It is believed that when thoroughly organized under the present arrangement the Spanish course will result in ability to converse in that language in short, simple sentences, and certainly put it in the power of the student to soon acquire this facility to a greater extent by a little additional study and experience. There can be no doubt, however, that the knowledge the graduate has of Spanish would be very greatly increased were this language taught in the first class, or final year, and further efforts should be made to so arrange the different studies as to permit this and to avoid one of the criticisms now made of the curriculum by graduates; that the course in Spanish is completed two years before the graduate is to use his knowledge in practical affairs.

A conversational knowledge of French is more difficult to acquire, and fluency in this accomplishment is seldom, if ever, acquired in a class room. The instruction in French is, however, shaped with the view of giving the pupils the best preparation for further future advancement of their knowledge both in reading or writing and conversation. The attention and amount of time given to these courses, it will be observed, compare very favorably with that allowed by other scientific institutions to the same branches, and in this respect comparison with these institutions can properly be made.

The ability of the graduate to acquire a good speaking knowledge of these languages after leaving the Academy would be increased if the instructors and cadets heard them spoken more in the class room instead of confining the instruction quite so much to blackboard work. With this object in view it is requested that the Secretary of War recommend that Congress make provision for the employment of three assistant instructors in the department of modern languages, to be civilians, natives of the countries where the above languages are spoken-two for the Spanish and one for the French language.

In the department of ordnance and gunnery the instruction is entirely devoted to professional subjects. The course is intended to supply an intelligent general knowledge of the important ordnance developments of the world with especial attention to our own systems and to such details of ordnance material and construction as officers are likely to find useful. The course has 94 section-room periods with from 5 to 12 periods of practical work and experimentation.

The department of engineering is devoted almost entirely to professional subjects, all of which are essential to an officer's equipment; such subjects as are not strictly professional are of such nature that knowledge of them is essential to some, and likely to be so to all graduates. The course has 220 section-room periods.

In the department of law and history the matter relating to the first subject may be considered as entirely professional, though like much other professional material, is a part of a liberal education. The history is taken simultaneously with the law course, and while being itself a most useful part of our curriculum as an element of general education, it is a most valuable accompaniment of the law, showing the origin, civilization, and territorial development of the great States of the world, whose rules of action within their own limits and between themselves constitute national and international law. The course has 184 section-room periods-123 for law, 61 for history. The departments of tactics and practical military engineering are

entirely professional and concerned with purely military matters. In the latter department all exercises are practical, and in the former much the larger proportion are so. The practical and theoretical instruction in the department of tactics extends over the four years; that of the department of practical military engineering over the last three. The academic work of the department of tactics is partly by oral recitation and partly by lecture and written recitation. The recently established course of lectures, twenty-five in number, in military hygiene are to be given during the second class year by an officer of the medical department of the Army. The time selected is that at which the class is principally occupied with practical work in the departments of philosophy and chemistry. The cadets at this period. of their course have been admirably grounded in the mathematical, chemical, and general physical knowledge necessary to readily become good sanitary engineers, besides having had considerable instruction as to the general conditions for healthy living. It is thought and hoped that these lectures will supplement this knowledge with much valuable practical information.

The above statement with regard to the curriculum has reference to it as it now stands, after the latest revision, and as it goes into effect September 1. This last revision reduced the mathematical course by 40 of its periods, transferring the same to the department of modern languages, thereby establishing that department on the basis above given. In the revision the department of philosophy yielded about 6 per cent of the time which has belonged to it for over sixty-five years to the department of chemistry. The new course of lectures on military hygiene is introduced for the first time.

The relative employment of the entire time of a cadet while at the Academy, under the supervision of the heads of the different departments as to the time devoted to their respective subjects outside of the section room, is given below:

These numbers multiplied by 100 give very approximately the total number of hours occupied by each department during the four years. In this connection it is pertinent to remark that the length of the academic year at West Point, together with the small number of holidays, makes the course of four years almost as long in actual working time as five years of the ordinary college course of thirty weeks-the academic year at the sister academy at Annapolis is also several weeks shorter than ours.

ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY.

I ask attention to the following: The Academy has as a part of its equipment an excellent astronomical observatory fitted with valuable scientific instruments sufficient for much scientific research, and consisting of 1 equatorial, 1 transit circle, 1 photographic telescope, 1 prime vertical instrument, and 1 spectrometer, all large instruments and well mounted. The observatory is under the immediate supervision of the professor of natural and experimental philosophy, and to the present time he has had to assist him in its management a line officer of the Army detailed for this special purpose. This policy has worked only fairly well in the instruction of cadets, as the assistant referred to is not permanently detailed, and the policy is one which has necessarily failed to give the return to science and to the Academy that should be had from such a powerful and valuable equipment.

In the opinion of the professor of philosophy, in which I concur, the permanent detail of an Army officer at the observatory is not desirable and the only way in which the observatory can give the return to science that should be expected from it is by the permanent employment of an astronomer. I recommend that this be done. A competent person can be secured at a reasonable salary and he would be of much assistance to the professor in the course of practical astronomy which cadets are required to take. In addition to this work he would be required to take up a series of astronomical observations in some field of pure science, and in their prosecution secure valuable data for a regular series of publications from the observatory. In this way only can this valuable equipment be made to give here the return to be expected from it. I believe the return to be had would justify the additional expense.

THE ACADEMY'S LIBRARY.

Sincere pleasure is felt at the success attending the efforts made to give this adjunct of instruction an organization commensurate with its importance. Housed in a commodious and well-appointed building, its work directed by an able head whose entire time is devoted to the duty, and with an appropriation sufficient to insure the acquisition of lacking books on military science, history, and other technical subjects, the library is in a condition to do the work so fully set forth in the appended report of the former librarian," to which attention is asked.

DETACHMENT OF TROOPS.

A further increase of 7 men in the strength of the light artillery detachment is recommended. This detachment has now an enlisted strength of 53 men, but the year's experience shows that this is not sufficient to enable it to properly meet the necessary demands on it. The transfer to Fort Leavenworth of the company of engineers so long stationed at West Point and the substitution for it of a detachment of engineers of less strength has necessarily increased the duties of the other detachments and makes the increase recommended for the artillery detachment especially necessary.

BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS.

The appended reports of the quartermaster" and the instructors of practical military engineering and ordnance and gunnery" give in detail

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the buildings completed and the large amount of work and the many improvements accomplished during the year. The buildings under way are the south wing of the cadet hospital, the kitchen of the cadet mess, and the officers' mess and quarters. The progress made on the first two has hardly been satisfactory, but steps have been instituted to cause the contractors to push this work with more rapidity and it is expected the kitchen and mess buildings at least will be under cover before winter and permit their completion early next summer.

The appropriation made by Congress at its last session insures for the Military Academy an adequate plant for continuing its work. It is a matter of regret that Congress should have seen fit to reduce by over one-sixth the amount estimated as required to properly rebuild the institution. The sum asked for was arrived at only after the whole subject had been carefully considered by competent judges and the estimates submitted were as close as it was practicable to make them. The reduced appropriation has made necessary a revision of the whole project. The work of now determining just what buildings and other necessary improvements can be secured is being prosecuted by a board of officers. The report of this board will be the basis upon which will be prepared the complete plans to be approved by the Secretary of War before building operations are commenced. The personal care the Secretary of War is giving the matter of the selection of the architect insures plans which will preserve all of the old that is worthy, and make it, with the new, an architectural whole befitting the history of the institution and conforming to its superb natural location. It is hardly to be expected that actual building operations can be begun before the coming summer.

CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY.

This year has marked the completion of the first century in the life of the Military Academy which was established March 16 and was formally opened July 4, 1802. The close of the academic year was decided upon as the most suitable time for commemorating the anniversary and the occasion was celebrated with appropriate ceremonies on the 9th, 10th, and 11th days of June. Appended hereto is a programme of the exercises." A feature of the review in honor of the President of the United States on June 11, not in the programme, was the bestowal by him of a medal of honor upon Cadet Calvin P. Titus, of the fourth class, for "gallantry at Pekin, China, August 14, 1900, while a soldier of the Fourteenth United States Infantry." This is the first medal of honor, as far as known to me, to be bestowed upon an undergraduate of the Military Academy and the only one personally presented by the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States. Graduation day, June 12, fittingly terminated the exercises. The diplomas of the graduating class were bestowed by the President; the members of the class were addressed by the Hon. Charles Dick, member of Congress, on behalf of the Board of Visitors, and were welcomed into the Army by the honorable Secretary of War and the Lieutenant-General Commanding.

The anniversary excited universal interest among graduates, who spared no effort to make it successful. Invitations to it were extended to the limit of securable accommodations at and near West Point, and it was a matter of great regret to all concerned that our means in this

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respect were not more ample, for the fact denied the Academy the pleasure of receiving and caring for many more of its friends and wellwishers. A large proportion of the invited guests were present to take part in the ceremonies, and cordial letters of congratulation and good will were received from those whose engagements prevented their attendance.

It is not too much to say that the exercises were marked from first to last by cordiality and good will on every part. The addresses of the President and all the speakers gave unstinted appreciation to the record the Academy has made during one hundred eventful years of war and peace. It is also most gratifying to remark the great interest with which the whole country joined in the celebration, as is abundantly shown in the reports of the proceedings by the newspaper press. This is especially pleasing, for the cadets impartially represent every portion of the United States. Their records are bound up with the history of the whole country, and the celebration here was but the focus of rays collected from every region of our broad land.

Preparations are being made to issue a full account of the exercises. It is planned to have the volume include all the addresses delivered and also to contain chapters giving the history of West Point and covering other matters of permanent interest. The Board of Visitors has recommended that a large edition of this work be printed for distribution, and it is hoped their recommendation will meet approval.

If the impressive words of the honorable Secretary of War at the centennial anniversary are accepted, that "The Military Academy is more necessary now than one hundred years ago," general satisfaction should be felt with the institution's prospects in entering upon the second century of its work. The school has for its object the training of cadets for the military service of our country. It is a school for the whole Army-not for any special arm. Its scholastic work covers a range of subjects connected with the many duties the educated American officer is expected and must be prepared to perform, and the ideal of its practical work is the graduation yearly of well-grounded young soldiers loyal to their duty and their country and trained to at once take up all the work of subaltern officers.

Recent Congressional action will provide the school with an equipment for work as perfect in its essential requirements as experience can provide. While many thoughtful people believe the number of cadets could, with advantage to the country, be larger, their number is such as to continue to insure the maintenance of high standards of duty and efficiency in the Army.

Finally, the school's faculty and instructors are composed of earnest, progressive officers, devoted to their work, and in full sympathy with the sentiments expressed by the president of the Association of Graduates in unveiling the tablet commemorating the first century in the Academy's life: "Let us all pledge ourselves to our country that the best efforts of our lives shall be to make the record of the second century even more memorable than that of the first."

Very respectfully,

A. L. MILLS, Colonel, U. S. Army, Superintendent.

The ADJUTANT-GENERAL UNITED STATES ARMY,

Washington, D. C.