Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-26
TO IMPROVE SERVICE
Recommendations of the Pay
master General of the Navy.
TO RECRUIT THE CORPS
A PROBATIONARY PERIOD FOR
ASSISTANT PAYMASTERS URGED.
The Erection Of General Storehouse in
This City Favored i. Proposed to -
Remedy Defect in Ration.

Rear Admiral Harris. paymaster general
of the navy. in his annual report, makes
several radical recommendations for the
betterment of the service in the matter or
pay and supplies. The report covers trans
actions involving expenditures during the
year of 1921 $40. 305 and shows balance OF
appropriations, June go last, of S46.O3O,:'92.
The principal expenditures were $3l. 4O3.-
94S for the construction of new ships. 3D.
30 327 for maintaining ships In commission.
So O26093 for maintaining receiving ships,
IS 529, 2S4 for repairs to ships. and $2,9So,ooo
for the Marine Corps
Appointments to Pay Corps
The paymaster general refers to 1.-THE very
unsatisfactory method Of recruiting the
personnel of the pay corps" and says he Is
convinced that the appointment and COM
missioning of young men as assistant pay
masters in the navy without any probation
airy period of actual trial under service con-
ditionS is unwiSe in the extreme
This is the only corps In the navy. says
Admiral Harris Ito which appointments
may be made without any previous teen
nical education or training on the part OF
the appointee; whereas, under the laws ana
regulations. even warrant officers, mates
and chief petty officers are, before appoint
ment required to qualify in the technical
duties which they are expected to perform.
1t does not seem appropriate that the ex-
aminati prior to the appointment or d
commissioned officer in any corps should De
less thorough than those required for war
rant officers and persons of inferior ratings;
and it is believed that, in addition to the
entrance examination now required or ap-
plicants for appointment as assistant pay
masters, 1t would be expedient to require
another examination, at the end of one
year. to determine the adaptability and
actual efficiency of the candidate before he
is commissioned.
Status of Paymasters' Clerks.
The paymaster general says that the
status Of paymasters' clerks is most unsat-
isfactory. He explains that they have the
status Of officers. so far as responsibility
is concerned, and their full share of hard
ships incident to the service, without any
of the advantages especially in the way of
pay and allowances. He recommends that
they be warranted and be given the prlVi-
lege of retirement on three-quarters pay.
He also recommends that the present regu-
lations be so modified that enlistments as
chief yeoman in the pay department may be
made direct from civil life, without requir-
Ing the candidate to pass through the sew
eraI successive grades to attain that rating.
Supplies and Storehouses.
Considerable progress has been made dur
ing the past year toward the proper syste-
matizing of the purchase of supplies The
paymaster general expresses the belief that
1t will be practicable to limit emergency
purchases to such cases as really require
exemption from advertising. and thus carry
out the letter and spirit of the law as con-
strued by the accounting officers of the
treasury without materially mountaineering
the service.
New storehouSes are said by Admiral
Harris to be needed at several of the yards
to properly protect the stock of valuable
supplies which must be maintained, and he
recommends that a general storehouse be
erected In this city.
Even allowing reasonable latitude In
the matter of transferring stores from one
yard to another says Admiral Harris,
ard thereby limiting purchases to a certain
extent the question of dead stock and con-
comitant losses will undoubtedly continue
to cause the department serious concern
as long as the present system of reservation
of supplies remains unrestricted
After a thorough consideration of this sub
ject in all it's phases l am convinced that
the consolidation of such purchases under
the naval supply fund system offers the
most practical and economical solution of
this important problem. l earnestly
recommend that the naval supply fund be
increased at once to $5,0OO,OOO, and that the
proceeds of the sales of all condemned
stores Except clothing and small stores.
ordnance and unserviceable vessels) be
credited to this fund instead Of being COW
cred into the treasury"