Deseret Evening News

GEN. MERRITT'S VIEWS ON HAZING

Was Opposed to it When Superintendent at West Point.

MANY OFFICERS FAVOR IT.

Found It Very Hard to Get Some of the Academic Staff to Co-operate With Him.

New York, Jan. 28. - Hazing at West Point is discussed by Maj.-Gen. Merritt, United States army, in Leslie's Weekly. Gen. Merritt was formerly superintendent of the United States military academy. He says in part:

From 1853 to 1860, I was opposed to hazing when I was a cadet at West Point. Hazing both as a 'plebe' and as an upper classman though I had to endure a good deal of what was termed 'yanking.' That consisted of pulling a sleeping cadet out of bed and dropping him on the floor. This as a rule did no harm though I remember one fellow [being] a cadet who was rather seriously hurt. Yanking amounted only to a pleasantry of course but it was annoying work that the plebes were required [to endure]. Added the hard [task] a tent together and that we took turns to perform through the day. Awarded what was considered the safest place - the bed at the rear - I sank of the tent. One night when I was sleeping in the most exposed post. That was in the bed at the front I recollect that three of us occupied to sleep with a blissful sense of security. The next thing that I knew I was flying through the air and landed jurringly on my back. Another form of hazing in those days consisted of the unmerciful chaffing of new men. But I always endeavored to give back as much as I received.

Not [been] instituted then. There was no fighting in the sense of today, had scrapping committee and combats between representatives of classes were unheard of. During my whole time at West Point I had but one fight, and a personal matter. The new kind of that was with a fellow classman over fighting is to be unsparingly condemned, as the man who has been at West Point a year and has been training all that time is sure to be better qualified for a personal encounter than a man of the same height and weight who is fresh from home. For this reason a fight between a 'plebe' and second year's man amounts to a piece of brutality.

Fears - though there were more former. There are a great many army officers who heartily favor hazing on the principle that it is in the interest of discipline and teaches the future officer to obey without hesitation. One of the chief difficulties that I encountered when superintendent of the academy, from 1882 to 1887, was that quite a number of younger officers were diametrically opposed to my views on hazing - so much so, in fact that I could not obtain their cheerful acquiescence in what I was trying to do to stop the practice. Some of the members of the academic staff that I had to deal with 'old cranks' and 'I found, to put the matter plainly, the older ones were cranks with a beard and the younger ones were cadets who thought they knew it all.'

For the first three years I was very much interested in my work. During the last two years, there was so little co-operation with me in my efforts to abolish hazing that I became very tired of the post and was glad when my appointment as a general officer relieved me of the superintendency.

Will hazing ever be stopped at West Point? Not until drastic measures are employed. The superintendent must be a man who is bitterly opposed to hazing and I believe Col. Mills thoroughly meets the requirements. When he makes a recommendation to the war department to dismiss a cadet from the service that recommendation should be promptly and favorably acted upon.

When a young man goes to West Point and develops what is termed 'freshness' he is certain to be hazed. Distinctions in social standing are not made on account of the family, position or wealth. I remember that the most popular man in my class of forty-five years ago was one who, upon his arrival at West Point, reported his family being in indigent circumstances. He was very kindly treated by a George Vanderbilt, son of Commodore Vanderbilt, was put through the paces with great rigor.