The Washington herald., 1919-12-08
Merits of Military and Civil Life.

mite House, Jan. -, 4sVt
Dear Ted:
This will be long business letter.
| sent to you the examination papers
for West Point and Annapolis. have
thought a great deal over the matter.
and discussed it at great length with
mother. feel on the one hand that l
ought 10 give you my best advice. and
yet on the other hand l do not wish
to seem TO constrain you against your
wishes. II you have definitely made up
your mind that you have an over
mastering desire 10 be in the navy CT
the army. and that such a career il
the one in which you will take a
really heartfelt interest-far more so
than any other-and that your greatest
chance for happiness and usefulness
will lie in doing this one work to
which you feel yourself especially
drawn-why, under such circum-
stances. / have hut little TO say.
But l am not satisfied that this is
really your feeling. II seemed to me
more as II you did not feel drawn
in any other direction, and wondered
what you We're going to do in life or
what kind of work you would turn
your hand TO. and wondered if you
could make a success or not, and that
you are therefore inclined to turn TO
the navy or army chiefly because YOU
would then have a definite and settled
career in life. and could hope to 20
on steadily without any great risk OF
failure. Now, if such is your Thought.
] shall quote to you what Capt. Mahan
said of his son when asked why he
did not send him to West Point or
Annapolis: Il have too much con-
fidenCe in him to make me feel that
il is desirable for him to enter either
branch of the service"
have great confidence i'm YOU |
believe you have the ability. and.
above all. the energy. the persever-
anCe. and the common sense. to win
out In civil life. That you will have
some hard times and some discourag-
ing times | have no question: but
this is merely another way of saying
that you Will share the common lot.
Though you will have TO work in
different ways from those in which |
worked. YOU will not have periods Of
more disbursement. l trust in your
ability. and especially your che -ar-
ter. and | am confident you will win
In the army and the navy th"
chance for a man to show great
ability and rise above his fellows does
not occur on the average mere than
once in a generation. When I was
down at Santiago II was melancholy
for me to see how fossilized and lack
ing in ambition. and generally use
! less, were most Of the men of my age
and over. who had served their lives
| in the army. The navy for the last
few years has been better. but for
twenty years after the Civil War
there was less chance in the navy
than in the army to practice. and
do. work Of real consequence. l have
actually known lieutenants in both
the army and the navy who were
grandfathers-menw who had seen their
children married before they them
selves attained the grade of captain
OF course the chance may come at
any time when the man OF West Point
or Annapolis who will have stayed
in the army or navy finds a great
war on. and therefore has the op-
portunity to rise high. Under such
circumstances. l think the man of
such training who has actually left
| the army or the navy has even more
chance OF rising than the man who
has remained in It. Moreover, often
a man can do as 1 did in the Spanish
War. even though not a West Pointer
This last point raises the question
about you going TO West Point or
Annapolis and leaving the army or
navy after you have served the regu-
lation four years Il think that is the
number) after graduation from the
academy. Under this plan you would
have an excellent education and a
grounding in discipline and, in some
ways. a testing of your capacity
greater than l think yoH~can get in
any ordinary college. On the other
! hand. except for the profession OF an
engineer, you would have had moth
ing like special training. and you
would be so ordered about, and ar
ranged for. that you would have less
independence of character than you