The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-11-10

corps that il is found impossible to fill with
persons who are competent to pass the neces-
sarily strict examination, and the alternative
is presented of either lowering the standard
of qualification and admitting into the
navy imperfectly educated and trained
surgeons, or else to make the service more
attractive to capable men, by assuring them
of rank and its attendant privileges, SO that
they will be placed upon social equality
with the officers of the line. Much the same
state of affairs exists in the Engineer Corps,
which it is even more important should be
maintained at the highest possible state OF
efficiency. 1t needs no argument to prove
that in the future we will be obliged to main
tain a steam and, to great extent, an IRON
clad navy, and the necessity of an accom-
plished and scientific corps of engineers is
plain to the dullest comprehension.
The engineers have under them large
bodies of men, among whom it is necessary
to maintain discipline, and to have tho
roughly drilled in all the details of managing
the complicated machinery used on board of
naval vessels, and their duties are arduous,
important, and such as demand ability of the
highest order. From the very peculiarities of
their case the engineers are even more OBJ
jects of jealousy on the part of the line Off
GERS than are the surgeons and paymasters,
and the efforts have been more persistent to
degrade them to as low positions in the SER
vice as possible. The influences now at work
at the Navy Department are endeavoring to
reduce the usefulness and efficiency of this
corps to O minimum, and an effort is now
being made to return to the old system
used on the first introduction of steam in
the navy, of enlisting machinists to run the en-
gines, and of sending the vessels to sea with
only two or three engineers who will not be ex-
pected to stand watch, but merely to have a su-
pervision of their department 1t is a sufficient
argument against this practice, that it was
tried once and proved a complete failure.
Competent machinists will not ship for such
service as this, and the only way in which
steam and ironclad navy can be maintained
at the highest state of efficiency is to have a
corps of practical and scientific men who will
devote their whole lives to promoting the
welfare of the navy by working in harmonious
cooperation with their brethren of the line.
From the very nature of the case the line
officers will always be supreme, and no privi-
ever put them above those who are endowed
with the rights and responsibilities of COM
mand 1t is nothing, therefore, but petty and
groundless jealousy that can induce the line
officers to oppose the granting of assimilated
rank to the staff; and the gentlemen who COM
pose the last-named branch of the service
point to the army and to the naval service of
many of the European nations, as examples of
the working of the system that they advocate
for themselves. Such a quarrel as that
now going on is utterly disgraceful,
and unless something is done to quiet
the spirit of discomfort, that exists,
an irreparabe injury will be done
to the navy. The case of Surgeon Green,
several times referred to in these columns,
was q blow at the efficiency of the medical
corps from which it will not soon recover, un-
less Congress makes such positive provisions
as will give reasonable assurance to compe-
tent physicians that they will not be sub
iected to such treatment in the future. 1t is
certain that something ought to be done
speedily to put a stop to contest that has
been waged too long already, and we sincerely
hope that Congress, at the next session, will
take up the subject and consider it in an un-
prejudiced and dispassionate spirit.
Secretary kobeson, it is announced, is
about to take step towards settling Difficult
ties between the line and staff officers by the
appointment of board to consist of three
gentlemen from the line and three from the
staff. This looks promising, but we do not
expect much from it, and it is scarcely proba-
BILE that the staff will get anything except by
compromise, and by giving up much that they
ask for If an agreement satisfactory to both
parties, however, can be arrived at, good
work will be done, and the country, the Navy
Department, and the officers both of the staff
and the line will have cause for congratula-
ton that disagreeable and annoying subject
is finally set at rest.
SPECIAL NOTICES.