The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-10-18
THE RESTGNATION or SURGEON
GREEN


THE RESIGNATION or SURGEON
GREEN.
HE case of Assistant Surgeon Charles t.
Green has excited much attention all over the
country, and, with the exception of the Wash
ington Chronicle and the New York Times,
there has been but one opinion expressed
Will regard to it by the press. Mr. Green
was found guilty by naval court-martial,
and sentenced to q severe and degrading pun
lshment for declining to declare a sick man
to be well at the bidding of his commanding
officer. The injustice of this sentence was
practically acknowledged by the Secretary of
the Navy, who RENTED the penalties i'm
posed, and contented himself with admins
tering a mild rebuke to the offender. It will
readily be seen that Mr.. Green was placed
in a very peculiar dilemma. If he re-
fused to obey the order of his commander
in this matter he was certain of but one
thing-a court-martial and degrading SEN
tence. If he had obeyed, and the man who
was under his medical care had died, exactly
the same fate would have awaited him, for no
court-martial would have admitted such an
order as Surgeon Green received from the
commander of the Nipsic as an excuse for the
death of a sailor of whose condition the medi-
cal officer of the ship alone could Judge. We
are not surprised, therefore, to hear
that Surgeon Green has resigned his
commission, for there was no other
course open TO him if he had any self
respect or professional pride. The merits of
his case are perfectly plain to all except the
m VIII tba Tair nf f1a
and it is perfectly useless for any one to con-
tend that the punishment of this surgeon was
necessary for the ma intenance of discipline.
To unprejudiced minds it would seem that the
well-being of the service would have been
promoted much more if the commanding
officer, whose abuse Of the authority placed
in his hands caused all the difficulty, had been
brought to justice. There is limit even to
the supreme authority of the commander of
United States naval vessel; and with the re-
peated complaints of cruelty that have been
made of late, it is certainly high time that tho
Secretary had made some motion towards in
vesti9ating the cases that have been exploited
abroad through the public press to the great
scandal of the service.
The moral of Surgeon Green's case, how
ever, extends beyond the individual sufferer.
1t shows conclusiyely that there is an urgent
necessity that Congress should take in hand
the whole subject Of naval management, and
in an impartial and judicial spirit define with
as much eXactness as possible the limitation
of each officers rights, privileges, and duties.
Matters certainly can be regulated SO that
there need be no clashing of authority, as
how o1. 1n, fIn
system, that leaves nearly everything
to the discretion of the line Off
GERS. It is absolutely necessary that
the medical and engineer corps of the navy
shall be filed with competent men, and if
competent men are expected to enter
them they must be protected, whether
the graduates of the Naval Academy
like it or not. AS matters now are, there is
no inducement for educated surgeons and
engineers to enter the service and the best
men in all the branches of the staff are so
thoroughly disgusted with their present
status, that they leave the navy whenever
they have an opportunity to do SO, and there
are no persons of first-rate ability to step in
and take their places. The examinations that
surgeons and engineers have to pass are very
severe, as they ought to be, for it is not desi-
rable that any but first-rate men should be
admitted into the service. The rate of pay,
of itself, however, is not sufficient to tempt
the best men into any of the staff
corps, and if other inducements are not
offered they will give the navy a wide berth.
Above all, they must be assured of gentle
manly treatment and protection from insult.
Any surgeon or engineer who is competent to
pass naval examination is certainly able to
make more money on shore or in the mer-
chant service than his salary will amount to;
and until the Naval Academy is able to turn
out thoroughly trained doctors and engineers,
it is eminently desirable that the highest
standard of excellence should be maintained
in the staff by the exclusion Of all half-edu-
Gated and weak-principled men, who will con-
sent to be only subservient tools to carry out
the whims and fancies of the line.
This cannot be done under the present
system, and there is already difficulty in
filling the vacancies that exist in the medical
staff, and it is likely that there always will be
until a reform takes place, OF another war
breaks out that will induce gentlemen to
make any personal sacrifice for the sake of
serving the country.