2 HEREDITY AND DEVELOPMENT OF NAVAL OFFICERS. 



accurately and quickly. Each man should be selected for the qualities 

 that fit him for the special r61e he has to play. Joseph Jefferson would 

 have failed as Hamlet. Many a perfect physical specimen of a man would 

 make a poor naval strategist. 



It is undoubtedly true, also, that at the outbreak of our Civil War 

 many untried men were chosen as officers merely because they had shown 

 some interest in the organization of companies and, moreover, were friends 

 of congressmen who urged their appointment upon the War Department. 

 We are told that in selection for the present war no political influence is 

 permitted. But political influence is a most insidious thing; often it 

 comes to the harassed Army Department as a welcome and valued sug- 

 gestion. With the best intentions in the world the recommender may be 

 urging an utterly unfit appointment. It is the insufficiency of the method 

 that is at fault. Is there any additional test of fitness? 1 



II. AN IMPROVED METHOD OF TESTING THE FITNESS OF 

 UNTRIED OFFICERS. 



1. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



We start with the principle enunciated by Mahan: "Each man has 

 his special gift and to succeed must act in accordance with it." Our 

 problem is, then, how can we determine, in advance, what is a man's special 

 gift? Or, hi our special case, how can we tell whether or not an applicant 

 for admission to the Naval Academy or for a naval commission has a gift 

 for the place he seeks? 



"The child is father of the man." Each well-marked trait of adult 

 character passes through developmental stages. Its beginnings are already 

 to be seen in the child. We recognize this fact in the case of physical 

 traits. The dark skin-color of the negro develops rapidly, beginning a 

 few hours after birth; curliness of hair shows in the first permanent coat; 

 hair-color is slower in getting its final shade, but usually does so within 

 the first decade. Mental traits, also, early show their quality. Imbeciles 

 show retardation even at 5 or 6 years; idiots much earlier. On the other 

 hand, Galton at 4 years had the intellectual advancement of a boy of 8 

 years. Special traits, as every experienced parent knows, may show at 

 a very early age, such as neatness, altruism, frankness, jollity, cautious- 

 ness. Audacity hi the adult is foreshadowed by adventurousness a 

 desire of the boy to "try stunts." The courageous man was fearless as 

 a boy. In the early years of school special interests and capacities for 

 drawing, arithmetical work, memorizing, reasoning, are clearly shown. 

 The visualist and auditist are already differentiated long before adoles- 

 cence. The significance of the combination of boyish traits may not be 

 fully realized even by the parents or other close relatives; their interpre- 

 tation has to be made by the expert. "What has poor little Horatio done," 

 cried his uncle, Captain Suckling, when young Nelson was brought to him, 

 at 12 years, to be taken on his ship, "that he, being so weak, should be sent 

 to rough it at sea? But let him come, and if a cannon ball takes off his 



1 This book was written in the summer of 1917; hence certain anachronisms. 



