(Signed) H. CLAY WOOD,
_Assistant Adjutant Gen_

Military Experience and Common Sense vs. Military Education and
"Intensive Training"

If a man is not endowed with good common sense, or it is not an inherent
trait--no amount of training he might receive at West Point or any other
Military institution for the purpose of educating that sense into him,
or cultivating what little sense he possesses--especially the military
or fighting sense--or, any effort to convert him into a practical
soldier, could make him one, and the time and effort will have been
worse than wasted-- It is simply impossible to supply in him by mere
education what he is lacking through nature's gift--and this
truth--absolutely axiomatic--applies to all walks of life-- Good sense,
combined with a liberal education well directed along right lines, makes
for success in all pursuits, whether as President, lawyer, doctor,
minister, the business man or the professional soldier-- But all the
education in the wide universe, unaccompanied by good sense, spells
defeat for any class--and would not rescue a man from common
mediocrity-- The world's trail is strewn with such senseless wrecks--
They are mere human derelicts on the ocean of life--and the more a man
of that type is educated or over educated the worse it is; and the more
accentuated does his failure become--the more apparent his lack of
common sense, and the more liability there is to wreckage-- In no other
profession does this become so painfully apparent or more pronounced
than in that of the professional soldier, when some desperate effort is
being made to create--manufacture, or transform a little man in uniform,
a parvenue or a man of mediocre caliber--into a great commander of
men--one whose horse sense is particularly lacking--or which cannot by
any amount of education or training be developed--and worse still when
he himself through an over supply of egotism or conceit is not, nor can
he be made aware of his failing, but bungles along until disaster
overtakes him and his command, and every thing connected with him and
them--

The writer claims that there has not been, nor is there now sufficient
care taken in the selection of candidates for entrance to the Military
Academy. Little or no heed is taken of their aptitude or fitness for a
Military career--and that there are in the service to-day many officers