Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-07-19
THE WEAKNESS
OF ANNAPOLIS
Professor Fiske, of Columbia, Says
the Naval Academy Is Handi-
capped by It's Inability to Employ
Enough Up-to-date Professors.

CdDUeu NY lLn liltfJlAAbJ w '-AA-
Enough Up-to-date Professors.
"noPB SHEETS" with answers to the
| Dapproaching examination questions
given out in advance. and easy access TO the
department offices at Annapolis as revealed
in the Naval Academy inquiry now under
way, have directed criticism not only toward
the cadets, but toward the faculty FOR COM
piiclty on their part in the system
Some IS or 20 graduates of Annapolis are
sent to Columbia every year for advanced
work In the higher mathematics, electrical
engineering, wireless telegraphy, ballistics
etc, and as many more are sent to Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology in Boston
for work in a course in naval construction
Discussing the question of why 1t should be
necessary to send the navy men away from
Annapolis for their most advanced work.
Professor Thomas Scott Fiske, administra-
tive head of the department Of mathematics
at Columbia said to a representative OF the
EVENING LEDGER:
"The United States Naval Academy at An
napolis and the Military Academy at West
Point can never hope to secure the services
of teachers of great distinction in the scien-
tlhc world until they can offer those teach-
ers dlgni1ed conditions Of service. 1t would
be Impossible lot Il IedCueI VI 'iio hAbiSS'
scientific ability and reputation to accept
teaching position in either institution unuer
the conditions existing today.
zone of the crying needs of the country is
that the Government should undertake the
education of military and naval engineers of
a higher type than they are now prepared to
turn out.
Teachers Wink at Fraud
"One NJ the unfortunate results of the pres
ent situation is that the teaching staff have
come to wink at practices among the stu
dents in preparing for their examination that
would be disapproved and Immediately pro-
hbited in the best colleges If what we read
in the papers is reliable the teachers them
selves put into the dope sheets circulated
among the students the answers to the very
questions they intend to ask in the approach
ing examination. The motive, Of course,
would be to bring the number of men in their
classes able to pass up to a higher average
England and France and other nations
have solved satisfactorily the problems here
in involved and some OF the greatest scien-
tifc men in the world hold professorshps in
the great military and naval colleges of those
countries. The head of the Royal Artillery
College at Woolwich, England, is Sir Alfred
George Greenhill He was nothing but an
Ordnance College to start with, but the Brit
ish Government knighted him in recognition
of his services to the country; the young
British artillery officers feel that it is an
honor to be permitted to study under such a
man. BY this policy of recognizing and con-
ferrng prestige upon her great scientific
men, England is able to secure their services
for her army and navy. The United States
Government could never hope to get man
of that sort, one with worldwide reputa-
tion, to accept a position in her military and
naval academies. But England can.
Handicap of Civilian Professors
zone of the most distinguished mathemati-
clans connected with any of the educational
institutions of the Government is Professor
William Woosey Johnson, who has been
civilian professor at the Naval Academy
since 1891. He has never received any rec
ogntion from the Government, has never
been accorded any official prestige, and now,
when he is an old man over 20, he is forced
to go on teaching past the age when he
ought to retire, because the Government re-
fuses to pension him. Unless bill has been
passed in his favor very recently there is
absolutely no provision made for his old
age When some of us tried to get bill
through for him not long ago we were re-
fused the ground that IL would create an
unfortunate precedent, and would commit
the Government to policy of pensioning its
civil employees On the other hand the Car
negle Foundation to whom we appealed re-
fused to include the civil employees Of the
Military and Naval Academies on their list
on the ground that it would be encouraging
the Government to neglect its duties.
"Our Government has set precedent, how
ever, in it's recognition of the late Simon
Newcomb, who was director at the Naval OBJ
servatory at Washington, and who, in recog
milton OF his great services, as one of the
greatest scientists of his time. was given a
rank equal to that of a captain in the navy.
Since his death other civilians at the Naval
Observatory in Washington have been given
rank in the navy. But mark this-the thing
that helped Professor Newcomb to his recog-
milton was the fact that he also held pro-
fessorship at Johns Hopkins University and
separate salary. This gave him certain
strategic independence in his dealings with
the Government.
''The trouble, OF course. is primarily due to
the jealousy of the army and navy officers who
hold the high positions in these academies,
and are Jealous of any recognition of out
siders, and regard them all as interlopers
These army and navy officers were them
selves graduated from their studies some 20
or 25 years ago. and have not kept up with