Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-25
Conditions in the Navy Not
to Their Liking.
COULD BE REMEDIED
MEN FROM THE COUNTRY MOST
LIKELY TO QUIT.
Restriction of Shore Leave Always a
Source of Trouble-Oficers
and Men.


serted the service last year. This means
that about one bluejacket out of every five
jumped his ship for good and all. 1t makes
a record for desertions unequaled or unap-
preached in the history of the sea service of
the United States.
There is much theorizing, official and I'M
official. as to the underlying cause
causes for this extraordinary and alarming
percentage of assertions from the naval
service Most of this theorzing is con-
tributed by officers of the navy. The view
from aft to for'ard is frequently liable to
be considerably out of focus 1t is a far
cry from wardroom to fo'c'sle. Deeper
than any Himalayan gorge is the chasm
that yawns between the American naval
officer and the American b,uejacket. So
that the deductions of the gentlemen of
TIE afterdeCk to the reasons why the
men for ard are going over the sides of the
meu-o'-war like rats quitting an unsea-
worthy wiudjammer are not necessarily
bound to be entirely correct.
To offset or supplement the views of the
gentlemen aft this deserton problem.
perhaps the views of one of the enlisted
men will be of interest. The enlisted man
IS chief petty officer-a chief gunners
mate-who has been in the naval service for
twenty years, beginning as an apprentice
He is scheduled for a gunner's billet. which
will make him a warrant officer. NO other
comment is necessary as to his intelii-
gence for it takes a pretty level-headed
man to climb from an apprenticeship TO
warrant officers billet 'in this mans line
o. packets" as the men-owars men eX-
press it.
Inland Recruiting.
THE system of inland recruit ng. adopted
a few years ago. has had lot to do with
the fattenIng of the desertion rolls said
this chief petty officer. The who,e char
acter of the enlisted service was changed
when the scheme of shipping young fellows
from the country from the small inland
towns was put into operation me gTett
majority of the men We're formerly snip
ped in the big seaport cities.
..'Tberc's no denying that the inland Tub
hers are a cleaner and more decent lot OF
men so far as eXternals go. than the fell
lows shipped in the big seaport cities, but
they don't make such good sailors as the
CITY men and they never will The an
swer to that is easy. too The Inland re-
cruits lack the gameness OF the ieIoWs
from the cities Most of them get Their
first airing in the game of life when they
ship in the navy, and the navy pretty
warm game for the fellow who has never
been away from home and mother pelore'
Not Used to Hardships.
.'The inland recruit a good deal oftener
than not is farm-raised, or else brought
up amid the mild and uneXacting activities
of a village or small town He comes
from what is called the middle class, and
up to the time of his venture in the navy
he has always had a pretty soft thing of it.
comparatively speaking. with no discom-
forts much less hardships to endure He
has had a good bunk to turn into, for in
stance. when he got sleepy and good
bunk ashore isn't much like one Jnt those
old swinging bags that we turn into in the
navy He IS used to the pampering of
women folks and all that sort of thing.
himself in a dead new world, and world
that looks mighty hard and craggy to him.
He is nearly always clean and sober and
generally decent and well-behaved. but ne
simply cannot stand the gaff. 1t isn't in
him He goes to pieces under the strain.
The discomfort the hard work, the neces-
sary and enforced subservience TO superior
authority, and, finally, the lonesomeness,
get him going and render him useless for
all sailOriZing purposes. Not one Inland
recruit out of twenty finds himself ana
settles down snugly and comfortably In his
billet. For the beginner there isn't any
thing on earth so absolutely uncomfortable
as a ship of war. The lubber is banged
around from stanChiOn to scuttlebutt, and
there is no peace for him. If he is found
TO be a wilmer the dose he gets IS worse
The old fiatfeet are a sardOntc and unsym-
pathetic lot and they feel no cOmpunCtion
in visiting upon the lubbers the same kind
Of knocking around that they themselves
had to stand for when they first shipped.
The cOuntry-bed man-o'-war's man en-
dures what he considers the misery of his
condition as long as he can, and then he
Just goes over the side. when he gets lib-
erty, and fOrgets to come back.
The City Contingent.
1T was different with the city-reared
chaps who used to make up the bulk of the
enlisted force Of the navy. All in ALL they
were hard lot I don't say that in dis
arrangement of them, because came from
that crowd myself. l mean to say that
they were fellows who had been up against
the rougher side Of the game of life good
and hard and plenty and their contact
with the game had made them hard as
nails The language they used wasn't
pretty, and they were a good deal more
liable than not to get spifficated and orrey-
eyed drunk every time they went ashore on
liberty. But the discomfort and the hard
work Of the service never feazed them.
They never whimpered. Their gameness
bred in the bone. They kicked and
bucked about this and that, but they did
the duty they were required to do and
worked of their chewing and growing and
grouching afterward. They'd fight among
themselves Ike sOnS-of-guns; they'd gamble
like blazes every time they got the chance;
they'd bust their shore liberty into
smithereens with unfailing regularity and
all that sort of thing. But they were right
there with the nerve and the discipline
and. best of ALL the endurance when any
thing especial was asked of them and
these things are the markings of saIlormen
Il am speaking by the card when 1 claim
that the fellows shipped in the cities were
and are far gamer than the inland recruits
ounce the beginning OF the Misunderstanding
system, I've taken part in something like
half dozen practice marches-some of
them Of thirty or forty miles-with ships
companies In which large bodies of recruits
both Of the city and country kind, formed a
considerable part. The country-bred re-
cruits were always the ones TO give out
on these practice marches. The lubbers
from the cities found their feet In just as
bad condition. and they were just as tired.
and, as rule. they didn't have the robust
physiques of the lads from the inland re-
giOns- But they stuck. They held on
They wouldn't give their shipmates the
laugh on them. They squared their Jaws
and got their teeth together with a click
and played the game 10 a finish. The In
land rockies chucked it and had TO be
picked up
Cause of the Increase
This, in my opinion. Is the main reason
for the big increase in the desertion list
the shipping OF so many fellows from the
interior who come under the softly classih-
cation. I believe that IL the desertion fig-
ures were TO be analysed and dissected, 1t
would be found that an overwhelming per-
oentage OF the deserters last year were fell