Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-10-07
FAULT TO FIND
How the Sailors in Our Navy Express
Their Grievances.
ROUND ROBINS ARE NOT In FAVOR
Jack Has a Hard Time When He
Goes to the Mast.
ODDS ARE AGAINST HIM

ODDS ARE AGAINST HIM
Written for The Evening Star.
A youthful but foxy-eyed hobo stood at
the corner of PENNSYLVANIA avenue and 9th
street Tuesday night, endeavoring to
entice 1.-The price from the pockets of a
group of good-natured roysterers who had
nothing better to do than to listen to him.
by telling them that he had been a sailor
in the United States navy, but had been
discharged for disability, caused by an at
tack Of 'tropic fever" AS he spoke half
a dozen steady, clear-eyed men-o'-war's
men, with the word Olympia gilded on
their cap ribbons. came up behind tho
group of civilians. and, catching some
phrase stopped to listen to the hobo's mar
rative.
well. Wen we down there at that
port in South Ameriky.' the hobo was say
ing. 9TH whole bunch O got this here
fever. an we got up a round robin. asldn'
tn captain O the boat to go away from
there. but
THAT buffers fake" said a deep voice
In the crowd, and tall. grizzled bluejacket
stepped up to the hobo. There hasn't
been round robin circulated in the Ameri-
can navy for twenty years to my knoWl-
edge. and"
The rest Of it was lost. The hobos jaw
had fallen when he saw the big bluejacket,
and when the three of them stepped up he
whirled about and bolted for it. the three
sailors after him at lope. The hobo
garner got away in the crowd.
The grizzled bluejacket was right The
round robin passed out with the old navy
before the old navy, in truth. 1t was an
institution very often resOrted to by blue
Jackets who manned the old wooden ships
At length they overdd the thing. causing
the round robin to be forbidden, not in set
terms in the regulations, but by a generally
understood inference-for there are a lot
of rules of conduct in the navy not ex-
pressly covered by the regulations, just as
there numerous rules of conduct on
shore not distinctly covered by civil law.
An Instrument of Complaint.
Originally employed in the United States
navy for the legitimate purpose for which
it was devised, perhaps thousands of years
ago by sea-ranging Phoenicians up for
ward purpose being the general pc
tition of a ships company to the ships
commander asking for the investigation and
correction of severities. injusticas, or harsh
punishments visited upon members of a
crew by the commanders immediate official
inferiors-the round robin finally became
mere instrument of complaint, drawn up.
circulated. signed and presented less for
the purpose of securing the mitigation Of
abuses than for the adjustment of trivial
disautes.
When the round robin at bottom a first
rate institution. used iuGiciouSly and tenn
perately, degenerated into this cheap estate
and became an intnlerable nuisance on
United States warships. it 81, down
on. and it went the way of the cat o nine
tails.
II is probable that three-ifths of all the
enlisted serving in the United
States navy do not precisely apprehend the
meaning of the term round robin. On none
of the modern ships of the American navy
has there been circulated, signed and pre-
scented begrimei piece of paper of this
sort. with the grievance or grievances set
forth within the uneven. raggedly-drawn
circle. and the signature of the crew ra-
dating therefrom like mismated spokes
from q rough-hewn hub
Where 1t Carries Weight.
In the merchant marine of the world
sailors still employ the round robin with
more or less effect. Shippers of merchant
ships continue to regard the round robin
an instrum mt of weight. for the simple
reason that merchant sailors are very chary
of appending their signatures or marks to
such fO'c'Sle documents unless the occa-
sion for their presentation is very urgent.
In other navies, notably those of England
and Italy. the round robin is occasionally.
pasted surreptitlously to the door leading
to the commanding officers cab!n-not Of
ten. however, with much benefit to crews
during the past decade or so. But in the
United States navy the round robin is al
together thing of the past.
The circular construction of the round
robin was, of course, due to the unwilling
ness of each member of a ships company
to be regarded by commanding officers
ringlea der in fomenting diSSatiSfaction-to
be looked upon as sea lawyers" or IMAM
o'-war chaws." With the spoke-lke ar
rangement of the signatures there was, Of
course. neither beginning end to the
names appended TO the wheel-shaped bills
of complaint, and commanding officers to
whom such documents We're presented
could only guess as to which man or men
up forward suggested and framed and cir
culated them In justice to the acuteness
of commanding officers Of American men,
o'war, it should be said that when the
round robins became very common and fire.
quent the shippers acquired great skill in
guessing correctly the names of their orig
inators. Yet after all, this statement may
be taken as less of tribute to the clever
ness of the shippers than as hint that,
possibly. there may have been some treach-
cry up forward in the days Of the decline of
the round robin.
Presenting Their Grievances.
There Is now but one way open for the
enlisted man. bluejacket or marine. who
has a kick to register. He must show his
hand and file his complaint in his own per-
son or name, verbally or in writing. If
twenty. fifty. hundred enlisted men have
a common grievance. they must present
that grievance in delegation to the COM
handing officer. or in the form of written
bill of complaint with their signatures at
tached to 1t in the order of their relative
rating. In most cases the method of pre-
senting grievances in delegation at the mast
is resorted to by the enlisted men Of the
American navy Of today. The man with
the individual grievance occasionally puts
his complaint in writing and addresses it
to the Secretary of the Navy. Command
ing officers are compelled by regulations to
forward all such complaints to the civil
chief of the navy-with. however. whatever
Endorsements thereon they elect to make.
It's generally a moderately bad job for
an enlisted man to write a narrative of
woe to the Secretary of the Navy. Such a
chap doesn't frequently find his after ca
reer in the navy one long dream of peace
and quiet. Enlisted men who have drawn
up unreasonable complaints-even COM
plants not entirely unreasonable-and thus
addressed them. have generally shed quite
some saline tears in their hammocks after
wards over the foohshness of the act 1t
seems reasonable to suppose, too-for hui
man nature is the same on sea and land
that no bluejacket or marine can possibly |
add to his sum total Of comfort happi- |
ness aboard ship by more less biuntly |
informing the civil head of the Navy De-
partment that the commanding officer of |
A.