University Students Revolt Against Military Drill
A campus protest turns into a public spectacle after a sergeant’s strict disciplinary measures spark outrage at the state university.
The story, cleaned up
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The dissatisfaction of many of the students of the state university with the enforcement of the order for military drilling has resulted in the hanging in effigy of First Sergeant E. D. Hooker, apparently as an evidence of indignation at the rigid obedience he gave to an order from Lieutenant John L. Hayden. At Friday's drill, Cadet Phillips Morrison was ordered out by Lieutenant Hayden for scraping his feet on the ground. He was handed over to First Sergeant Hooker, who ordered the sergeant to drill him separately in the 'setting-up' exercises. It is affirmed that Sergeant Hooker did the drilling soundly and well, leaving Morrison in a very constrained position before giving the order for the next movement. Sergeant Hooker reportedly told Cadet Captain Roger S. Greene Jr. that he did not think Morrison would try it again, as he had 'given him enough.' On Monday morning, an effigy was found hanging from the laboratory window, bearing a placard with 'Sergeant Hooker' written on it. The figure, made by stuffing an old rubber coat with the sergeant's insignia on the sleeves, was suppressed by the janitor, though the underlying student dissatisfaction with the compulsory military drill remains.
“It is even said that if it were not compulsory not over twenty of the sixty male students would drill.”
Conflicts between student independence and institutional control have long defined campus life in the Pacific Northwest. Today's debates over campus policy often echo these 1893 protests, where students used public performance to challenge rigid authority.
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