West Point Builds on Past Tradition

They say that you can tell a Harvard man a mile away, and what's more this is supposed to hold true even when everyone else in the area is also wearing civilian clothes. It will be just that much more obvious tomorrow afternoon, for any student who makes the trip to West Point will find himself surrounded by 2,496 of the fittest, proudest, and most highly disciplined young men in the world.

It is not by mere chance that the Military Academy attracts such men for its cadets. The standards of physical, mental, and emotional prowess that a boy must show before he is even admitted to West Point are enough to make most youths turn to the less arduous pursuits of the civilian, and the rigors of undergraduate life once he is admitted require either great stamina or a peculiar degree of insensitiveness.

Plebes Lead Tortuous Lives

The life of the Plebe, for instance, has been famed in song and story as the epitome of refined torture. He must serve as the butt of every upperclassman's ill-temper, quirks of humor, or plain cussedness, and he must take everything that is thrown at him without a murmur, for he is lower than the lowest galley-slave in the eyes of his more advanced brothers-in-arms. And these latter companions, having been Plebes once themselves, are not apt to let him forget how low this can be.

He never leaves the West Point area from his arrival in July for "Beast Barracks"--the two months disciplining period before courses begin--until the end of his first year the following June. His personal rights and privileges are more limited than any buck private's in boot camp, and his work week, even by the Academy's presumably conservative estimate, is calculated to take 72 hours of his time. For the right to these dubious advantages, he must first undergo a complete mental and physical check-up which may reject him for such various causes as facial ugliness or unfilled cavities in the teeth.

Academic Standards High

Life becomes somewhat easier for the Cadet once he passes his exams at the end of his first year., but even then it runs no danger of becoming decadent. Failure in a single course at any time leads to immediate dismissal, as may deficiency in physical fitness and a host of other details unheeded in most civilian schools.

In addition, each student is constantly scrutinized by the authorities in command for evidence of insufficient leadership potential. This concept is probably the most basic factor in governing the West Point mode of life, for character training and development of leadership among its students is the prime end of the Academy.

To this end, a thorough and complex system has been devised to guarantee that every graduate is fitted for his role as a leader of men. The first step involves a written report by each Cadet, rating the character of every other man in his Company. These reports, after careful scrutiny, are supplemented by the Tactical Officer in charge of the Company and sent on to the Commandant. Any unfortunate whose desirability seems to be in doubt as a result of these studies is then sent before the Brigade Aptitude Board, consisting of senior officers and a psychologist, who investigate the case thoroughly, and then pass it on to higher channels involving the Commandant, Superintendent, the heads of all academic departments, and finally the Secretary of War. It can only be imagined what sort of shape this process leaves the suspected student in, but one might guess that his dynamic qualities might be even more impaired in the course of investigation.

There are other ways that the Academy makes sure no lillies slip through unnoticed. For one, the Cadet's annual pay comes to $973 per annum, out of which sum he must provide all his expenses including books and the 16 different uniforms required. In the words of Major General Maxwell D. Taylor, Superintendent of the Academy, "This stipend being probably the lowest wage scale in the United States, the Cadet must exercise the utmost frugality to keep a balanced budget."

Physical education is also an integral part of the Cadet's training, and is not looked on as a mere form of recreation. Sports are compulsory all year round for every man, on the proven theory that good athletes make good officers. The authorities have found that five times as many cadet officers come from the top ten percent in physical aptitude as from the bottom ten, while almost all maladjustments come from the physically inept. The cynical believe that West Point's uniformly excellent athletic teams are a cause, rather than an effect, of the theory behind them, while heaven knows how many battered opponents have been left to wonder if their defeat wasn't perhaps the result of some deep-seated maladjustment.

Honor System Builds Character

Still a third method employed in the goal of character training is the Honor System, a code rooted in absolute truthfulness and honesty to his fellow-Cadets and to his officers. Ex-Secretary of War Newton D. Baker formulated the theory behind the Honor system by saying:

The purpose of West Point, therefore, is not to act as a glorified drill sergeant, but to lay the foundation upon which a career in growth of military knowledge can be based, and to accompany it by two indispensable additions; first, such a general education as educated men find necessary for intelligent intercourse with one another; and second, inculcations of a set of virtues, admirable always, out indispensable in a soldier. Men may be inexact or even untruthful in ordinary matters and suffer as a consequence only the disesteem of their associates or the inconveniences of unfavorable litigation, but the inexact or untruthful soldier trifles with the lives of his fellow men and with the honor of his government, and it is therefore no matter of pride but rather of stein military necessity that makes West Point require of her students a character for trustworthiness that knows no evasions."

Those and other methods lead to an attrition rate of over 25 percent in every West Point class, but the Staff of the Academy feels that such a high proportion of losses is justified in consideration of the peenliar goals of the institution. The purpose of a military organization is not primarily to train citizens, but rather to provide for national defense through the creation of effective soldiers.

Past Ever Present

The theory of how this should be accomplished has been evolved from the experience of the past, and, according to many of West Point's critics, the past is still the dominant factor in the standards striven for. Certainly tradition is present everywhere, and a conscious attempt is made to impress the incoming Plebe with its importance. Not only the collection of battle flags in the Chapel or the many statues and monuments to the dead are there to remind him of "the long, grey line" of Cadets that have preceded him, but such customs as the "Plebe system" itself contribute to the total effect of being one with the past.

It can be argued that four years of such influence virtually unalloyed by any contact with the outside world can only distort the Cadet's outlook to the point of uselessness, as far as dealing with ordinary mortals is concerned. Many men who served in the last war came away with the feeling that West Pointer's were little more than a modern-day version of the Prussian military caste, unadaptable to circumstances and unable to deal with personnel.

Regular Army men, the argument continues, become so hide-bound by their stultified training that they are only useful within the context of their own environment.

Liberal Arts Gain Place

But the Academy has not entirely disregarded its contact with civilians through the last war. Within the last few years, the curriculum has been altered drastically from its old scientific emphasis to the point where now almost one half of its courses are in the fields of social science and humanities. True, courses in military history and the psychology of military leadership come under these headings, and another course in the department teaches relations with the National Guard and Reserves, but there is at least a realization of the old maxim that there are two ways to lead a donkey.

Another recent change has been the formation of a partially civilian Board of Consultants, headed by Karl Compton, ex-president of M.I.T. After a study of the institution in 1945, this board submitted a report which concluded; "...the four years of college can best be devoted to education in the general fundamentals, enlargement of social vision, and development of cultural appreciation. Because of the variety of duties and of leadership which fall to the lot of the Army officer, to provide a foundation of this type of liberal education becomes increasingly the mission of the Academy."

But despite any humanizing trends in the West Point mode of life, the ultimate justification of the Academy rests in its goal: "to instill a permanent desire for the military service in its future officers." To achieve this end, it is impossible to deny any link with traditions of the past and ideals of the service.

Specialized Training Needed

The business of being a soldier is perhaps the most specialized in the world, one which demands a mode of life more exacting and methodical than a civilian profession could hope to be. To expect a thoroughly liberal college to produce a body of men espable of maintaining the standards of duty and leadership which every Army must have at its base would be as absurd as expecting an Army camp to produce scholars and artists.

The ramrod-stiff line of men that will march to their places in Michie Stadium tomorrow afternoon are worlds apart from their Harvard counterparts. The life each group is trained for, the standards set for each, the philosophy each holds, all are probably as diametrically opposed as two groups of people could get. Whether or not militarism is undemocratic and vicious, or the Regular Army officer is blind and reactionary, the West Point Cadet has the faith of a tradition and a pride born of integrity behind that swagger in his walk.