Show WEST POINT FIGHTS cabets cadets strip to the waist use bare knuckles and battle to a finish west point N Y jan 10 before the members of the congressional investigation vesti gation committee resumed their inquiries on charges ot hazing at the military academy today they visited the camp grounds and fort clinton where many fights between cabets cadets have occurred clayton who la a graduate of the academy explained the arrangement ot the tents in the summer encampment to hia brother committeemen and when they visited the rink in the rear ot the camp the stretching process by fulch bev 1 eral cabets cadets were hazed was discussed cadet william R bettison Bett lson of kentucky was the first witness he testified that cadet breth was his classmate and that cadet booz was a fourth class man while he the witness was a third class man he never knew of breth being hazed witness said he knew of five fights between cadema during his first year and i was present at two of them witness said there were nine fights during the year 1899 1900 and seven during the present term bettison Bett lson recalled the names of the participants in nearly all of these fights he said not one of these fights had been investigated vesti gated by the authorities and consequently no one had been punished he had never been a principal in a fight but he had officiated at several and was the chairman of the scrapping committee which decided when a fight was to be arranged bettison Bett lson described the fights as bare knuckle contests under marquis of rules except that the rounds were two minutes each he said the principals stripped to the waist and fights were usually to a finish then you here hold fights of a brutal nature which the laws of forty out of the forty five states in the union have prohibited said mr driggs bettison made no reply mr driggs then inquired it la hazing or assisting in hazing the cabets cadets violated the oaths administered on en erang the academy after some evas on the witness said that violation of the academy regulations was not considered by the cabets cadets as violations of the articles of war and were not looked upon as military disobedience |