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

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J! !. ! 1 . 'Q-I' Q? I fa- . E 1 TH E I9 iz I-IOWITZER of living. For more than five-score years strong men who created their creed from these words, living true to that creed, have made the name of West Point honored and respected throughout the world. Are customs and traditions which have accomplished t.hese results to be lightly thrown aside? Are the lessons learned in this time of so little value that they should be forgotten or discarded, to follow a careless inspiration or idle prophecy? There can be but one answer to this. No man in full possession of his faculties would throw away the time-tested precepts hy which he had won success and recognition in the world of men, until he was absolutely certain that he had found not merely a substitute but something bet- ter. There is the key to the strange reluctance to change: the antipathy to all which mifrht set ,fam-. 1 rw.-sy .. i -. ft- . .pig Terri' 523.415-,gvliy gui f-ffnx V.. ' 4: ig -- Age ' we 1:-Jl.i,'i' 'f 1' 5 W1 'J' ,X--I . ., 'wi , A , sa' ffgaf , -. . A xy' ' I .g s . ,f , ., . .,. . Wg, -X K fy- -' , rf ,k it itE?5f?g ' l .gi u C Wl'w7'FJ -ft' Q ,- e 4 ,gf E gf- ':fWf!5QrLs,2 'Re q fe 5 T -i- . I S. - Qsfexi sk' .. . .. . 'tim lllllllE'lESiE5 llllllil lEiS!f5t'!lBl llllfgifl il A i x N I -li-4 E :sew:goEetaiofiiiittttii-eiitiisflffftiifii: '-ai --is-11: I- ft FY- 1 ,.:-Q52 , N , 1:14, . V fs. I , ,, ., ...W ' D 1 4 the Corps in new and Zll1Cll paths. The Vorps can conceive of no new anns or ideals by which its own future can he made more secure. Instinctively it recog- nizes that its safety lies in the observance of every custom, every tradition by the help of which the long assaults of time and change than honor shall he' known, gray line has thus far proved invul-nerable to the Until the day shall come when some virtue greater when the word country ceases to cause a thrill in the heartsof its sons, when Y 1 l i there is a nobler feeling than 'f A i ' . . ,- f --.- 4 ? I csslg N. I .. J N ..Yf --1. A- V Il I 'RQ 53? N a.-A '5 M-gg'-v :jr Sim, PM .as 1 nr v J 993555, 'ff ,AQ F xi-af: 'iw 99 if fe?-+-iif'ei.fDf W 5-.:--'- J l 2 ,ull L' 5357 it s .4-f l ,? I it gina 1.625 Z ...nu an x R ifkgilfixglf, 'QQ R15 - 5 , - 'J 545' X ' . ' J -. T 4:5 ' . 6 ' 2 ' ig - -at X Qz5,,::HQ- . 1 A or T 6. ,'uf'Z' at :r,':f3gig.f,p ., ' 4- V -s -'21-iiilaf' X 3i '.0-2'-It rf- 'f Lu HQ: X la ,Zi f ff l 51: 'sipwzilif -F if r l.f5:f ,5T'?3?E5lii6? ' a iPc,i'511-fi Q'gl l'3 pf' 'Y 5 iz bgiatzf-we-:H-z -' 6 aqs.:.v:.-.:.,-5-sw.rq4:,p11f: ' ..gfff-rrwff .if-5 -- 5. 5 .?z.1ff---.fbwmiff f -nifnqggid,g':g,37:,:vz-4.33-iq' ' 52:21 1 -'mfg iff' 1: ' ,Riff-, 'Me' 1-. 27:.1'1'::' :ef 'fi - 5259252114 ,::'::s-:J ,..,g -- - fe JH: ' -. , ' ifiiimt If-f-1: ' 2 .ea gjzvf - gswfr'-ffm':.1's1 :I-fc . F.-,..-.,, Q- fp .'.,.5 5.11 3- ,gentv -'V :sz fi f'.-Q,.0a'4- , PJ 'Q-.,-gg v - H 1 fa-49 .N--rx' E' V135 V ip pi fri.: ,. S- ., - ' nf -1 'W ' , ki ' ' A ' 44:21, 4- ' -v..L,sa ,:se - i pg -ww' 1 wr. . 'f' ' 1 init-H-r ' Q - 4 M ' QI . , . ' f-'H --0 , W1-+24-1 ' .e T 1.9 , aa 13 ix Vi ,ff that of duty well done, until that day shall dawn the Corps will turn to the past for inspiration to keep its record untarnished. This does not imply that the heights have been won and the struggle ,is over. The Creator in His providence saw fit to give to the world some ideals which are yet far from actual realization, which, perhaps, can never be attained. It is well for all

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T E I9 iz I-IOWITZER H illlge eililll ' Corps, not alone to the Corps of to-day and to those who have gone before, but to those that shall follow after. With the consciousness of this responsibility comes the deep respect and veneration for the men who, ,by their lives and deeds, made the name of VVest Point synonymous with Honor. In this awakening lies, perhaps, the reason for the conservatism of the Corps. hlarching abreast with this insight into the trans- formation of self from a boy to a man with a purpose in life comes a desire to be worthy, to so live that when he shall depart he may feel that the Corps is stronger all along the line than when he came. He looks for the means by which to achieve this end and in gilt letters on his cap he reads the words, Duty, Honor, Countryf, and in that motto is the heart and soul of his en- deavor. His quest is over, his road lies straight be- fore him, a road narrow and difficult in places, but leading upward, and he sets his face toward the crest of the hill. He instinctively looks to the past for guidance. This is but natural. VVhen the success of a.man in any business becomes known to the public it at once searches for the reasons by which that success was made possible. If it finds in his methods something new or of use to it, it is quick to seize and apply the principle to further its own interests. But here in the Corps when search is made for something to foster a higher spirit of manhood and cleanness one comes back to the place of starting with those three , words on which to build his ,.,' Q. castle. VVhat greater tribute H Q .,-. i ' i' ,,f can be paid to those who , -Qijis. E iggi'fi i . filet WOW the sffly than that 4. the guiding star which they 5 chose to follow should be the :'i' 5 brightest in the firmament to-day? It is no wonder that Wifi! '.- the Corps is slow to change, 'A T'-'if r ,N' that it seems to resent any C -' 1 'if h change in its customs or mode lui A ' C' ' 12

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F rn E I9 IZ 1'-p I-IOWITZER H that this be true, for among the immutable laws which rule the universe is one which says that when growth shall cease dissolution shall begin. Let us be thankful that our honored dead left to us a heritage not of luxury or ease but of toil and sacrifice. Let us be thankful that when they left to us a goal unattainable by mortal man they also left us traditions and records beyond all price, from which, in our dark hours and days of anxious foreboding, we may draw courage and strength of purpose to carry on the unfinished work which they bequeathed to us. Let us re- joice that the work was unfinished, that it can never be finished. To them shall be the glory forever of choosing ideals which can never die, but will grow to the end of time. Our destiny it is to strengthen what they made strong, to follow the up-hill road where they pointed the way, to march forward and up- ward toward the crest where they are beckoning with phantom hands. A strong man's inborn right they left to us, the right to perpetuate the fame they won for their Alma hlater, to keep brightly burnished the shield whereon their record is written g to see that the line which we may write upon that shield stands out as boldly, cleanly as the lines above. Last of all, they left to us the duty of keeping alive the spirit they created and of transmitting it, purer and stronger as the years pass by. It is the realization of this solemn duty that sobers and ha1'dens the man, that causes him to see that he cannot fail the trust he accepted when he entered the service. It is this thought that teaches him that his value as a man will be weighed in terms of his work, that makes known to him the duty of service whose reward is not measured by material things but is known only in the heart of the servant. If to uphold this plea shall call for sacrifice, for reverence of our honored dead, for a respect and love of our Alma Blaterg for the sake of our own honor, let us make such sac- rifice, not counting it as such but rather as a privilege, reckoning it not as a price we pay, but as a gift to us. Let us remember that though Mthe paths of glory lead but to the grave, if, when the sun is low in the VVest and the light grows dim, we can look calmly back over the years and see a path straight and clean, unscarred by act or weakness or dishonor, a path along which is visible only evidence of a fight well fought, a faith well kept and a race well won, we may know that by the years of that service our life has justified itself, that through our keeping the faith with our dead we have kept faith with ourselves, with the Corps, with our Country, and with God. V 141