The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1882-11-04
Advantages In Our Army.

Advantages In Our Army.
The pay of the American soldier is thlr-
teen dollars a month at the outset, four
teen dollars in his third year of service, tf-
teen in his fourth, and sixteen in his fifth.
His rations, to the foreigner, is startling
in its fulness and variety, with its "twelve
ounces pork or bacon, or one and quarter
pounds salt or fresh beef, one pound SIX
ounces soft bread or -four, or one pound
hard bread or one and quarter pounds
corn meal and to each one hundred ratlons,
fifteen pounds beans or peas, and ten pounds
rice, ten pounds green coffee, or six pounds
roasted and ground coffee, or one pound
eight ounces tea, fifteen pounds sugar, four
quarts vinegar, one and quarter pounds
candles, four pounds soap, three and three
quarters pounds salt, four ounces pepper,
thirty pounds potatoes, one quart molasses. "
There is working pay" for him to earn,
at the rate of twenty-five cents day for
unskilled, fifty cents day for skilled labor.
He enlists for the moderate term Of five
wears; so that if he dislikes the service, his
release is in the not far-off future. When,
after that term, he is discharged without
discredit, he stands entitled to one hundred
and sixty acres of Government land, which
holding becomes his absolute property on
residence thereon for one year. Nor need
he be destitute of adequate capital where
with to enter on his farm. There has been
placed to his credit the money value Of what
proportion of the regulation issue Of militia
ry clothing his exercise of moderate care has
absolved him from requiring, amounting,
in FIVE years service, to from one hundred
to one hundred and sixty dollars. Inclusive
of this, without hardship, he can have ac-
cumulated savings amounting to some SIX
hundred dollars, sum amply sufficient to
stock his gratuitously acquired farm, to
which, or to the place of his enlistment, he
receives free transportation. If again, he
elects to make the army his profession, he
may re-enlist for successive terms of five
years, while his physique holds good, receiv-
ing the pay of eighteen dollars month for
his first re-enlistment. He may become
anon-commissioned officer, with amaximum
of twenty-seven dollars a month pay in the
line, of thirty-nine dollars in the engineers,
ordnance, and signal corps. And if he as
pires to commissioned rank, there is moth
ing utopian in such hope No army in the
world presents to its soldiers advantages
and opportunities comparable to these which
have set forth.
The initial stand point of the American
army seems to be that soldering shall differ
from no other calling in being business
like, adequately remunerated avocation.
A second lieutenant in the American infan-
try commences on an annual income of four
teen hundred dollars, increasing by ten pei
cent. annually, for each five years service
in the same grade, until an increase Of forty
per cent. has been reached. The CORES,
bonding pay in the British army is less
than five hundred dollars a year-barely
enough to pay the mess bill. A captain in
the American army enjoys an income OF two
thousand dollars year, increasing ten pei
cent. for each five years of service in thai
rank. Captain de Boots of Her Majesty
Plungers might contemplate with more In
difference the shrinkage in the parenta
rent-roll could he find himself in possession
of a professional income of four hundred
pounds a year, increasing by quinquennia
instalments of forty pounds each. A colo
mel in the American service draws an an
nual revenue of three thousand five hun
dred dollars, rising by quinquennial install
ments to four thousand four hundred ant
eighty dollars. A major-general has sever
thousand five hundred dollars. All thes
incomes are exclusive of quarters, fuel ant
forage, on at least as liberal scale as tha
in effect in the British army. The spiri
pervading the pay-scale of the oficerhoo'
of the American army s.that he who select
it as his profession shall have an edequat
income on which to live, no matter wha
his rank, an income yielded by his profes
sion reasonably on par with the profession
al incomes of other callings throughout tn
Republic; whereas the keynote to the
English scale is that private resources mus
supplement the inadequate professions
pittance. There is no reason why th'
American officer, even of the junior ranks
cannot effect savings from his pay.
Nor is the American army profession
out of which man who becomes incom
petent for service because of old age, wounds
or ill health, is thrust out into the col
world without provision. Its "retire
pay is unique in the iberality of it; an
this sure provision amply compensates fc
any inadequacy which may be apparent be
tween the eservice pay and the incomes yielc
ed by successful devotion to civilian avocs
tions. The Railroad King or the Wa
street man may wax, but he may also want
in this country of uncertainties the million
aire of yesterday may be penniless to-mol
row, and the next day in the poor house {
} the gutter. The officer on service, wit
his moderate but adequate pay, as stab
as the Republic itself, need blanch unde
no financial vicissitudes. He may loo
forward without quake for him or his,
!, broken health, or to the evening of his lif
A second lieutenant, invalided already du
, ing the first five years of his service, r.
: ceives as ''retired pay for the rest of b
life $1,000 a year. A major, in simils
conditions, receives life pension of 81, ,25
year; if he has 'put in" twenty year
service In that grace, MS pension Is So,UU
year. I do not ask the British boy-suh
altern, his health permanently shattered b
campaign in Ashantee or Afghanistan, t
fancy himself the life possessor of pensio
of 921O year; or the grizzled major, wor
out by long and hard soldering, to conceiv
: his retirement on the comfortable incom
; of 960O year. Imagination can underg
} only certain strain. But what for th
] British officer would be an inconceivabl
chimera is for the American officer pleas
} ant, matter-of-fact reality. Uncle Sam
chary of hollow honors; he has not hi
hands full of twopenny-halfpenny medal
and obsolete crosses to fling as dust int
the eyes of his sons, but he pays ther
fairly while they serve him, and he retire
them to decent and self-respecting compt
, A..I.H.TL EIo~1.o NJ -,