The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-01
WHAT DOES TT MEANe

The important order issued from the Navy
Department few days ago ''for a more
economical administration of the naval SER
vice. reads like declaration of independence
on the part of the Secretary. Admiral Porter,
who has been Secretary de .facto ever since
| the present administration came into power,
is now enjoying the breezes of Narragan-
sett, and the hitherto nominal Secretary,
| whose name is George M. Robeson-a fact
which we state for fear that our readers may
have forgotten it-has taken advantage of
the occasion to upset some of Porters
| pet arrangements. 1t will be sub
| ject for sincere congratuation if this
order is something more than an exem-
plifcation of the adage that 'when the cats
away the mice will play" and that Mr.. Robe
son intends hereafter to be something more
than Porters chief clerk. We believe, how
ever, that he really does propose to assume
the full duties and responsibilities of the
| Secretaryship, and if he can succeed during
| the balance of his term of Office in undoing
some of Porters mischief he will deserve the
cordial thanks of the navy and the country
When Admiral Porter came into power at
the Navy Department he caused to be assigned
to active duty of some kind or other nearly
all the officers on the retired list. Boards to
csuperintend or investigate every imaginable
subject were organized, and superannuated
admirals, commodores, captains and other
officers were ordered to them under full pay,
whereas under the law these officers on the
retired list, if unemployed, would only be en-
titled to one-half of the highest sea pay of the
grade in which they might be retired. That
is to say, an admiral on the
retired list, who had been retired as captain,
would if ordered to duty draw admirals pay,
whereas, if unemployed, he would only draw
one-half of the sea pay of captain. The
duty to which most of the retired officers
have been assigned under the present admin
istration is merely nominal, and much of it
has been devised for no other purpose than
to allow them to draw the full pay of their
nominal rank. Admiral Porter's object in
this arrangement was twofold. He desired
to place these old gentlemen in as comforta-
BILE circumstances as possible - which
would have been eminently praise
worthy if the Government were not
called upon to foot the bill-and he was
anxious to concentrate as large force as
possible of the older officers of the navy at
Washington, in order to use them in infu-
encing Congress to defeat the aspirations of
the staff officers. Congress, in passing laws
to regulate the retirement of naval officers,
intended evidently to remove them from
active duty, except in extraordinary cases, in
order to give the younger men chance
for promotion and to cut down ex-
penses. Admiral Porter's device, there
fore, Of placing mos. of the
retired officers of high rank on active duty
was clear violation of the spirit if not of
the letter of the law, and Secretary Robeson
is obviously doing no more than his duty
when he directs that ''from and after the
first of October next no retired officer of the
navy shall be assigned to or remain upon
active duty except as member of the Light
house Board, the board for examination of
officers for promotion and for the retired list,
and at the Naval Asylum; and all such officers
not coming within the above exceptions, now
on active duty, are relieved from that date"
The assignment of officers to duty as port
admirals was another of Porter's moves.
This idea, like many others with which the
Admiral is afflicted, was borrowed from the
English service, and 1t has no merit at all as
applied to our naval system, except that it
provides nominal duty with full pay for Off
GERS who would otherwise be unemployed.
sufficient reason for the discontinuance of
the position OF port admiral is to be found
| in the fact that confusion and enormous ex-
pense have attended the division of the
authority and responsibility between officers
| ashore and afioat AT onr naval stations The
| Secretary therefore orders that ''the position
of port admiral be hereby discontinued from
and after the lst OF October, except at the
port of New York"
1t is estimated that this order of the Secre-
tary of the Navy, if faithfully carried out in
letter and spirit, will save annually at least
$4,000 to the country, while the real eff
cheney of the navy will be greatly promoted
by the younger officers being called upon to
do the active duty of the service, and no
wrong will be done to the older officers who
are retired under the laws of Congress