The San Francisco call., 1896-08-23
THE LINE AND THE STAFF.

The thirty years war between the line and
staff corps of the navy may terminate during
the next session OF Congress. The feud began
under Secretary Borie. and has grown more
bitter until the strained feeling between the
two corps threatens to impair the efficiency of
the service. The long years OF inactivity after
the close of the civil war had much to do with
this condition of affairs, for the military
branch, or the line, SO called, for want of
legitimate employment has sought to absorb
the functions of the pay corps, engineer corps,
constructors and civil engineers, and has sue
ceeded in making the last-named corps sub
ordinate to the line branch.
The bureau system of the Navy Department,
under which each branch of the naval service
has conducted its own affairs since 1912. has
been source of great solicitude on
the part of the line or sailor officers,
and they have always argued that these
bureaus, in order to be efficient, should be
under the control OF the line. Numerous at
tempts have been made to create a board of
admiralty, or board of advisers, to the Secre-
retary OF the Navy, to be composed of high
rank line officers, whose functions would be
an absolute control of the Navy Department
making the Secretary of the Navy an official
fgurehead, and the bureaus entirely subordi-
nate to the board of high-grade line officers.
Under Secretary Borie Admiral David D. Por-
that while millions of dollars were spent the
navy was left in worse state of ineficiency
than when tho admiral began his work of re-
form. 1t was not alone that money was wasted
on ships to crafty the hobby of this self-ap-
pointed ruler of the navy, but he inaugurated
a system of persecution against the staff which
has been continued by other officers of high
rank up to the present time.
To carry on the work of the navy efficiently
t.
corresponding rank and pay must be allotted to
each individual in the service, but it was not
Until 1846, after thirty-four years. agitation,
that the surgeons received military recogni-
ton in obtaining relative rank with the line,
and in the following year the pay corps was
similarly recognized. The engineer corps was
created in 1912, but it was not until 1859 that
Congress conferred rank upon that branch of
the naval service. On March 13, 1868, the
staff corps were graded with the line, and this
continued until 1869, when Porter taking ad-
vantage of the fact that the order of March 13,
1863, had not been legalized by Congress, had
it revoked, and more than 600 staff officers,
consisting of surgeons, paymasters engineers,
professors, chaplains, naval constructors and
civil engineers, were humi iliated and degra AIDED.
The stripes, indicating their relative stand
ing with the other officers, were stripped off,
and those who HAD hitherto ranked with cap
tains were reduced to commanders, command
ers to lieutenants and 1ieutenant-commande
to masters while others had to resume their
civilian clothes and had no military standing.
By act OF March 8, 1871, increased rank was
conferred on all staff officers, and this law still
operates subject, OF course, to such mOdifca-
tions as 1t is possible for the line branch to
construe and enact to the disadvantage of Of
ficers not of the line.
Yet, notwithstanding the plain provision
and meaning of the law of Congress, the line
practically ignores the staff as officers and
treats them, as they term them, as civilian
officers and non-combatants. The line con-
siders itself as the "salt of the earth,' and, as
graduates of the Annapolis school, to be the
military aristocracy of the country. By sneers
words and acts they have humiliated staff Of
ficers, notably the engineer corps. and are
constantly endeavoring to influence legisla-
ton by Congress to the disadvantage of the
engineers.
Through the persistent system of an unre-
lenting contempt OF what. few years ago,
they denominated "the greasers," some of the
brightest talent in the engineer corps has been
driven out OF the service, and sixteen have
resigned from the navy during the past eight
years and entered into civil pursuits. While
there ere a sufficiency of line officers detailed
to every vessel of the navy, the engineer
Torce, so far as officers goes is short-handed to
ridicul Gus degree. The Raleigh, of 5000