The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1842-06-14


HovsE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MAY 81, 1912.
had yielded the preceding day motion that the
committee do rise, continued his remarks.
tie observed that, when the committee rose last
evening" he was about replying TO that portion Of lhe
argument OF the gentleman from Norm Oaroi,na Mr
Mckay which appertained TO the alleged excess
Of the number of persons in the Navy beyond
what the law authorized the Department 10 EN-
ploy To meet that objection ne referred m lhe
first place to the second section oil the act OF loO6
which provides that the President of the United
States NAV keep in active service, in time of peace,
so many of the irigates and other armed vessels of
the United States, in his Judgment the nature Of
the service may require, and to cause the residue
thereof to be laid up in ordinary IN convenient ports
and in the second place, TO the second section OF the
act of 1913, which provides that the President may
appoint such officers and employ the number of sea-
men which may be necessary for such vessels as
authorized by law TO be put in commission These
provisions OF law were permanent in their TERMS
they had never been repealed, far as he (Mr. CD
could discover, and they must in fact be the law of
the land now otherwise there was no law for the
employment and manning ships in commission. And,
if he understood the gentleman from North Carolina
Alright, that gentleman seemed to admit that there
no limit to the powers of the President under
these acts except in the power of the Senate to
fuse promotions, and in the constructive and implied
limitation to be derived nferentiay from the annual
estimates Of the Department and the appropriations
for the service of each year made by Congress. In
pursuance of which idea, MIR. Mckay had presented
a calculation, founded on the estimates Of the De-
partment to show how many men the Department
authorized TO employ, and then proceeded TO al
ege that, by comparison with tabular statement of
the force OF the Navy at the beginning of this year.
which had been recently laid before the Senate,
would seem that there on that day an excess in
the service of six hundred men, of all descriptions
Before proceeding to reply TO this objection, Mr..
c. entered into some explanation as to the mode
adopted in the United States Of estimating for, and
making, appropriations. In England, the practice is
to pass temporary supply bills from time to time, in
the of the year. and then, towards the end of
the year. to pass general law appropratng the sup
plies thus granted during the session of Parliament.
Thus, in the acts of lS40 which he held in his hand
there series OF such supply bills, terminating
in general act, which enumerated the successive
supply bills OF the session, and then proceeded to
make appropriation in one bill for the naval, mil
itary civil and diplomatic, and miscellaneous service
OF the Government. This was, in some respects
more convenient than practice with the
estimates were made up in December tor the coming
calendar year in this way it was, of course, imposs
bic for the Secretary of the Navy to communicate
Congress- beforehand, the number of men who might
happen be in the service any given future day in
the course of the year If Congress would force on
the Navy Department exact estimate of the service
of each year. it would have to be done the end Of
the year. and not at the beginning. He should show
hereafter how Jnvenien the present practice
a
to its application to the of men alleged by Mr.
Mckay
Mr.. C, said the answer To this allegation Of the
gentleman from North Carolina, was to be found in
the necessarily tlucuatng nature of the personnel of
the Navy The public service required that ships on
foreign stations should come home after two three
years service, the enlisted for limited
periods besides which, the vessels return TO be
repaired and further was not TO be expected that
the officers were TO be exed by being kept abroad
fhron ia Maui pnt a, t,,h r,n ~ 81
reign ships home from their cruising grounds until
others were ready to relieve them-hence there must
of necessity, be- at particular moments, double
In the service, and at particular times excess Of
men, corelative TO which, at other times much less
number of men, For example, the Brandywine the
ST Louis and the Marion, will be relieved
with crews amounting to 200 men, who will be dis
| charged, and deducted from the number in ser
vice Then it, on the LIST of January alleged by the
gentleman from North Carolina, there was an excess
of 600 men, there would be- deducting these 200,
deficiency of 600 on the LIST of july and thus the
| average number of men employed during the year
would be kept within the designated by the esti-
mates there is no way of avoiding these fluctuations
in the service The greatest mischief would ensue If
proper not taken to relieve the crews
| abroad as the expiration Of their term of service
| approaches and the failure TO do this, it was
well known in particular instances, had come
near to produce mutny, and the necessity Of these
fluctuations in the service and the fact that If al
time there are men, there will at another time
be less, constitute complete answer to this objec
ton of the gentleman from North Carolina.
This consideration illustrated also the necessity Of
having greater number of officers in the service
than were in employment at given moment. How
officers abroad to be relieved unless there
other officers to take their places Gentlemen who
spoke of officers waiting orders so reproachlully
if those officers necessarily idlers in the service
to shut their eyes to the facts of the case and
to all the lessons of experience. was not true that
there any such excessive number of unemployed
officers in the American Navy. To show this Mr.
c. referred to the comparative state OF the British
Navy He showed by the Parliamentary estimates
of 1897, emitting higher grades
Total. Employed afoat.
Captains $50 81
Commanders 1923 6S
Lieutenants 1881 45l
This was conclusive to show that there was no
abuse in this respect, in the American Navy
And in the British Navy there many employ
ments for the officers. The gentleman from Geor-
gia (Mr. Gamble) had alluded, the other day. to the
British mail steamers. He, MIR. c. said that, on ex-
animation of the British mail steamer Dee, friend
of his, member of the House, assured him that she
had armament of guns below her deck, for ballast
capable of being handled in few minutes, so as to
make complete vessel of war. In addition to this
MIR. c. would ask who commanded those steamers !?
1t was perfectly notorious that they were Differed by
Lieutenants and Midshipmen of the British Navy.
Mr.. c. also read from the Parliamentary estimates
before him the fact that for the year. Che held them
in his handy there was an appropriation Of 267 900
for the mail steam packets, proving that they were
in part, an enterprise of the Government
The gentleman from North Carolina in arguing the
alleged excess of men in our Navy referred to the
case of the British ship Ho,ce three decker as hav-
ing a complement of but 900 men, whilst in our SER
vice, says Mr.. Mckay, such ship has complement
Of 1900 mon.
How many three deckers there in the Ameri-
can Navy One might suppose from the remark of
the gentleman from North Carolina that our service
consists of nothing but three deckes whilst, point
of fact, have but one--the Pennsylvania; all the
rest Of our line of battleships being only wo-deckers
and yet the gentleman put forward solitary fact in
such way as to lead the House to imagine il was a
general fact, and the gentleman in the
total war complement Of the Pennsylvania, which, by