The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-30
RIGHTS or SICK MEN LNTHENAVY


officers of the navy, but which also involves
The well-being of every officer and man in the
service. The case is one arising out of con-
fiict of authority between line and staff
officer, and, if for no other reason, it is impor-
tant as illustrating the very great need of
more definite regulations than exist at present
as TO the respective spheres of duty in the
Two branches of our naval service. The
oihcer who is to be tried by the court-martial
Is Passed Assistant Surgeon CharlesIi. Greene.
ana the offense which he is alleged to have
committed is in declining to put sick man
on duty when ordered to do so by the COM
manding officer of the steamer Nipsic, Com
mander Sefridge
The surgeons of the navy, we believe.
always have claimed that the sanitary affairs
OF our naval vessels were directly under their
charge; that it rested solely with them to
decide whether a man was disabled or not
from doing duty, and that they were respon-
slble for the health of the crew. The line
officers, however, have always contended that
the commander of a vessel was the supreme
authority, and that he could, when he chose.
supersede or assume to himself all the func-
tions of his subordinates. no matter what
their specialties might be- If the surgeon
thought that course of jalap was necessary
for the preservation of the health of the
crew, the captain might take a notion
mat Jalap was entirely unnecessary, and that
croton oil, administered twice day under the
superintendent of midshipman, would be
much more beneficial. In such case as this
according to the usual theory, the surgeon
would be obliged to succumb and the men to
take the dose prescribed by the quarterback,
and run the risks of kill or cure. This NAV
seem an extravagant statement of the case.
but instances of a not very dissimilar char
acter have really occurred in the navy, and
the matter under consideration appears to in
dicate that the same despotic and overbearing
disposition is in full force now, as it was in
the good old times when some of our fine
old ''sea-dogs' were in the habit of amusing
themselves and preserving discipline by the
daily exercise of the cat-o'nine tails.
We have no disposition to PREJUDICE the case
of Surgeon Greene in any way until all the
evidence is published. On the surface, how
ever, it would appear to disinterested persons
outside of the navy that there was but one
side to it.
The real moral Of the controversy is,
however, the necessity of better organiza-
ton of the navy. In spite of the introduce
ton of steam, and all the modern improve
ments that have been made within the last
fifty years, this branch of our military service
is in many respects what the English navy
was one hundred years ago. Traditions
have been handed down from one generation
of officers to another which are as sacredly
guarded as if the existence of the navy de-
pended upon them. The etiquette is as COM
plicated and quite as absurd as that of some
oriental despot's court, and from their first
entrance into the Naval Academy the mid
shipmen are instilled with the idea of their
ownimportance as officers of the navy, andare
educated by system that is at once often
sively unrepublican and prejudicial to the real
efficiency of the service. The naval cadet is
carefully trained to think that the corps to
which he belongs constitutes the navy, and
that surgeons, paymasters, and engineers are
outside barbarians that must be endured with
as good grace as possible, but who have no
particular rights that graduate of the Naval
Academy is bound to respect. There may be,
and probably are, absurd and obsolete GUS
toms in the army, but for the most part they
have been done away WITH and the army
officers are generally up with the spirit of the
age in all things. The old times, however,
still exert spell over the navy; and Admiral
Porter, who is now engaged in running the
department, is one of those conservatives who
looks upon the English service as the model
of excellence, and instead of endeavoring to
strengthen the navy Embarrassing the efficiency
of all the branches, both staff and line, he
appears to be endeavoring to use all his influ-
ence to crush out the former, or to reduce it
to such a subordinate position that it will
have neither power nor influence. With such
ideas as these in force at the Navy Depart
ment, it is not surprising that the commander
of a ship-of-war should undertake to disci-
pline his medical officers; and the case of Sur
geon Greene looks very much like an attempt
on the part of the line to make the navy too
hot to hold the professors of physic, unless
they are content to forego the claims they
have put forth for the rank and privilege of
officers, and subside into what the line Off
GERS esteem to be their proper subordinate
! position.
| DEBTS OF THE STATEs.-At the beginning of 1870