Never again!
CHAPTER XI
STRENGTHENING THE MORAL FIBER
When a new class of cadets reports at West Point, it is composed of men as diverse in appearance, in points of view, and in character as the parts of the country from which they come. But after they have been at the Academy for a couple of years a marked change occurs, and by the time they are ready to graduate they have undergone a complete metamorphosis. In some mysterious manner they seem to have been leveled to a certain standard, like some scraggly hedge that has been scrupulously trimmed by its painstaking guardian. The fat ones have lost their extra pounds; the thin ones have made good their deficit; the round-shouldered have straightened up, and the hollow-chested have filled out. Instead of a heterogeneous looking lot of men, they give the impression of having been made from the same die. And then too there is a uniformity about their point of view. Whereas at entrance their whole thought was colored by the life from which they came and by what they hoped to be, once enrolled in the Corps, they quickly and involuntarily have found themselves worshiping identical ideals—the ideals of Duty, Honor, and Country. They have discovered at West Point certain standards that have been approved by other men, and they have gradually adopted them as their own. But the real stamp of West Point appears in their faces. The imprint is evident wherever a group of the cadets are gathered together, but it is never so apparent as at the graduation ceremonies when the cadets individually mount the platform to receive their diplomas. Then one can see a certain look in the eye and a certain feeling of strength about the features that is the same. It is the look of men who have accomplished something and of the strength that comes from character.
What, you ask, is this leveling influence at the Academy? It comes from discipline, the discipline of the body, the discipline of the mind, and the discipline of the soul. It is the one governing factor in the success of West Point. All three kinds of it begin on the day that the cadet reports for duty, and continues without interruption during his entire course. The discipline of the body and the mind is a comparatively simple affair, especially when there is a willingness on the part of the subject, but the discipline of the soul is the influence that is hardest to make cadets appreciate. Some people shy when the word discipline is mentioned; they think that it means to break a man’s will and to destroy his individuality, but that is not so. The discipline that I speak of is a process of education whereby a man’s mental attitude is trained to a certain viewpoint; whereby his actions unconsciously respond to the correct ethical view of his duty. It is aimed to teach respect for law and order, to teach truthfulness and honesty, loyalty and obedience. It inculcates respect for superiors, if not for the man, then for the office that he holds. It teaches a soldier the sacredness of orders; it is the quality without which no army is successful.
Under this strong influence of discipline come men from all sections of our great country and from all classes of society. Viewed exteriorly they are, upon reporting, as motley a looking lot as could be imagined. An examination of their interiors would reveal natures and characters of equal variety. Some come from homes where they have received the most careful moral nurture; others from environments of vague and lax standards. Side by side with youths who are models of truth are lads with uncertain ideas of right and wrong. Among the throng are brilliant boys and stupid ones; well-educated lads and those whose advantages have been of the most limited sort; sons of rich men and boys who have known the meaning of want. From everywhere they come: from the city and from the farm; from the mountain and from the plain.
It is interesting to dwell for a moment on the following table showing the sources of the personnel of the cadet body. Herein are listed the occupations of the parents of the cadets and the number engaged in each, covering a period of fifty years.
| Accountants | 3 |
| Agents | 62 |
| Architects | 5 |
| Artists | 4 |
| Auctioneer | 1 |
| Auditor | 1 |
| Author | 1 |
| Baggagemaster | 1 |
| Bakers | 4 |
| Bankers and bank officers | 90 |
| Barbers | 4 |
| Bookkeepers | 18 |
| Brewers | 3 |
| Brokers | 40 |
| Builders | 2 |
| Butchers | 2 |
| Capitalist | 1 |
| Chief of police | 1 |
| City marshal | 1 |
| Clergymen | 128 |
| Clerk of House of Representatives | 1 |
| Clerks | 90 |
| Collectors | 4 |
| Commercial travelers | 13 |
| Conductors | 2 |
| Contractors | 38 |
| Cook | 1 |
| Cotton buyer | 1 |
| County officers | 74 |
| Cutlery commissioner | 1 |
| Dairyman | 2 |
| Dentists | 14 |
| Detectives | 2 |
| Distiller | 1 |
| Dock commissioner | 1 |
| Dock master | 1 |
| Draftsman | 1 |
| Druggists | 13 |
| Editors | 62 |
| Electroplater | 1 |
| Engineers: | |
| Civil | 13 |
| Mechanical | 10 |
| Locomotive | 3 |
| Stationary | 1 |
| Enlisted men | 4 |
| Express business | 2 |
| Farmers and planters | 1,149 |
| Fishing master | 1 |
| Foreman | 1 |
| Gardeners | 3 |
| General business | 5 |
| Hatter | 1 |
| Heads of corporations | 10 |
| Hotel keepers | 55 |
| Iceman | 1 |
| Importer | 1 |
| Inspector of buildings | 1 |
| Inspectors of factories | 2 |
| Inspectors of police | 2 |
| Insurance business | 38 |
| Inventor | 1 |
| Jewelers | 3 |
| Journalists | 8 |
| Justice of peace | 1 |
| Laborers | 29 |
| Lawyers and judges | 645 |
| Letter carriers | 1 |
| Librarians | 2 |
| Lithographer | 1 |
| Liverymen | 15 |
| Lumbermen | 20 |
| Manager of brewery | 1 |
| Manager of engines and boilers | 1 |
| Manager of factory | 1 |
| Manager of land company | 1 |
| Manufacturers | 151 |
| Marble dealer | 1 |
| Mechanics | 341 |
| Member of city board | 1 |
| Member of State Legislature | 1 |
| Members of Congress | 32 |
| Merchant tailor | 1 |
| Merchants | 722 |
| Messenger | 1 |
| Millers | 11 |
| Mining | 26 |
| Museum keeper | 1 |
| Musician, band leader | 1 |
| Musicians | 2 |
| Newspaper correspondent | 1 |
| Newspaper manager | 1 |
| No occupation | 191 |
| Nurserymen | 6 |
| Officers of the Army | 362 |
| Officers of the Navy | 59 |
| Officers of volunteers | 21 |
| Oil business | 2 |
| Overseers | 4 |
| Photographers | 6 |
| Physicians | 367 |
| Pilot | 1 |
| Policemen | 7 |
| Police justices | 2 |
| Politicians | 3 |
| Postmasters | 5 |
| President of manufacturing company | 1 |
| President of steam heating company | 1 |
| President of wire mill | 1 |
| Presidents of colleges | 4 |
| Presidents of insurance companies | 3 |
| Printers | 12 |
| Professors | 27 |
| Proprietor of elevator company | 1 |
| Publishers | 8 |
| Railroad employees | 6 |
| Railroad officers | 13 |
| Ranchmen | 2 |
| Real estate | 37 |
| Restaurant keeper | 1 |
| Salesmen | 5 |
| Saloonkeeper | 1 |
| School teachers | 56 |
| Secretaries | 14 |
| Ship captains | 25 |
| Speculators | 10 |
| State officers | 27 |
| Steamboatman | 1 |
| Steward | 1 |
| Stock dealers (cattle) | 10 |
| Stock raisers | 6 |
| Stocks | 1 |
| Superintendent of coal and iron company | 1 |
| Superintendent of factory | 1 |
| Superintendent of iron work | 1 |
| Superintendent of mine | 1 |
| Superintendent of prison | 1 |
| Superintendent of railroad | 1 |
| Superintendents of gas works | 2 |
| Superintendents of schools | 4 |
| Surveyors | 5 |
| Tanners | 2 |
| Teacher of garment cutting | 1 |
| Teacher of music | 1 |
| Teamster | 1 |
| Theater manager | 1 |
| Undertakers | 5 |
| United States civil officers | 85 |
| Unknown | 39 |
| Wagonmaster | 1 |
| Warden of prison | 1 |
It is to the sons of men in this list that West Point applies its discipline in order to create the type of officer that the Government desires for its Army. From them must be eliminated the unfit and the unworthy during the molding process to which they are subjected.
The immediate effect of the application of discipline to this variety of material is the creation of an ideal democracy. All of the new arrivals are thrown indiscriminately into the melting pot, and no attention is paid to any man’s antecedents. The boys of rich and influential parents are not allowed little life-preservers of wealth, family, and position whereby they might remain on top, but they must boil away, sometimes on top, sometimes at the bottom of the pot, rubbing and bumping against boys to whom riches and influence are strangers. Whether they sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, depends on individual effort alone. Men are esteemed at West Point for what they are and not for what they have. Each man feeling that he has as good an opportunity to succeed as the other man becomes imbued from the outset of his cadet career with the spirit of democracy that exists at the Academy.