The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-15

Some striking facts illustrating the marked
tendency towards the multiplication of high
offices, and the inorease of rank and pay in
the public service, are afforded by com
parison Of the Navy Register for 1860 with
the same document for 1869, recently issued.
Now that the question of relieving the Trea-
sury by stopping the drafts upon it Of a
large number of army officers of high and
low degree, whose services the country can
well dispense with, is agitated, an inquiry
into the number and rank of officers in the
navy is especially pertinent. The navy has
been always fortunate in getting through
Congress the legislation it has desired. The
knowledge of naval affairs possessed by Con-
gressmen has usually been limited TO what
they could pick up in junketing excursion
IN admirals yacht or a visit to the Navy
Yard and a lunch at the house Of the COM
mandant, so that it has been easy for officials
to gain credence for their plausible showings
of the necessity for more officers and higher
rank. The result has been that the navy got
itself loaded with rank during the war en-
tirely disproportionate to its size and duties,
and has kept what it got then ever since,
there having been no reduction in the high
grades when hundreds of vessels were sold
or laid up to put the service upon peace
footing.
In 1860, the highest officer in the navy was
the senior captain. The title of Commodore
was usually given by courtesy to an officer
commanding a squadron, but there was no
such rank provided for by law. Now there
appear upon the list the names of one ad-
miral, one vice-admiral, ten rear-admirals,
and twenty-five commodores, and on the re-
tired and reserved list eighteen rear-admirals
and fifty-two commodores. These "retired
and reserved" officers are by no means con-
tented with their half pay. On the con-
trary, some sort of duty has been found for
fourteen of the admirals and twelve of the
commodores, by which they areI enabled to
draw full pay, so that there are in fact twenty
four -admirals and thirty-seven commo-
dores in service. The admiral has
assimilated rank with the general of
the army, the vice-admiral with the
heutenant-general, rear-admirals with
ma ajor-g generals, and commodores with briga-
dier-generals. There are, therefore, in SER
vice in the navy, thirty-six officers ranking
with general officers of the army, which, esti-
mating the whole naval force at ten thousand
men, gives one such officer to every one hun
dred and fifty-eight men. In the army the
proportion of general officers to men is about
one to twelve hundred, and the whole number
of general officers is but twenty three. The
only proper duty for an admiral is to COM
mand fleet, and for a commodore to COM
mand squadron or an important navy yard
where a number of vessels are under his
orders. In order to make an apparent neces-
sity however, for more commodores, a sec
ton of law was passed in 1862 which states
that vessels of the first-class should be COM
manded by commodores as far as practicable,
the force of which is shown by the fact that
the Navy Register for 1869 reports only two
commodores as commanding ships.
The inquiry naturally arises upon what
duty are these 63 admirals and commodores
engaged and is there any necessity of keep
ing so large number of officers in service in
grades which did not exist ten years ago An
examination of the Register for 1869 shows
that at the date it was issued the Vice-Admiral
was acting as Superintendent of the Naval
Academy, duty performed by a captain in
1860 Six Rear-Admirals are reported as
commanding fleets, three commanding navy
yards, five acting as port-admirals at New
York, Philadelphia, and other cities, posi-
tion for which we fail to find authority
either in law. or precedent, and the
duties of which it is mot easy to ascer.
tain; one is chief of bureau in the
Navy Department at Washington, having
under his command six clerks messenger
and laborer; one is chairman of the Ligh
House Board five are reported as on 'specia
duty" at Washington, though what importan
naval duty there is to be done in Washington
requiring the services Of five admirals in ad
dition to the great number of officers regu
Iarly 6uplOy0u III Iuo uepdrIlnou6 duu aI III
yard is not easy to surmise; one is governo
of an asylum, and is commanding Sackett'
Harbor, New York, where there is an oil
wooden ship which has been on the stock
since the war of 1912, and is likely to remail
on the stocks until she rots, and which consti
tutes the only semblance of a naval force tn
Government possesses on Lake Ontario.
Only of the 81 commodores are at sea, Of
doing any duty on shipboard. They fill (
great variety of comfortable positions OF
shore. Especial duty" serves for larg
number of them, as with the admirals, an
others are chiefs of bureaus composed of thre
or four clerks, inspectors of few lighthouses
which they visit three or four times year
members of ordnance boards, or commandin
navy yards or rendezvous. OF the so car
tains on the active list only IL are reporte
as commanding ships, or being at sea in an
capacity, and of the 80 commanders only 3
appear to be serving on shipboard. In fact
there are not enough ships for these officer
to commands but 90 vessels of all classes al
reported as in use, and of these at least
dozen are tugs stationed at the various nav
yards.
The usual argument in defense of maintain
ing SO large a force of officers in the navy
that it is necessary to keep double force
order to relieve once in three years the of
GERS serving at sea--that is, that three year
sea-service entities an officer to three yea
on shore, either doing nothing or attached
some navy yard or bureau 1t is, no doub
proper that an officer, after long service c
foreign station, should have leave to retul
to visit his friends; but there is no goo
reason why man who has been given a sp
eial and costly education by the Governmel