Evening star., 1898-10-18

navy. The chief of the bureau of naviga-
ton has recommended, and the department
will recommend the House bill No. 1O4o3.
presented at the last session This is sub
stant1any the personnel bill, which was
drawn up by board of officers, under the
Craftsmanship of Mr.. Roosevelt before he
retired from the department last spring.
1t has, as you know, been thoroughly
discussed, and while all the officers may
not be entirely satisfied with it from their
own point of view, they recognize its es-
sentlal FAIRNESS, and nearly all wish to see
the DIN passed. 1t provides for a total in
crease OF ninety-nine officers of the line
and engineer corps and for warrant ma
chlnlsts; and, furthermore, by euualizing
the pay and providing for a system Of
ietIeinents similar to that which is OBJ
served In the army, removes those causes
for satisfaction and CORPS iealousies
which have existed for years, The in
crease which it provides will be sufficient
Tor present needs, and the bill has been
SO wisely drawn that further increase,
"hen IL becomes necessary in later wears
can De easily obtained by a simple bill
providing uniform percentage of increase
in each CORPS
IL Is IN this way, in the opinion of the
department, that the personnel shou1d he
built up. Any sudden expansion at this
Hfne might be It serious step backward
The volunteer officers who have served dur
ing the war have rendered d valuable serv-
Ice to the country in the recent energency
BUT as you we'll know, the naval officer
or today for permanent service must On
DCard Snip, be acquainted not only with
seamanship and the duties of navieation
out ne must also have a thorough knowl-
edge of the techuicalities of steam engi-
neerlng, electrical engineering, ordnance
the many navy drills and the practices
OF the navy in intercourse with foreign
representatives, naval and diplomatic For
general naval duty he must be equally pre-
pared Tor duty as an ordnance expert at
the gun factory, q torpedo expert at the
torpedo station and elsewhere, an instruc-
tor IN the various subjects up to the diff
ferential and integral calculus a the Naval
Academy, and dozen other such duties
which the Naval Academy alCre properly
grounds him for.
After the civil war, when the navy was
expanded by taking into it's ranks yolun-
teer officers, the Naval Academy course
then being four years, it became neces-
sary to cut down the number of yearly
graduates from the academy, and The
course was changed from four to six yeas
Since then 1t has remained at six years.
The simple change now to the four-year
course as provided by the personnel bill
in question, VIII make the present routine
of the academy capable of furnishing all
the officers needed.
THE experience of the war has shown
that the success and clean record of the
navy was in a large measure due to The
fact that the department was not sub
Jected to the necessity of making any civil
ian appointments. or any appointments
whatever except upon Professional exam
ination. An objection to taking into the
navy at present Il number of volunteers is
that 1t would be simply a step toward re-
establishing the hump which after the
civil war was so great an obstacle in the
development Of the navy and which we are
just now on the point of outgrowing."