The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-04-14

The Bill TO increase the pay of officers and sailors
in the Navy of the UNITED STATES, which is now
pending before Congress, should be promptly Ia
ken up and passed. 1t proposes only fair COM
pensation for the duties exacted, and, in view of
the increased cost of living, is but simple act of
justice towards a branch of the service that has
been but too much neglected heretofore. The
present rates of pay VIGOROUSLY inadequate,
and promotion is so slow, in time of peace, that
many Lieutenants are gray-headed before they
reach Captaincy. Yet, these officers are ex-
pected, when on shore, TO live and dress
in manner corresponding with their rank,
and, when in foreign ports, TO contribute, out
OF their comparatively meagre incomes, towards
the expenses which arise from the customary
interchange of entertainments and courtesies with
the local authorities, and with naval officers of
other nations. We have alluded particularly to
the Lieutenants in our Navy, not only because
they constitute, by far, the larger class to be bene-
dby the Bill but also, from the fact that they of
all others, stand most in need of that increase of
pay for which the Bill provides. Ever since the
passage OF the law of the 3rd of March, 1885, the
pay of Il Lieutenant, while on duty has been Fif-
waiting orders, he receives but Twelve Hundred
Dollars year, and when on furlough, but half
the latter sum-. If we admit that he has perfect
right to marry, and in the exercise of that right
takes TO himself wife, we must also concede that
in the natural course of events it is probable that
he will find himselfwith family dependent upon
him for support A quarter of century ago,
when the act regulating the pay OF the Navy was
passed, the sum of Twelve Hundred Dollars a
year was equivalent to Eighteen Hundred Dollars
year at the present day; for, as every house
keeper well knows, the price of all articles of
domestic consumption has increased at least
fifty per cent within that period. Assuming this
to be the case, annuitants, and those who are
dependent upon fixed incomes-Lieutenants for
lnstance-have been constrained either to reduce
their expenditures TO a corresponding degree, or
to fall deeply into debt. 1t was long ago fore
told by political economists that the effect of the
new gold discoveries would be TO cheaper the
value OF money by augmenting the price of COM
modltles. In the UNITED STATES from the supe-
rior energy and activity of our people, the pre-.
diction was verified at an earlier day than in
other countries whose material progress is Of
eio"ei BIo"t III. bul 10 4 considerable extent,
this greater cost of living has been met by the
corresponding compensation of higher wages, or
by larger annual profits. 1t is only in isolated
Instances that the change in values has been
seriously felt. In England, where the pressure
upon liked incomes has not been so severe as with
us, the Government has already generously
stepped forward and increased the rates of nav in
all the various branches of the public service.
Nor has our own Government been wholly
ihsensible to the fact that certain mod-
hcations in its pay roll were quite as i'm
perahvely required. The pay of the rank
and file Of the Army has consequently been
regulated upon n more liberal basis; the CORPS
of steam engineers, the marines, pursers, and
Others, are also in the enjoyment of an increased
saarythe officers and Seamen of the Navy alone re-
main subject to the rates established in 1886 WHY
any preference should have been shown to one
branch of the service over another, or why some
OF those who are connected with the naval SER
vice should have had their claims recognized,
while the remainder are compelled to
await patiently the tardy action of Con-
gress it is difficult to understand We trust
that the claims of these latter will be speedily con-
sidered and that 'the 'Navy Pay bilP' will re-
ceive the sanction of Congress at the earliest posi-
BILE day