Special Message

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

In the fall of 1903, John Henry Lofland, Earl Worden Chaffee, and Joseph Drummond Little, then members of the first or highest class at the Naval Academy, severally committed acts for which they were charged with the offense of hazing, were tried by court-martial, and were dismissed from the academy and from the naval service.

In a letter addressed to the chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs of the House March 21, 1904, the Secretary of the Navy, after reviewing the facts upon which action in the cases of these midshipmen was based, states that "if discretion in the infliction of punishment had been vested either in the court-martial or the Department a lighter punishment than dismissal from the service might have been inflicted," and concludes that Congress is the proper authority to determine in cases of this character whether exception should be made to the operation of the statute.

The Committee on Naval Affairs (H. R. No. 2554, 58th Cong., 2d sess.), upon consideration of the Department's report, unanimously concludes that "under all the circumstances no detriment will be done the service" by sanctioning the appointment of these midshipmen to the naval service under appropriate conditions and restrictions.

Upon review of the facts in this case I concur generally in the conclusions of the Secretary of the Navy and the Committee on Naval Affairs with respect to the character of the offenses committed by these midshipmen. Their acts were in plain violation of the letter of the statute, but the case presented is not an aggravated one, and I believe that their severance from the academy, their reduction to the foot of the class of which they were members, and their entry into the naval service without formal graduation will be adequate punishment.

The draft of a bill granting authority for the appointment of these midshipmen to the Navy under conditions and restrictions believed to be sufficient to guard the interests of the service is inclosed for the consideration of the Congress.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.