The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-08-23
The Naval Outrage.

Ihe naval Outrage.
Secretary Robeson's General Order No. DIG,
just made public, presents his administra-
ton In sorry. not to say contemplate,
light The Secretary lays upon "the repre-
sentatives OF the people" the burden of
an Ubiquitous measure by which hundreds
OF gallant and meritorious officers, the
bone and sinew of the active list of the
navy, are placed on starvation pay He is
sedulous, after the manner of special
pieader, to prove his case by quoting from the
Congressional Record; but he omits to state in
this order that his estimate of 81, 600, 0C0
for. the pay of the navy for 1877, de-
INJURED to by Congress- is Just 81, $50, 600
in excess of the appropriation for
the fiscal year which ended June 30 1876;
further, that these so-called Estimates"
of his are not real estimates after ali, but
are obtained by computing the pay of Off
GERS and enlisted men as if all were to be
employed on sea pay for the entire year.
But not over one-half of the officers
OF the navy are ever on actual coma .tide ''sea
duty. They are on shore and harbor SER
vice, leave of Absence waiting orders, sick
leave or furlough
"Personalism" and ''favoritism" are ram
pant and utterly intolerable in the navy
the retired list is prostituted, degraded and
burdened with unworthy and worthless Off
GERS, to the great scandal of the distinguished
veterans obliged to be there by reason of
their years and honorable wounds or disabil-
gAl...
the active list is weighed down with
the burden of many drunken, inefficient
and dishonorable men, who would be
expelled from any other service in the world !;
yet Secretary Robson tells the President
and the country in his last report (1S75) that
sit is gratifying to be able to report that the
navy is now in stronger and more efficient
condition than it has ever been at any time"
SO his last act is to issue this "sugar coated"
specious general order, by which some four
hundred officers on the active list, including,
Of course, all those who have presumed to
to his seven years management of the navy
men who in the late civil war served under
Farragut, Porter, Dupont, Foote. Dahlgren
and others-are placed on a scandalous pit
lance. Nor does he properly exercise the
right he asserts Congress has given him by
placing on this furlough list only the un-
worthy and worthless, of which there are so
many; for, while brave and meritorious men
are furloughed, every official favorite is
securely on duty and will draw his full pay
with unfailing regularity, and appointments
to junior positions 60 on just the same as
ever.
Under this recent order such men as Rear
Admiral Leroy, gallant and distinguished
veteran of forty-fve years service, will be
placed September on the same rate of pay
as some worthless lieutenant located for life
on Secretary Robeson's retired list be-
cause he could not pass his examination,
and actually lower than the pay of some
scores of junior officers now on the retired
list but perfectly able to perform active duty
and yet who are pensioned off on this list
for life with seventy-fve per cent of their
full sea pay, and enabled to engage in any
pursuit in civil life they may elect. This
"disagreeable duty" of Secretary Robson
is Sndm anu pretcHce, anu no one Knows
it better than he does. What man believes
that Robson finds it "disagreeable duty"
to humiliate and annoy Admiral Porter by
placing him ION furlough?"
We commend this latest republican
outrage to the democrats as a sort of
mild set-of to the republican ''out-
rage mill now grinding with such
praiseworthy and persistent vigor in the
administration organs. The Secretary sim
ply plays piece of heartless but shallow
trickery on the country The House of
Representatives put the appropriations at
figure sufficient for the real needs of the
navy, but not sufficient to support it as a
hospital for official favorites, and the Secre-
tary, determined not to be thwarted, main
tains his favorites, but perverts the acts of
Congress so rs to make it an injury to the
service and blow at the best men in the
navy.