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“Stop Hazing In Toto”
Five Points to West Point. "Don't put on airs. When it comes to Hazing, Deviling, and Blackguardism, I am as good as you, perhaps better."
This anti-hazing cartoon is a sequel to the artist's cartoon of
July
5, 1879 in which he contrasts the respectable image of a
West Point cadet to that of a shoulder-hitter (the rough and tough enforcer of the
will of a political boss). In the earlier cartoon, Nast defended
West Point against charges of elitism leveled by those seeking to cut
congressional appropriations for the U.S. Military Academy. The
debate over West Point was part of a larger effort by the Democratically-controlled Congress
to reduce military
appropriations across the board.
In this cartoon,
however, Nast turns the tables by having the shoulder-hitter pointedly
condemn the hypocritical arrogance of West Point cadets for their
practice of hazing, which the artist equates with the violent methods of
the shoulder-hitters. Notice that on the right shoulder-hitters
from Five Points, a poor immigrant area of New York City, are beating up
a political opponent.
In 1878 (a year before this cartoon was published), a hazing incident
at Princeton University prompted Harper's Weekly to editorialize
against the practice, calling it a "mean and sneaking
business." Editor George William Curtis called for the
targets of hazing to defend themselves against such attacks; for the
immediate expulsion of the perpetrators from their respective colleges;
and, for police intervention if public order was disturbed.
In 1879, as congressional attention focused on the military, West
Point came under scrutiny for its toleration of hazing. On July
22, the superintendent of the institution, General John Schofield, wrote
to Secretary of War George McCrary in strong support of the dismissal of
cadets guilty of hazing and of those who shielded their
identities. Superintendent Schofield complained, however, that
every time he expelled a cadet, the War Department reinstated
him.
Other West Point superintendents over the years expressed similar
anti-hazing sentiments, but, as Schofield's comments indicate, few of
the other parties involved shared that view. Besides an
uncooperative War Department, congressmen refused to allow dismissal of
cadets from their districts, even though Congress periodically held
hearings on hazing at the Military Academy. In addition, West
Point alumni, faculty, the academic board, and students, including the
first-year plebes who were the victims, overwhelmingly upheld the
tradition. Therefore, prohibitions and pronouncements against the
practice by superintendents were not enforced.
Some defended hazing as consisting of harmless pranks (despite
incidents of physical harm or suicide), while others noted that it was a
unifying experience for cadets and alumni. A more substantial
reason was that hazing allegedly undermined the brashness and inflated
egos of the plebes, whose prestigious appointment to the Military
Academy usually capped athletic and academic achievements in their
hometowns. Many spoke as hazing as a ritual of passage making them
better men and better soldiers.
In earlier years, hazing at West Point was restricted to the summer
when first-year plebes were at a training camp, and involved minor
pranks, such as pulling the cadet out of bed by his heels. In the
post-Civil War period, hazing intensified at West Point, became
associated with the martial spirit of the school, and lasted the entire
first year. Upperclassmen forced the plebes to undergo various
forms of hazing, including strenuous physical exercises; menial labor;
chewing rope ends; eating soap, hot sauce, or unpalatable foods; having
hot oil dropped on their feet; reciting nonsensical verse; performing
pointless tasks; or other behavior meant to demean the victims.
Robert C. Kennedy
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