The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-03-16
BIRTHDAY OF
 UNCLE SAM'S SCHOOL
 FOR ARMY OFFICERS

Cadets. officers and ex-of11cers of the United States army who look up- on West Point as their alma mater will celebrate today the Hath anni- versary of the founding of the United States Military Academy. It was on. March 16, 1902 that the United States Congress. authorized the estab7 1ishment of a school for the training of officers for the army. West Point, on the Hudson in New York, a rnili tary post since ITS, was chosen as the site of the academy, which was formally opened the same year with a class of ten young men.
 West Point. was modelled to a con siderable extent after the Royal Mili- tary Academy at Woo1wich, England, which was opened in 1745. George Washington was one of the most en- thusiastic promoters of the school, and as early as 1776 he had induced the Congress to appoint a committee to consider a plan for military school. In his congressional message in a179S 8 Washington made a plea for the founding of such an institution, and instruction in military matters was given to the soldiers stationed at West Point long before Congress au-' thorized the school. !
 The West Po Point academy was not considered of much importance in the decade following it's founding, and only seventy-one students were grad uated in the first ten years of it's ex- istence. Congress made little provi- sion for it's maintenance, and in 1S12s just before the outbreak of the war with Great Britain. the academy was totally without instructors and ap- parently. moribund-
 The lack of competent officers in the war which closed century ago impressed upon the Washi11gto law makers the necessity Of more liberal treatment of the infant academy, and it was reorganized upon better prin- cip1es. West Point had little stand ing, however, until Col. Sy1vanus Thayer was appointed superintendent Compared with -Woolwich in England and St. Cyr in France, West Point had been a joke, but Col. Thayer, who became the head of the school in to his task that the academy became famous throughout the world.
 Another war was needed to give West Point the support it needed, and the conflict between the states, fol- lowing the Mexican war, gave the academy a great impetus. For half a century it has held rank among the greatest of the worlds great military schools and it's methods have been carefully studied by military experts of European powers.
 The course of instruction at West L E--- pal subjects in which the embryo of ficers are instructed are mathematics, drawing, drill regulations of all arms of the service English, French, chemistry, experimental and natural philosophy, electricity. minefalogy, geology, history, international and | constituti ona1 and military law, civil and military engineering, Spanish, ordnance and gunnery. and, in gen eral, the art and science of warfare 7 al D. very strict-even more so than in the army-and the student n1ingIes little ] with the outside world. From the middle of June until the first of Sep tember the cadets live in camp, where they receive practical military in- struction and engage only in military duties. Each senator, congr essfonaI district, and territory is entitled to have one cadet in the academy, and there are also forty appointments at large. The nominations are often, but not necessarily. made by competitive examinations.