Finisterre, Kattegat, |
and Brahmaputra. They might as well
have been asked to locate Dogs Tooth,
Buzzards Roost or Sundance, for which |
a $4,000 public building was provided |
by the senate last year.
And why should it be expected that
a candidate have crammed into his
brain all the seasons why the Roman
legion was tactically superior to the
phalanx? Old Gen. ]. Gaze
sar himself, probably didn't know why.
He probably merely knew that his
legions had a better batting average
than the Macedonian phalanxes. Still
another silly question asked in en-
rance papers was regarding the
spread of Christianity in Rome. i
But perhaps the worst of all was t
he question asking for complete de- i
ails of Washingtons campaign in New
Jersey during the winter of 17l5-76. /,
rhe bright young man who called this
question to my attention, wrote for :.
Wenty minutes before he suddenly :.
'ealized that Washington wasn't in
lew Jersey during that time. II was
merely catch question: of the kind q
hey use to trip up the small boy in a
,rade school. L
1T isn't at all surprising" continued u
Howard, THAT one boy I
ecame facetious in answering the C
uestion as to why science couldn't II
tilize the waters of Niagara falls with
ne time honored answer, Dammit II
ley can't And my heart goes out to +,
he young man from Texas who, after II
Lruggling with score of foolish g
enseless questions. wrote on his pa r
er, You all go to hell; Pm on my way #
aek to Texas"
Sounds Bad-Means Little =
Howard quoted a number of reasons
ven for not accepting candidates
no have passed the mental eXamina
On. They were unscientific dentitfon
dentistry; ingrowing toe
ills; ozena-which means sore nose;
i'd exacerbation of pathogonomic
mptoms-which sounds bad but
cans very little.
IF these ailments were made lions
the paths of political honorS," ask
Howard, chow many of our leading
ngressmen and statesmen would we
We here in Washington? ?"
The Georgia representative re-
arks were made partly facetiously
t they have made an impression.
and representatives who =
Int know about these matters, are =
king ahOut some means of chan pinp | -