West Point / An Intimate Picture of the National Military Academy and of the Life of the Cadet

by Robert C. Richardson

APPENDIX
(From the Official Register of the United States Military
Academy—1916)
WAR DEPARTMENT
Information Relative to the Appointment and Admission
of Cadets to the United States
Military Academy
(1916 Edition. Revised Annually.)
[Communications relating to matters connected with the Military
Academy should be addressed to The Adjutant General
of the Army, Washington, D. C.]
THE CORPS OF CADETS

The Act of Congress approved May 4, 1916, provides as follows:

“That the Corps of Cadets at the United States Military Academy shall hereafter consist of two for each Congressional district, two from each Territory, four from the District of Columbia, two from natives of Porto Rico, four from each State at large, and eighty from the United States at large, twenty of whom shall be selected from among the honor graduates of educational institutions having officers of the Regular Army detailed as professors of military science and tactics under existing law or any law hereafter enacted for the detail of officers of the Regular Army to such institutions, and which institutions are designated as ’honor schools’ upon the determination of their relative standing at the last preceding annual inspection regularly made by the War Department. They shall be appointed by the President and shall, with the exception of the eighty appointed from the United States at large, be actual residents of the Congressional or Territorial district, or of the District of Columbia, or of the island of Porto Rico, or of the States, respectively, from which they purport to be appointed: Provided, That so much of the Act of Congress approved March fourth, nineteen hundred and fifteen (Thirty-eighth Statutes at Large, page eleven hundred and twenty-eight), as provides for the admission of a successor to any cadet who shall have finished three years of his course at the academy be, and the same is hereby, repealed: Provided further: That the appointment of each member of the present Corps of Cadets is validated and confirmed.

“Sec. 2. That the President is hereby authorized to appoint cadets to the United States Military Academy from among enlisted men in number as nearly equal as practicable of the Regular Army and the National Guard between the ages of nineteen and twenty-two years who have served as enlisted men not less than one year, to be selected under such regulations as the President may prescribe: Provided, That the total number so selected shall not exceed one hundred and eighty at any one time.

“Sec. 3. That, under such regulations as the President shall prescribe, the increase in the number of cadets provided for by this Act shall be divided into four annual increments, which shall be as nearly equal as practicable and be equitably distributed among the sources from which appointments are authorized.”

Annual Increments.—States at large, 21; Congressional districts, 92; Alaska, District of Columbia, Hawaii and Porto Rico, combined, 1 each year to the source longest without an appointment, and, when the periods are equal, the choice to be by lot; Honor Schools, 5; Regular Army, 23 in 1916, 22 in 1917, 23 in 1918, and 22 in 1919; National Guard, 22 in 1916, 23 in 1917, 22 in 1918, and 23 in 1919.

APPOINTMENTS

How Made.—The appointments from a Congressional district are made upon the recommendation of the Representative in Congress from that district, and those from a State at large upon the recommendations of the Senators of the State. Similarly, the appointments from a Territory are made upon the recommendation of the Delegate in Congress. The appointments from the District of Columbia are made upon the recommendation of the Commissioners of the District. Each person appointed must be an actual resident of the State, District, or Territory from which the appointment is made.

The appointments from the United States at large are made by the President of the United States upon his own selection. The cadets from Porto Rico, who must be natives of that island, are appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Resident Commissioner.

The appointments from among the honor graduates of educational institutions designated as “honor schools” will be made upon the recommendation of the heads of the respective schools.