National Republican., 1885-02-28

The senate bill, introduced by Mr..
Dawes to create tho office M assistant
chief signal officer. the design OF which
was to provide for the promotion Of Lieut..
Greedy, having boon referred by the
military committee to the secretary Of
war the latter has mado reply as follows:
In response to your request ] have the
honor to state that three years ago, in pur-
suanco of request from the committee
on military affairs of the soDate. gavo
in a communication, OF which copy is
enclosed, my views upon bill fixing an
increased military establishment for the
performance of signal service work So
called. / see no reason to change the
views therein expressed so far as they
are applicable to the present situation
Since that time congress has, with the
exception of single itom of $1,000 APP
propriated in the army bill, made specific
appropriations in the sundry civil bill
for carrying on the work done under the
chief signal officer, and in consequence
the cost nearly $l,000,000 per annum,
OF the work of this bureau having no sub
stantial connection with military affairs,
is now, as IL should be. clearly distin-
guished from the expenses Of maintain
ing our army on its peace footing.
The bill now referred to me is one Of
character similar In principle to that
discussed In my former letter. and is q
further step toward comprehensive
military organization Of an establish.
ment for which tbore is no military need.
Military signalling, or tho conveyance of
military orders or intelligence by tele-
graph or flag signals, is not q proper OBJ.
fant for Ahn awiatanpa nf n hnra OI tho
war department. A single staff officer on
the staff Of the commanding general of
the army could easily supervise the issu-
ance to company commanders of proper
code books and amendments to them.
The actual work of signalling by flag
must always be dono by actual soldiers
and enough of them in every command
are now and will probably always be i'm
structed in the very simple work. At the
end of the war there was found in office
chief signal officer with the rank Of
colonel. By provision in the sundry
civil bill approved June 16, 1880. 1t WAS
enacted that the chief signal officer shall
have the rank of brigadier general, and
by the sundry civil bill approved June
90. 1850, it was enacted that two SER
geants in each year should be
made second lieutenants in the
signal office. and by various
steps force of enlisted men" has been
authorized, which now under tho law
consists of 500 men. of whom $50 are SER
geants and corporals. OF this force about
175 are on constant duty in this city as
clerks, printers &C., and the remainder,
excepting few telegraphers, are isolated
observers of the weather. In the weather
bureau service the work Is all necessarily
inchoate until digested at the great CEN
trail office in Washington, and to do this
there are stationed here the chief signal
officer, and subordinate detailed officers
of the army, and 5 second lieutenants of
the signal corps, and 175 enlisted men.
There is also stationed here large force
of civilian officers and employees, a list of
whom is given in an appendix attached.
1t is an assemblage Of military aud civil
officers and employees all performing civil
duties without pattern in any other
branch Of the public service, and would
see with regret any further step toward
preventing an establishment so organized
becoming in time purely civil in its Or
ganization. A military organization
seems to be entirely inconsistent with our
policy in such matters. When IL 10 recol-
lected that "signal service means by the
transmission of nomenclature which has
been effected since the termination of
tho war weather bureau SERVICE" 1t
is not seen why there should be q
Colonel" of that service any more
than a colonel" of geological Surveys"
or Of the "life-saving service" or of the
coast and geodetic survey" 1t is under.
stood that under our system life tenure is
given to military positions out Of consid-
erations which do not apply to public
servants performing really civil functions.
A rnngiafapf ami lon Inn nf thaaa rnn oil n
ations to several of the war department
bureaus, by making them civil in form,
would be 30 clearly in the interest of good
administration that the progress toward
enlarging tho military force of one of
them ought, it is believed, to be made
with hesitation. 1t should be as easy for
tho secretary Of war, acting under the
president, to enforce by proper changes
the harmonious action of each bureau
under him, as il is for the heads of other
departments TO do so. Through the chiefs
of bureaus important public duties are
performed, for which the secretary Of war
is held responsible: but none Of these
chiefs can be changed unless by specific
act he brings himself within the purview
of the articles Of war made TO enforce
obedience to tho general regulations of the
army or specific military commands,
general conduct of the duties of a great
bureau at the seat Of government; and
the step proposed is in my opinion, a new
obstacle in the way of a desirable change.
/ urgently recommend that this bill be
not favorably considered.
1t has never been suggested to me that
the office of assistant chief signal officer is
needed for the public service, in any as
pect, but If II shall be thought otherwise
urge that the office be made civil office.
No reason occurs to mo why the incumbent
performing its duties should have life
tenure or be colonel, rather than any
similar official in another department.
He would never be called upon to perform
any military duties pertaining to a
colonel, and his fitness to perform such
duties would be consideration of value
in selecting him. If such an emplOye OF
the government is to be made n colonel
with o life tenure and other incidents OF
such military office, the same reasons
would make colonels, lieutenant colonels
majors, aud captains of the professors ol
the signal service; professor OF electrical
science, professor of meteorology, junior
professors, photographer. aud translator,
meteorological, and physicist, and expert
editor aud proOt-reader now assisting in
the conduct Of the bureau, aud of the
other similar officers in the other
scientific bureaus of the govern.
ment. 1t is my view that the
signal service bureau should be
purely civil, and that whatever
of military or permanent tenure is now
in it should be eliminated from it as soou
as may be, with due consideration tC
whatever may be OF public obligation tC
present incumbents of military office,
with a life tenure, and consequently that
no new offices of that character should be
attention may also be called to the fact
that under the present System the bureau
of the chief signal officer, for no good
reason, is alone excepted from the opera.
tions Of the civil service act By far tn,
largest part Of its clerical force in th'
city of Washington are called enlisted
men and are 30 treAted by law. and thaN