The Chief of Ordnance.—­Arms are supplied by the Chief of
     Ordnance.  The arms used are manufactured chiefly in the United
     States arsenals.  The arsenals at Springfield, Mass., and Rock
     Island, Ill., manufacture rifles and carbines; and that at West
     Troy, N.Y., cannon and mortars.

The United States Military Academy.—­The United States Military Academy at West Point was founded in 1802.  The corps of cadets is made up of one cadet from each of the Congressional districts, one from each of the Territories and the District of Columbia, and one hundred from the United States at large.  Prior to the year 1900 there were only ten cadets at large.  The act of that year also provided that thirty cadets were to be named by the President directly and the remainder apportioned among the States.  They all receive their appointments from the President, but it has become the custom for the representatives and delegates to select (usually after a competitive examination) those from the Congressional districts and the Territories.  The cadet must be between seventeen and twenty-two years of age.  Each receives $540 a year during the four years of his course.  Upon graduation, the cadets are commissioned as second lieutenants in the united States army.  In case there are more graduates than vacancies, those in excess are honorably discharged with the payment of one year’s salary.

THE NAVY DEPARTMENT.

The Secretary of the Navy—­The duties of the Secretary of the Navy pertain to the construction, manning, arming, quipping, and employment of war-vessels.[53]

[Footnote 53:  The appropriation for this department in 1913 was $140,000,000.]

The United States Naval Academy.—­The naval academy at Annapolis was established in 1846.  One cadet is allowed in the naval academy for each member or delegate of the House of Representatives, one for the District of Columbia, and ten at large.  Candidates for admission, at the time of their examination, must be between the ages of fifteen and twenty years.  The nomination of a candidate to fill a vacancy is made upon recommendation of a representative or delegate if made before July 1; but if no recommendation be made by that time, the Secretary of the Navy fills the vacancy by appointing an actual resident of the district in which the vacancy exists.  The President selects the candidates at large and the cadet for the District of Columbia.  At the conclusion of the six years’ course, two of which are spent at sea, the graduates are assigned in order of merit to the vacancies that may have occurred in the lower grades of the line of the navy and of the marine corps.  Cadets who are not assigned to service after graduation are honorably discharged and are given $500, the amount they have received each year of their course at the academy.

THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE.