The Minneapolis journal., 1901-06-24
VERY FAT PENSION
Milkman Retires on Two Thousand
Dollars a Year,
AND HE NEVER HAD TO FIGHT
Charles NewboId, Assistant Pay
master, U. S. A, Once Sta
toned at ST. Paul.
s..:s;;.T Essc TAs ysssrns1 B.r.e". Rooss 40. FO's

Frcrn The JesrnGS Btsrs0ss, RO0as &6s Post
Building Washington.
Washington, June 24.-Here is the story
OF milkman who became a soldier and,
though he never had to fight, and never
wanted to, is about to retire on pension
OF $4,000 a year for the remainder of his
life. He used to furnish milk to the pres
ident.
An ex-oficer of the line Of the regular
army, Charles Newbold by name, was ap-
pointed from civil life to be an additional
paymaster of volunteers in March, 1899.
This was, under the law, the necessary
stepping-stone to corresponding appoint
ment in the regular army later, and IN
July of the same year he was transferred
TO a paymastership in the regular estab-
lishment, with the rank of major. At the
time of his staff appointment he had been
about thirty-two years out of the service,
and was about 60 years of age. He had q
farm near Washington and a dairy busi-
ness in the city. The president was among
his customers.
1t apparently did not occur to any one
that man who already had had some
military training and knew what was eX-
peeted Of paymaster would have sought
such position if unable physically to do
1t justice. But after he had enjoyed a
rather quiet life at the station of st.
Paul, Mimi, where there was little to do,
he was ordered to the Philippines. This
was in 1900. The chief paymaster at
Manila directed him to go, as the other
paymasters were going, into the field to
pay the troops. He objected on the
ground Of an organic trouble forbidding
severe exertion and exposure. The chief
paymaster wished to have him sent before
a retiring board, but Newbold appealed
TO General Macarthur, who at his request
sent him back to the United States. On
his return TO Washington q retiring board
investigated his case, reported that his
disability was not contracted in the line
OF duty, and recommended that he be
wholly retired-that is-separated from
the service altogether, with one years
extra pay. The president cannot wholly
retire an officer without such a recon-
mendation from board, but on the other
hand, the boards function is only ad
visory, and the president, after invoking
II. is not compelled to abide by the rec
ommendation. President Mckinley has
done nothing in this instance; neither has
Major Newbold, although presumptively
he knows what the board recommended
as, in the judgment of its members, for
the best interests of the service.
Majors Three-Quarter Pay.
Unless one or the other does something
TO change the present situation, Newbold
will retire in August next-being then 62
years old-on three quarters pay OF
major, or $4,000 year.
This case is understood to have resolved
Secretary Root to change the prelimi-
naries to appointment so as to put the
stan upon the same footing as the line
in the matter of physical examinations,
and prevent further occurrences of like
character, where a man can be appointed
to a position for whose duties he is, by
his own confession, physically unfit In
army circles much Indignation has been
stirred up by the fact that while New
bold has been receiving all this gratui-
tous consideration, officers who have
served through the civil war, the Cuban
war and in the Philippines and China,
are still pegging away at a round of duty
and hardships at meagre pay and with in
significant prospects. Major Newbold's
former service in the army was limited
to six years-from 1861 to 1857. During
that time he stayed in the west and took
part in no battles of the civil war His
record was good as far as it went, though
1t is understood that his resignation re-
suited from his dissatisfaction with some
command given him by his superior Off
Ger. The most common assumption re-
garding his hold upon the presidents spec