The San Francisco call., 1896-08-23

the event of accident that officer is held re-
sponsible, and a court composed of line off,
GERS IS sure to convict him of neglect, and
either recommend his dismissal or sentence
him to years of suspension.
AS natural result quite number OF mid
dle-aged and even young engineer officers
have succumbed to the strain, some dying and
others forced to retire from active service.
Political and navy influences were, until
within few years ago, important factors in
obtaining admission to the Naval Academy.
There are officers in the line corps whose
presence can be accounted for only on those
grounds, but every graduate in the engineer
corps is there on his own merits ana because
he made higher percentages In all the studies.
1t is from the cream of the academy that
naval constructors and engineers are selected;
the next skimming makes ensigns or line
officers. and the marine corps takes what is
LETT. Yet, for all that, the line officer still
cherishes the tradition of inferiority on the
part OF all other officers not of the line corps.
With the advent of the new navy, its modern
armament and various intricate c0ntrivances,
the sails, pot-metaI guns and old-style evolu-
tiens and fighting have been discarded. The
old shell-back sailors have been replaced with
men who know more about their several parts
than the officer in command, for it is q curl
Gus fact that the captains, commanders, lieu
tenant-commanders all entered the service
between 1854 and 1868, many years before
the new navy vessels were built.
1t was too late for officers on the wrong side
of 40 to start afresh in the moderniZed pro-
fession, yet these same officers are either CON-
floating war machines. AS for the engine
room, the simple engine of 1000 horsepower
and the boilers with forty pounds of steam
have been displaced for engines exceeding
10000 horsepower and boilers with 160
pounds of steam, and with the exit OF the old
engines the engineers of the old days are also
disappearing. Chief engineers who rose to
that grade and never run even an ordinary
compound engine gracefully retired, and their
places are being filed with men who know all
about the modern engine. While the days of
study for the line officers terminate, as rule,
with their leaving the academy, the engineer
is placed in quite different position. Still,
ness, and thus, while the line corps suffers
from the presence of "deadwood'' or the pres
ence of officers unfit for various reasons for the
grade and thus excludes the young, meritorious
and ambitious element, the engineer corps has
little or no cause to complain of deadwood in
its ranks.
The progressive portion of the line has long
recognized the necessity of younger blood in
the higher grades. There are now lieutenants
so years of age, which in other navies would
be close to the rear-admiral's grade. The pres
ent bill before Congress contemplates q re-
organization of the navy personnel, a general
wedding out and consequent promotion of
line, and the staff corps, likewise, come in for
reorganization. They demand actual instead
of relative rank to make them safe from the
petty prosecutions of the line, and the en-
gineer corps demands an increase adequate to
handle the work of the new navy. Its present
force of 173, against 205 in 1887. is to be in
creased to about $50. With equalized rank
and pay in the line and staff corps, with duties
strictly defined and within the proper sphere
of each corps, better feeling will naturally
result among officers and tend to improve the
whole navy. J. +.