TLS, one page, 5.25 x 8.5, Superindentant’s Office United States Military Academy letterhead, February 19, 1920. Letter to Congressman Colonel E. C. Little. In part: “So far as I or the Surgeon know none of the Cadets, now being treated at Walter Reed Hospital for insanity, owes his condition to hazing. Hazing has been practically eliminated at the Academy. I should very much like to have you see at first hand the conditions which exist here…I am sure that you have been subjected to most exaggerated and misleading reports. I should be delighted to have you as my guest…This will also give me the opportunity to recall…friends from your splendid Regiment, the 20th Kansas. This unit was one of the great favorites of my Father, General Arthur MacArthur, and his anecdotes of its deeds are still fresh in my memory.” In fine condition, with light soiling and a few staple holes to the top.
After a cadet’s death was linked to hazing in a 1900 scandal, a congressional investigation of West Point set out to uncover abuses endured by underclassmen. A victim of hazing himself, MacArthur was one of the cadets called to testify before the committee, though he downplayed his own experiences. Although somewhat suppressed by the scandal, the practice of hazing continued through the years; perhaps influenced by his own past humiliation, MacArthur worked to curtail abuses upon his appointment in 1919 as superintendent of West Point. Pre-certified PSA/DNA.
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