470 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



plated. First and most influential is the Military Academy at West 

 Point. Our regular army is officered in three ways : by appointment of 

 civilians based upon the results of proficiency as determined by an army 

 board ; second, from a list of enlisted men and non-commissioned officers 

 found duly qualified; but now mainly (and certain in the near future to 

 be entirely) from the promotion of graduated cadets. 



Although West Point has long been in the focus of publicity, and has 

 a certain and very great renown for thoroughness of instruction and the 

 general high average of the material it turns out, few indeed are fully 

 aware of the essential nature of that institution's merit. This consists, 

 not so much in the value of the education — though this ranks with that 

 acquired at the best technical schools — as in the nature and extent of the 

 course of training, influence and discipline. Here young men for four 

 years of the most impressionable time of life are set and held wholly 

 apart from all civil influences of a kind to divert them from the mastery 

 of their profession. The West Point method is exacting to a degree 

 almost cruel in its rigor ; so exacting that of any entering class not more 

 than half succeed in being graduated. It teaches — and enforces piti- 

 lessly — thoroughness, exactness, responsibility. But more and deeper 

 than this, seldom is felt, except for purposes of instruction, the hand of 

 outward authority. The commandant and his assistants, the " tactical 

 officers," are 'seldom in evidence ; for almost all purposes of organization, 

 drill and restraint within regulation limits, the method is self-acting, 

 largely automatic ; from the room and tent orderlies to the adjutant and 

 captains, the corps of cadets governs itself. 



And this government is not of force, as the idea of compulsion is 

 ordinarily understood. The real governing power is that most potent of 

 moral forces — public opinion. From first to last, in big things and in 

 trivial things, a cadet in matters of duty is always " on honor " ; he is 

 bound to report not only others' derelictions, but at certain times and 

 for certain purposes, his own. The severity of the prevalent code may 

 be inferred from the following, taken from a Kew York daily of July 3 

 last: 



A member of the new class was brought before a court-martial on a charge 

 of making false statements to the officer of the guard. 



"Are you chewing gum?" the officer asked. ... "I am not," — is said 

 to have replied, and an investigation showed that the answer was false. 



This is the first time in a great many years that a cadet has been dismissed 

 from West Point for telling an untruth, and the authorities feel keenly the 

 disgrace. 



I imagine that many will find in this instance, not justice, but undue 

 and disproportionate punishment for what they may regard as a trivial 

 ofEence. To chew gum in ranks is indeed trivial; to lie about it (under 

 the West Point system) simply unpardonable. The West Point man is 

 not better, perhaps, morally than the average of his fellow citizens out of 



