United States Military Academy West Point - Howitzer Yearbook (West Point, NY)

Page 22 text:

 Captain Daniel G. Hemrv, . .’ 1 Infantry; class '08; graduated 31. INSTRUCTORS Captain Sami ki. T. Ax sell, 8th Infantry; class '99; •Trailtinted 31. Caitaix Clement A. Tiiott, 5tli Infantry; class 99; graduated 36. First I.iectkn ant Marion W. I Iowze, 3d Field Artillery; class 03; graduated 17. Second Likctkxant Henry K. Mitciii:i.i .3d Cavalry; class 0i?; graduated 36. Second Liectexant Harry S. CIkieh. 25th Infantry; class 03; graduated 71. Second Likctkxant John de B. W. Gakdinkr. Ilth Cavalry; class 05; graduated 28. Colonel Kodak S. Di.’di.ey, LI..1L, I.I..D., Judge d-vocatc, I . S. Army; Cadet, t . S. .M.A., 1866-1870; appointed from New York; graduated 15; Captain Staff. 1892; Lieutenant-Colonel and Judge Advocate, U. S. V., 1898; Major and Judge Advocate, I . S. V’., 1899; Major and Judge Advocate, I . S. Army, 1901; Colonel and Judge Advocate, 1903; Professor of Law and History, C.S. M. A.. 1901. SS 1ST A N T PRO F ESSO R v KOOME fcfc FELT THE M ALTER 0R y GOOD OPINION Of THE LAW. Department of Law PROFESSOR — 20 —

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“This text-book is designed primarily for the cadets of the I . S. Military Academy, who arc being fitted for a profession in which the principles of civil engineering are of daily application. K Gods! wlint a prospect. If this be true, graduation will bring no relief and we are destined to grow gray while groping our way through an interminable maze of strains, stresses, moments, and shears with no other guide to our faltering footsteps than the inevitable Cambria handbook. Must we believe that a second lieutenant of the white stripe variety is supposed to hold himself in constant readiness to build anything from a chicken coop to a skyscraper upon demand? It is a most appalling prospect. The path of the faithful few who hold up the bottom of the class is seldom strewn with roses but here they encounter an additional impediment to their peaceful progress in the shape of an increment of five tenths on the mark required for proficiency, increasing it to the formidable proportions of 2.5. The expedients adopted to escape this stumbling block have varied from attempts to speck, entire, the tables in the Cambria, to making frequent trips Vassal-ward to get a physical conception of the Poughkeepsie Bridge (one goat's explanation of his monthly wanderings in that direction). A watchful Kate has decreed, however, that all knowledge shall not be gleaned from books by the creation of the practical (as opposed to the impractical?) Military Knginccring Course. Caesar bridged the Rhine, so history tells us, but in all chronicles of his campaigns we find nothing « worthy of commemoration in song and story as the feat of crossing the Hudson on raft composed of empty beer kegs. As instruction progresses, little outings are planned, and the surrounding landscape is sketched and mapped with varying degrees of accuracy. 'Phis work results in a familiarity with clinometers, pedometers, hexameters, gas-meters, and the staple locally known as a P. M. K. lunch. In the last case, familiarity breeds contempt, and usually, indigestion, for this delicacy is an appetizing concoction, manufactured of most durable materials—one orange, two bard boiled eggs, one' bologna sandwich, one mutton sandwich impregnable alike to digestive juices, teeth, axe or dynamite. — 19

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T seems somewhat in the nature of inconsistency to teach a cadet the Law after three years of buffeting against the rigorous restrictions that hem him in on every side, for if there he any truth in the statement that experience is the best teacher, he will he learned Ix'yond description. Perhaps the reason for this plan may be found in a belief on the part of the Right Honorable Tactical Department that “a little learning is a dangerous thing” and a wholesome fear of any knowledge among the proletariat concerning tile existence of inalienable rights of mankind. Rut such a fear would seem to he ungrounded, for in the profound philosophy of the Law the benefit of its wisdom seems to apply to all hut “army officers, women, criminals, and lunatics.” Although humor has never been regarded as a distinguishing characteristic of the exponents of Blackstone, our experiences in the section room have not been without their ridiculous side. The grinds that relate to the “sub-peona duces tecum” are legion and date from the time when the Cave Man first laid aside his big stick and began to use this more refined weapon for protection against his adversaries. Perhaps, also, history repeats itself in the translation of “habeas corpus” “that you have the corpse”—or the definition of an alibi as “the annual allowance of a grass widow.” Law is essentially a thing of beauty and a joy forever to the facile speckoid. It was said of no less a person than Macaulay that, had the original of “Paradise Lost” been really lost, he could have reproduced it verbatim from memory. Rut who can picture the honors that the future has in store for the erstwhile member of the first section who, when the Ship of State runs on a rock, can proudly take his post on the poop deck (if that he the correct nautical term) and smoothly sound oft our venerated Constitution in the identical form given it by our respected forefathers? Ami in this connection, just one suggestion made with due respect toward the dignity of the Law. If ever the time should come for the revision of that grand old document, the Constitution, we would suggest that it he embodied in verse. 'Pile present form is sadly defective in rhythm and the other aids that would make its commission to memory an easy task. A rearrangement along the general lines of “Curfew Shall Not King To-night” would lighten the labor of subsequent classes in this regard and earn their eternal gratitude. — 21 — JJP