The San Francisco call., 1903-12-14
OFFICIAL WHO WANTS THE
GOVERNMENT TO- GIVE
HIM MOUNTS.
Asks Navy Department
to Furnish Him With
Three Horses.

Paymaster General Harris. chief of
the bureau of supplies and accounts,
has made application to the Secretary
of the Navy for three horses, which he
states are required in the performance
of official duties. The Secretary has re-
ferred the question to the Controller
of the Treasury, who evades a positive
decision by saying that an officer may
keep one horse or more, according to
his rank. at Government expense, pro-
vided his official duties fequire the use
of the animals, and leaves it to the Sec
retary to decide the paymaster gem
erals need of three horses. The claim
is made under the navy personnel law
of March 8, 1899, which gives army pay
and allowances. to naval officers. Sec
ton 10 of the. act hasobeen the subject
of much contention and litigation, and
has kept the Controller and the courts
busy. and the end is not yet. The par
ticular section reads: Commissioned
officers of the line of the navy and of
the medical and pay corps shall receive
the same pay and allowances, except
forage, as are or may be provided by
or in pursuance of law for the officers
Of corresponding rank in the army.
AS Paymaster General Harris has the
rank of rear admiral, which corre-
spends with that of brigadier general
in the army, it would seem that he is
entitled to the pay and allowances, in
cluding horses, but not to the forage.
Inasmuch as army officers in Washing
ton acting as chiefs of bureaus have
allowances as mounted officers, Rear
Admiral and Paymaster General Har-
ris, as chief of the bureau of supplies
and ACCOUNTS, is also TO be considered
as a mounted officer and entitled to the
three horses at Government expense,
but he must bear the cost of their feed.
There are five more rear admirals IN
Washington who are chiefs of bureaus
who would be entitled to horses, besides
those who have retired since July, 1899,
the claims of which will undoubtedly
be presented and admitted in due
course of time. The chiefs of the bu-
reaus of yards and docks and of con-
struction, although ranking with rear
admfraIs, are not included as mounted
brigadier generals.
| TRAINING NAVAL ENGINEERS.
The naval board appointed to de-
wise system of education and train
| ing of commissioned officers for en-
gine room duty is said to have formu-
lated a plan which is shortly to be
submitted to the Navy Department.
1t provides for the selection of such
ensigns who after two years service
at. sea show personal inclination and
| fitness for the engineering branch.
These officers are then to be- sent to
the engineering school to be estab-
! lished at Annapolis, and after a two
or three years course shall be consid-
cred as eligible to engineering duties
only This distinction is to be indicated
in the naval register by some mark
against the name of the officers Sc
/ lected for this exclusive task. This
4 plan is not likely to be favorably re-
ceived, for it is simply return, thinly
disguised, to the conditions of six years
ago, when there was a separate en-
| gineer corps. Then at least induce
ments were held out in higher pay to
engineer officers in some of the grades
of corresponding relative rank with
line officers. The latter then objected
to this discrimination and the extinc-
ton of the engineer corps followed as
q result Of the personnel act of 1929,
the engineers being absorbed by the
line. The pay was equalized and mean
ingless titles conferred on the former
| engineers. 1t was one of the greatest
blunders in naval legislation through
which a comparatively small number
received individual benefit at the risk
of impairing the efficiency of the SER
vice. AS the Army and Navy Regis
! ter tersely states it: There must be.
sooner or later, return to an engin-
eer corps; at all events, there must be
provision for engineer officers, with or
without corps organization and inde-
pendence. The glannorous spec-
tacle of the fighting engineer has
been tried and it ought to be relegated
to the pile of the unused along with
other fictions which practice has
proven archaic"
There is solution in. sight Of the
q /. a
To Cure Cold in One Day.
Take Laxative Bromo Qunine Tablets All
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Ufe AaeIN