The San Francisco call., 1904-02-08

I
lation since the navy was established
in 1898. and the end is not yet in sight.
The law regarding the pay is in many
cases so indefinite as to have led hun
dreds of cases of appeal to the Comp
troller OF the Currency, and with such
results as to prove that the naval Off
! GERS are better lawyers than those
members of Congress who framed and
passed the law. The act of 1870, super
ceded by that of 1899, was clear and
explicit and every officer knew what
he was entitled to; now all is confusion
and the Comptroller himself has been
stumped several times. the latest In
stance being that of determining what
officers of the navy are entitled to
horses and consequent forage pay. The
! Comptroller ruled that the surgeon gen
eral and the paymaSter general are en-
titled to such allowances, by whlch
reasoning, Secretary Moody contends,
the nine junior rear admirals would
be entitled to like allowance, but the
nine senior rear admirals would be de-
MED it. BY another decision, certain
members of the medical and pay corps
are entitled to mounted pay OF the
army, giving them yearly increase
varying from one hundred TO seVeral
hundred dollars, upon the theory tnat
The Secretary cites as an instance,
showing the confusion in the system
of pay, that in one case in the Court
of Claims the pay of an ofhcer was
changed eleven times and urges upon
Congress the necessity Of reconsldera-
tion of the whole subject or pay.
Secretary Moody has taken the Wlno
out of the sails of the Taylor-EVans
general staff scheme by having the
present general board assume the func-
tions of the general staff in greatly
modified form. This general board con-
sists of the admiral, three rear ad-
mirals. three captains, three command
ers one lieutenant and one colonel of
marines.
CALIFORNIA; STAR.
California has come to the front
again after a lapse of thirty-two years
in being represented at the Naval
Academy by star member of the
| graduating class in David McDougaI
lie Breton, a native of San Francisco
In 1872 Nathaniel T. James, credited 70
California, graduated with a star ana
since then none of the midshipmen from
this State have appeared among the
exceptionally bright graduates VINO
must obtain 50 per cent of the possible
/ maximum marks to be classified as
stars" Mr.. lie Breton has the unus-
ual distinction of having led in all
/ four of the classes through which ne
has passed. and his aggregate credits
! foot up to 5SS.12, out of a possible ga,
/ or 94.25 per cent for the entire course
This record has been exeelled only By
! David W. Taylor, now a naval con-
structor. whose percentage for four
years was 1857. Other notable grad
yates were Lewis Nixon, with 91.31 per
! cent; John G.. Tawresey, superintend-
/ ing naval constructor at the Union Iron
| Works, 1.1S per cent, and Francis T..
Bowles, who occupied the position Of
chief constructor, and from which he
resigned last November. was credited
vith S7.2S per cent for his four years
! course at the Naval Academy.
UNLUCKY CONTRACTORS.
Sixteen torpedo-boat destroyers were
contracted for in 1898, to be completed
| in February and May, 1900, and all of
these boats have. after much delay
been delivered, the last two, named
| Hopkins and Macdonough, in May ana
| July of last year, which was thirty
seven and thirty-eig months behind
| the contract time. Four of these ves-
sells exceeded their speed requirements,
and the others failed to come up to the
\ guaranteed speeds, but were accepted
and proved to be excellent seaboats and
( valuable acquisitions to the navy. OF
the twelve torpedo-b boats contracted for
! at the same time, to be delivered in
! September and November, 1899, five are
! still uncompleted and the Inflated
| Goldsborough, contracted for in July
! 1897, is no nearer completion now than
| she was in October, 1900. The contracts
| for these torpedo-boats were distribu-
j ted among ten firms, every one of which
/ have paid dearly for their experience
| in that line, and claims are now before
| Congress to reimburse the builders for
! their losses.
/ The average contract price paid for
| the destroyers was $281, 900, and the
average cost to the contractor was
$S75,000, showing an apparent loss to the
builder of $4,000, where his net profit
should have been about SOS, 900. The
average contract price was $152, 900 for
the torDedo-boa but the builders
claim that the actual cost was $225, ,000
difference of $73, 900. The total amount
asked for by the suffering contractors
/ is about $2,3S0,000, and Mr.. BowIes,
| formerly chief constructor in the navy
| and at present president of the Fore
River shipyard, has been selected by
the contractors to present their case to
| Congress. The naval experience of Mr.
Bowles and his whilom connection with
the late United States Shipbuilding
| Company as an appraiser of the value
| of ship plants and work will enable him
to present the case of the torpedo craft
contractors in an interesting if not a
convincing way to the committee of
Congress or before the Court of Claims.
NAVAL STORES ACCOUNTS.
The disclosures made by Paymaster
General Harris in relation to the ac-
cumulated stores at the navy yards is
virtually confession of incapacity of
the bureau of supplies and accounts and
an admission that the annual reports
| of expenditures and stores on hand are
! incorrect. AT a recent hearing before
the House Naval Committee it was
! brought out that no inventories had
! been taken of these accumulated naval
stores, and the paymaster general es-
timated that it would take three years
| to make such an inventory. BY an act
! of Congress of June 30, 1890, naval sup
plies, with few exceptions, were placed
under the charge of the bureau Of pro-
visions and clothing, all articles being
purchased and cared for by the store
keepers at the several navy yards, from
which the other departments have since
| obtained articles required. Inventories
! were taken at all the shore stations and