190 



CONGRESS. (INCREASE OF THE NAVY.) 



" Philip H. Sheridan, Jr., was compelled to ride 

 a broomstick up and down the company street, 

 saying, 'Turn, boys, turn; we are going back,' 

 in mockery of his illustrious father's achievement 

 at Winchester. 



" Your committee feel that a sufficient number 

 of the methods used to harass and annoy have 

 been named and explained to enable the House to 

 understand their general nature. As this system 

 grew and became more and more oppressive it be- 

 came necessary to have some effective means to 

 coerce obedience to these unlawful behests of 

 upper-class men. and to meet this demand a sys- 

 tem of fighting has gradually grown up which is 

 shocking in its character. Each of the upper 

 classes has a regular fighting committee, and 

 whenever it is reported, for example, to the presi- 

 dent of the third class that some fourth-class man 

 has refused to obey any of the unlawful and illegal 

 orders of an upper-class man, or has in some other 

 important respect violated the upper-class code, 

 all of which, it must be borne in mind, is in direct 

 conflict with the regulations and rules of the 

 academy, the president calls his fighting com- 

 mittee together, and, if it thinks the charge true, 

 it orders the fourth-class man called out and 

 names the man who is to whip him." ' 



The report closed with a stringent measure for 

 the suppression of hazing, recommended by the 

 committee as necessary, though the cooperation 

 of the superintendent was assured, and the pledges 

 of the cadets at West Point had been given to dis- 

 continue hazing. No separate bill on the subject 

 was passed, however, but a prohibition and a pen- 

 alty were put into the appropriation bill for the 

 support of the Military Academy for the year 

 ending June 30, 1902. That measure had been 

 prepared early and passed the House of Repre- 

 sentatives Dec. 20, 1900, and it was amended by 

 the Senate and passed Feb. G, 1901. The chief 

 amendment was a section against hazing. The 

 House did not concur, and a conference com- 

 mittee was appointed and a report adopted, add- 

 ing to the appropriation bill the greater part of 

 the measure recommended by the special com- 

 mittee of the House, which had investigated the 

 matter. After a second conference the Senate 

 amendment, slightly changed, was adopted, Feb. 

 27 and 28, and the appropriation bill was approved 

 by the President March 2. 



There was no extended debate on the subject, 

 though the usual suggestions in favor of hazing 

 as a means of discipline were brought forward, 

 for the evidence seemed to be conclusive that the 

 practises which prevailed at West Point had de- 

 generated into something akin to bullying and 

 brutality; and the popular sentiment against 

 their continuance made its influence felt in Con- 

 gress. The clause in the appropriation bill is as 

 follows: 



" Provided further, That the superintendent of 

 the Military Academy shall make such rules, to be 

 approved by the Secretary of War, as will effectu- 

 ally prevent the practise of hazing; and any 

 cadet found guilty of participating in or encour- 

 aging or countenancing such practise shall be 

 summarily expelled from the academy and shall 

 not thereafter be reappointed to the corps of 

 cadets or be eligible for appointment as a com- 

 missioned officer in the army or navy or marine 

 corps until two years after the graduation of the 

 class of which he was a member." 



Increase of the Navy. In the naval appro- 

 priation bill the following provision was made, 

 authorizing the Secretary of the Navy to prepare 

 for the building of new vessels: 



" That, for the purpose of further increasing the 



naval establishment of the United States, in ac- 

 cordance with the latest improvements in the con- 

 struction of ships and the production of armor 

 and armament therefor, the Secretary of the Navy 

 is hereby directed to prepare the plans and speci- 

 fications of two seagoing battle-ships and two 

 armored cruisers, carrying the most suitable 

 armor and armament for vessels of their class, and 

 to submit to Congress a general description of 

 such battle-ships and cruisers on the first Mon- 

 day in December next; and said Secretary, in pre- 

 paring said plans and description, shall review 

 and further consider the questions whether said 

 ships should be sheathed or unsheathed; what 

 should be the weight and extent of the armor 

 therefor; what should be the form and location 

 of the turrets; whether any changes should be 

 made in the number and kind of guns of the 

 various sizes heretofore constituting the arma- 

 ment of similar ships; what, if any, torpedo-tubes 

 should be built into large ships; to what extent 

 electricity should be used for auxiliary purposes, 

 and all other questions which have arisen and are 

 now pending among naval architects and ordnance 

 experts concerning the construction of battle-ships 

 and cruisers under modern conditions; and said 

 secretary shall, to such an extent as he may deem 

 expedient, report to Congress in connection with 

 said description his opinion upon the foregoing 

 questions; and the Secretary of the Navy is here- 

 by authorized to exercise his discretion as to the 

 sheathing and coppering of naval vessels herein 

 and heretofore authorized to be built." 



In the discussion of the appropriation bill the 

 old question as to the price of armor-plate came 

 up. At the first session of the Congress it Avas 

 provided, in authorizing the construction of new 

 vessels, that $4,000,000 should be appropriated for 

 a Government establishment for the manufacture 

 of armor-plate, in case the Secretary of the Navy 

 could not secure from the two great corporations 

 engaged in the business such armor-plate of the 

 best quality at a reasonable and equitable price. 

 These firms had set $545 a ton as their minimum 

 price, but the Secretary of 'the Navy, after the 

 declaration of this policy, made contracts at a 

 reduction of $90 a ton. Mr. Butler, Senator 

 from North Carolina, argued that even that rate 

 was $150 too much, and he criticized sharply the 

 transactions bet\veen the armor-plate makers and 

 the Government. He said: 



"Mr. President, on the last page of the bill, 

 page 75, beginning at line 6, there is an innocent- 

 looking little paragraph, covering only a few lines, 

 but it winds up at the end with an appropriation 

 of $4,000,000 for armor-plate. 



" Mr. President, that is not all of it, either. If 

 the amount that we have contracted for had been 

 provided for in this bill, the item would have read 

 $16,564,550, which is the amount of the contract, 

 and which we might as well pay now or pay in 

 the next bill. Sixteen million five hundred and 

 sixty-four thousand five hundred and fifty dollars 

 is the required amount. And yet, with this enor- 

 mous appropriation for this one item, to-day the 

 Senate is absolutely precluded from considering 

 the matter as far as action on the 36,000 tons of 

 armor and over which is already contracted for 

 under the last naval bill is concerned. 



" Why? Because unwisely, as I think, when the 

 last naval appropriation bill was before the Sen- 

 ate, we not only authorized the Secretary of the 

 Navy to contract for this armor-plate, but we 

 left him carte-blanche authority to contract for it 

 at any price he saw fit, or at any figure that the 

 armor trust might hold him up to. We not only, 

 in my opinion, put him where he had to agree to 



