The Portland daily press., 1899-01-17
fsYrcrAL 90 THE yRxssj

100000.
u7rcrAL 20 THE JRxssj
Washington, January l6-The naval
personnel bill, which was up In the
House last week, is Ia very important
measure, making radical changes In the
organization of the navy. The Increased
annual expense caused by the bill Ill be
about 500, 900 yearly. portion of this
sum goes for the pay ment of one hundred
additional officers distributed through the
various grades ana the remainder 60 the
increase of the pay of the $50 OH GERS al.
ready In the service. This increase of pay
is urged In order TO make compensation
In the navy equal to what 1t Is In the
army.
While the pay features are those which
the country at large will first notice, the
general provisions are exceedingly i'm
portant from the professional standpoint.
In the old days, when the, brakes and
Frobishers pursued the galleons of the
great King on the Spanish Main, and dis
persed the Armada in the Channel the
crews were divided into two portions.
The sailors attended to the sails and the
manoeuvering of the ship, while this fight
ing was done by soldiers who had moth
ing Il. do with the navigating. When the
sailing battleship reached its highest per-
fiction in the DAYS of Nielsen and later in
the time of our own trigate Constitution,
the sailors were all fighting men and the
fighting men were all sailors This con-
tinued until the appearance OF steam as
u motive power for men-of-war. This
called for limited number OF men with
a training neither as fighting men OF as
sailors. Engineers appeared as part OF
the compliment of the battle ship. At
first they were not numerous AT the
close of the Civil War the most powerful
of our vessels, the New Ironsides, had
only one engine with two cylinders. At
the present time the Iowa, which was in
Portland harbor about two years ago,
and is one of the greatest of our modern
battleships, has about 20 engines and $50
cylinders. So the engineers have neces-
sarily become more numerous, until now
the Engineer officers in our navy amount
to le5, while the line officers amount to
726.
As the engineers made an unobtrusive
entrance into the service their position
was apart from the line officers, and al
tnough oney are erau ua,es VI .ne NaN1.
Acaueny thsli pusltioii Romans MAJ ap"r.. -
is saiu onae 1nis sieuation h"s ofon OaunoV
sooihi oieeinctions NJ ohe oo"uenis, "oeuIu
are supposed to have nothing to do with
the duties of the line officers, and vice
versa. The personnel bill proposes to
amsigamate tne TWO pranchs, 80 Una. .hs
engineers VIII De trained 10 .ne duties OF
line ouioers, anu tne ine oiiioers 70 .he
uuoles Oh engineers. ihls VIII inahe .ne
oIncers az aiounu ~. n 'apapio y. s9i 'IS
in any posit sa y. 'ile sup, an1 wiz
aooiish aii uie'inoe lohs III ianA anu pro
nouiohs.
ine proino ,,, aieo eie W NC .es ui"'o .i
Az presen. oiuoeIs are proLho.ou W seh
iority, anu soine.iines man grows oIu
@ t,an s 40 hi In .h oo,n mu
tenant, often ooinihk W niSnei a ooni iii anu
Iter 'ong ne SERVE. t mas h n MIN
oniy io' suoo.ulEa,e se".d"h' the new
pan pro'iues oun' IL az oiiioei ooes ny
py Proihotioh seV ouu Vi !" oertAIn stnue
OF RANK al q cereain aee' nc h"s Oe iiapie
10 ue Ieelreo'
IN .nis way IL 10 nopeu .ha. we PRIME
uon OF worthy oinoeis may De mace
steauy, anu ,nhe lne Io"er eraues may
De Kept nlieu with young olnoefs'
The name OF mlushlpmah Is 10 DC re-
stored lor the naVai caue.s, anu the Two
year cruise, now part OF the course
at Anhapols Is TO DC aOoiisheu.
AS 10 1he seaiheh the oili makes SOME
IN por'ant provisions. IN the hrst pace
they are 10 take the "ath OF aiie2lance, "a
Ger emony the omission OF which viii sur
prise many: Also tney wouiu nave the
privilege Oh retitlhg aiter onirty years Oh
service as In tne army; anu tnelr term
OF service "ouiu DC lour years insteau oi
three.
Inc Dill also PROVIDES ior estnpiishment
OF new grade OF olncers, called chlei
bostswaihs. chiei gunners, chlei carpen-
ters anu chlei sallinaRers, TO rank Win,
put after ensign 10 which only warrant
oincers, aIter Ten years from the GATE CT
thslr warrant' snail De ehgloie.
iney are TO De promoted alter they nave
suocessiu''y passed an examination py
poaru Oh commissioner olncers OF tine
navy In acooruahce Win regulations pre-,
sorl0sa py the secretary OF the navy, ana
snail nave the same pay ana allowances
as those OF the ensign.
Unuer existing law the warrant ofncer