The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-06-08

I
 asked on their examinations were
 systematic and continuous, that large proportion of the class benefited by them at the last examination and that theft was resorted to for the purpose 1 of securing the questions were the
 startling facts brought out at the first 1 session of the court of inquiry ap- 1 pointed by Secretary Daniels to in
 vestigate the use of unfair means in | recitations and examinations at the
 Naval Academy.
 The matter was brought to the at
 tention of the Department by ten re- cent cases where nidshipmen have | been recommended for dismissal. l Three of these have been dismissed, and have left the institution, and the
 recommendation of Supt. Fullam in
 the cases of seven more are in the
 hands of the Secretary of the Navy.
 Action is not likely to be taken how 1 exer, until the present court com 1 pletes it's work.
 The court is composed of Capt. Rob ert W. Russell, president; Capt. An
 drew T. Long and Commander Louis
 P. De Stieguer, additional members, | and Lieutenant-Command E. T. Watts, judge advocate. One of the
 first acts of the court was to direct
 that all of it's proceedings should be open to the public.
 Had Access to Questions
 l | en before the board of investigation,
 and made public for the first time yes i terday, that members of all classes of midshiprnen admitted that the major 1 ity of them had access before the | examination to the questions which | were actually asked. Particularly l was this in the two upper classes, 1 and it was freely admitted by the of l f1cia1s and leading members of the | first class, whose members are now l Ensigns, that nearly every member | profited by the leak.
 l Much feeling was evidenced be- | tween Supt. Fullan and the counsel l and parents of the seven nidshipnen lnow under arrest and whose dismissal
 had been recommended by him.
 During his testimony he was inter l rupted and contradicted by Robert I Moss, of counsel for the accused l youths and the father of one of thems T MT. Moss being cautioned by Capt T Russell, the presiding officer of the I court.
 l It was brought out in the testi-
 nony that the board of investigatio on I and Supt. Fullan had reached the con- 1 cIusion that all nidshtpnaen who had I seen the questions written on the tons at the academy should have l known that these were improperly obtained, and were cuIpable for using them- This principle was not extend
 
 shown to have used only copies. I Extent of the System
 I The testimony of Ensign H. E.. T Overesch, a, member of the class
 which has just graduated, was of ,l special interest as indicating the ex- 'I tent of the system of securing ad- 4 vance Knowledge of the examination rl nidshipmen toward it. He admit t ted that he had made use of certain ,I information which he had thought to
 be legitimate, but found when the | official examination questions were Il given him that they were identical ,I Asked if he did not think he should 1l have reported the fact at once, he said that if he had he would have done differently from the members 1 of the last three classes that had 7 fnformed9 by officers that the leak of Il examination questions at the Naval Academy had not been infrequent. He said further that practically every
 member of his class had the use of the questions, so that none had an
 advantage.
 It became known today that mem
 bers of the first class had taken ac-
 ton in which they declared them
 selves all as guilty as Ralph Mex. Nelson, the one member of the class
 recommended for dismissal and that
 they had made an effort to place it in the hands. of Secretary Daniels, TO : forward such a paper otherwise than ' through the hands of Supt. Fullam t would be serious breach of disci- 3 pline. It is not known whether the I Secretary received the communica- = ton, but the rehearing which all the ] midshipmen desired has been grant f ed.
 Toward the close of the session 8 Rear Admiral w. F. Fu11am, super T intendent. of the academy, made the : startling assertion that it had been e reported to him that an attempt had q been made to enter the desks of pro- : fessors in at least four of the depart
 ments-ma athematics, modern 1an- = guages, English and e1ectricity-and S that he believed the effort to pilfer : papers containing the examination o1 . all classes in Spanish had been suc- r cessful It was the theory of the }. board of officers and of Rear Ad-
 mira1 Fullam that these papers were - the ones which were sent to Midship- e man James B. Moss of the third class h I and disseminated by him and other = Inidshipmen among the others. d Midsnipnan Moss admits that he - received papers containing questions . which afterward proved to be iden- ! tical with those asked on examination n but denies that he knew or thought
 at the time that they were these. He ,, testified that he received them by mai and did not know the sender.
 According to the testimony, they r were taken by him to didshfpman R : P. WesseI1 of the second class, and 8
 | copy given by Vessel to Homer H
 Harrison, who has just graduated
 Evidently the board and Rear Ad-
 miral F'u11am considered that culpa-
 bility could not be fixed after the pa . pers reached Midshipman Vessel. : The position taken by the officers ] and head of. the academy was thai : the papers as received by Midship- . man Moss contained clear indications [ that they were actually copies of ex. aminations to be given, and that ev- cry midshipman who made use o1 them in this form or who saw then
 sufficiently to judge what they were 2 lar iIe.4 tc,