East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1913-08-13

and innermost thoughts about some
of the entrance examination questions
asked would-be future naval officers.
One of the questions upon which the
representative 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 in
stead be asked to trace the growth of
Bull Moosism in PENNSYLVANIA pre-
vious TO the last presidential cleo
tion?" demanded the fiery southern
er. knowledge of democracy's
growth in Rome previous to the Pu-
mic war" said Howard, sis just about
as helpful to a future sea-fighter as
would be the knowledge of what's in
side of lima beans"
In a recent entrance examination
the candidates were asked to locate,
among other places, Aganta. Punta
Arenas, Pechili. Finisterre, Kattegat.
and Brahamputra. 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,
silly Questions.
And why should it be expected
that a candidate has crammed into
his brain all the reasons why the Ro-
man legion was tactically superior to
the Macedonian phalanx? Old Gen
eral ]. Caesar himself, probably did
not know why. He probably merely
knew that his legions had better
batting average than the Macedonian
phalanxes. Still another silly ques-
ton aswed in entrance papers was re-
garding the spread of Christianity in
Rome
But perhaps the worst of all was
the question asking for complete de-
tails of Washington's campaign in New
| Jersey during the winter of 1856
| The bright young man who called thi'
question to my attention, wrote fol
| twenty minutes before he suddenl!
realized that Washington wasn't IL
New Jersey during that time. l
was merely a catch question of thu
kind they use to trip up the small
boy in grade school,
1T isn't at all surprising" contin
ued Representative Howard, that on
boy became facetious in answering
the question as to why science coul,
not utilize the waters of Niagara Fall
with the time honored answer
| Dammit they can't And my hear
goes out to the young man from Tex
as who, after struggling with scor
of foolish, senseless questions, wrot
on his paper, You all can go to hell
I'm on my way back to Texas. ;"
Howard quoted a number of reas
ons given for not accepting candidate
who have passed the mental eXamina
ton. They were unscientific dentitio
mean poor dentistry; ingrowing toe
nails; ozena-which means sore nose
and exacverbation of pathogonom
symptoms-which sounds bad b'
means very little.
IF these ailments were made lioI
in the paths of political honors," asl
: ed Howard, how many of our lea'
ing congressman and statesmen wou
We have here in Washington"
Remarks Make Impression.
The Georgia representatives r
marks were made partly facetious
but they have made an impressio
Senators and representatives WI
s didn't know about these matters, a
D talking about some means of changi
}, the system of entrance examinatio
for Annapolis. 1t is the contenti
that under present systems, it is a
solutely necessary for a student
"cram like sixty at special prepar
tory school before he can pass su
an examination. This "cramming"
\ is conceded, never means obtain
, real information that lasts, but OF
enough to get through the exam wi
j In discussing the case recent
n Howard told of a Brooklyn boy who
II father, a warrant officer could I
], afford to send his boy to prepal
tory school. The boy was the best