The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-11-30
The Secretary of War Reviews
the Progress Made at the
Gun Plants.
GOOD CONDITION OF THE ARMY
Congress Asked to Make Better Appro
priations for the Payment
Of Salaries.

report of Daniel s. Lamont, Secretary of
War, opens with suggestive tabular state
ment of insufficient Congressional appro-
priations. The actual expenditures for the
last fiscal year were $52, ,937 900, while the
estimates of the department for the next
fiscal year run up to $5l ,945, 900, thus indi-
eating a probability of a much larger de-
ficiency than was experienced this year.
Regarding the latter occurrence Secretary
Lamont says:
ga considerable reduction by Congress
of the estimates of the pay department,
which failed to take into consideration
various contingencies, and the enactment
of extraordinary legislation increasing tenn
porarily the demands upon the pay appro-
priation without making adequate pro-
vision therefor. left the paymaster-general
without sufficient funds to meet the army
payroll for the last month OF the year.
"The situation threatened much hard
ship among officers and men, who usually
rely upon their monthly salaries to pay
current expenses. 1t was averted, how
ever, by an unofficial arrangement under
which the necessary amount was advanced
to meet these accounts in full and the as
signments of the same are held by the
National City Bank, New York, the Secre-
tary of War having assumed the personal
responsibility of guaranteeing their pay
ment. A deficiency appropriation Of
$24, COO or SO much as may be necessary to
extinguish the debt, is recommended"
The full strength of the enlisted men in
the army is stated at 25,706. The Secre-
tary claims credit for having during the
past two years steadily pursued the
policy of restoring officers to their COM
mands. and reducing, wherever possible,
the number of those on detached duty. {"
He considers that the most essential need
of the army to-day is the adoption Of
the "three battalion" formation as recon-
mended in his report of 1894. He says:
"The proposition outlined contemplates
an increase in the number of line officers,
involving an increase of salaries of about
5000, 900. This increase of expenditures
should be met and more than overcome
by reductions in the expenditures for the
staff The present chiefs of bureaus in the
staff organization of the army are capable
and efficient men. They are in every way
worthy of the responsible places they oc-
cupy and jealous in the faithful perform
ance of duty. The wisdom, however, of
continuing the present system of selection
may we'll be questioned.
There is nothing in the nature of the
duties of some of the staff corps that
should forbid the presumption that COM
petent officers could be found for these
duties in the line or in other branches of
the staff. In the case OF the engineer,
ordnance and medical departments, whose
duties are largely technical, no change
from the existing method of filling vacan-
cies in the grade of brigadler-general is
sugge sted, but in respect to all other staff
corps and in the departments the class
eligible for selection to the head of each
should embrace the whole army, line and
staff"
Secretary Lamont quotes President Cleve-
lands message of 1886 in regard to our
defenseless seacoasts and says:
"The various factors in the scheme of
defense have been SO accurately deter
mined that for the first time it is possible
to forecast from what has been accom-
plished the time and enterprise required
to complete the project with existing
facilities. We have established and
yearly thirty-ive guns of the types re-
qulred, or enough to arm the eighteen
posts enumerated within ten years. It is
complete-except as to the provisions for
finishing and assembling 16-inch guns, the
expediency of which is still questioned.
We have, moreover, by contract, con-
tributed toward the establishment of
private plant for the manufacture of guns,
which in time will be able to meet an un-
usual demand that could not be supplied
by the Watervliet gun factory.
"We have established a plant for the
manufacture of gun carriages, which, with
the aid of private establishments, can
supply the carriages required as rapidly as
emplacements for guns and mortars are
completed. The development of satis-
factory type of Il inch disappearing gun
carriage is alone lacking in the mechanism
of coast defense, and without doubt Ameri-
can ingenuity will supply that desired
feature.
But at only three of the eighteen posts
considered have completed features of de-
fense been established New York has two
12-inch guns and sixteen 12-inch mortars.
San Francisco has one 12-inch gun and
sixteen 12-inch mortars, and Boston has
sixteen 12-inch mortars in position. 1t rests
with Congress to determine by Its appro-
priations the period which shall elapse
before our coasts shall be put in satisfac-
tory position of defense. The amount re-
quired is about $S2, 600, 600, and the entire
work can be completed within ten years."
Aninteresting feature of the report is the
statement of the Secretary that never in its
history has the present condition of the
army been surpassed. 1t is better fed
clothed and housed, and the policy of pro-
noting the personal comfort of the officers
and men has resulted in a devotion that is
everywhere apparent. The health record
OF the army for the year is the best annual
statement ever consolidated from the re-
turns of the medical officers, and very
significant decrease in the number of