The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1876-08-21
Robson Preaching Economy.

SEcoR robson, under the pretence OF
necessary economy, publishes an order
saying he shall have to put navy officers
on furlough aud furlough pay, thus re-
ducing their stipends to one half what
they are when on leave or waiting orders,
and about third OF their sea pay. We do
not object to such reductions. III they can
be made, rs we believe they can, without
injury to the service, they should be made
now, and ought to have been made before,
though we are aware that 1t has been con-
sidered disgrace in the navy 10 be put
on furlough.
But the trouble Is that, pretending
economy, SEcoR RoBEsoS is enabled to re-
ward his favorites among the officers, and
punish those he dislikes. or these last
there are many. They are those whom he
imagines distrust him, and resent his cor
rupt administration of the Navy Depart
ment as an injury TO their service, and a
fruitful source of denomination among
the officers. who have ut their head so fla =
grant an example of dishonesty. When
SEcoR robson hears by hook or by crook
that an officer is disconnected with the
condition Of the navy, and is disposed to
work to better it, he ut once spots him, and
when good opportunity offers he Furnishes
his audacty by putting him on furlough
and reducing his pay, while he keeps the
fat and easy places for those who truckle to
him, and hold their tongues when they see
the evidences OF his plundering.
Though the pay OF the navy is appro-
priated for that purpose alone, yet this
hn ~
| given him for 1t on his favortes and in other
ways, that the officers and men general
| ly were forced to wait for their wages
for the last two months of the year until
July, when the new Appropriation bin was
passed. Even those on the home station
did not get this past due pay until the last
week IN July. Yet the sum appropriated
for this specific purpose was ample. ROBE
sos had other uses for the money than
| giving IL to the men who were entitled to
1t, and lie drew on the coming years APP
| priation TO pay what had been fully pro-
vided for in that OF last year.
During March aud April the vessels sta
toned AZ Pensacola and the Paymaster OF
the navy yard there were without funds.
| The officers and men had TO live on credit
aud, when they were ordered away, to
leave their bills unpaid Yet at this very
time RoBEsoS had collected large fleet at
Port Royal, under the pretence OF making
| IL n great naval station, and was spending
money needlessly and lavlshly there. His
idea was TO secure South Carolinian and
Georgian votes for his extravagant esti-
mates to bolster up a land speculation,
aud 10 make Il show OF activity. As soon
rs the Appropriation bill was passed ne
lost his zeal for Port Royal, reduced the
complement of men to one officer and M
teen men to each vessel, ana sent the sur
plus to New York, crowding them TO suf-
location on the marrow decks OF the Ply
mouth, and that without a cent OF their
overdue pay. A considerable number of
these men had been shipped at New Or
leans They were discharged at New York
almost penniless, their outfit having eaten
| up nearly all their pay, aud were left u
shift for themselves without the means Of
returning home. robson had got all he
wished out of them. They had assisted him
in making IA show at Port Royal, aud he no
longer had any need OF them.
Ii is understood that RoBEsoN "a now
having made out at the Navy Department
n list of three hundred officers TO put on
furlough. He will SEQ TO IT that among
the number are all those who have in
any way resisted his schemes for plum
der so reckesslv did he squander the
last years extravagant appropriation thar
he had TO wait for the new appropriation
to pay the officers and men. and now he
begins 10 talk economy. The whole thing
| 10 "A a.,
heaven, II is safe to expect better aud hon
ester management next March, when TIL.
DEN comes in. No one VIII hail his advent
into office with more hope and joy than
the men of the navy, who have been
swindled and maltreated by robson.