The National tribune., 1907-01-17
THE LINE AND THE STAFF.

THE LINE AND THE STAFF.
| The perennial fight between the line
and the staff of the Navy has broken
out this Winter with more than usual
viruience. In fact the Navy Depart
ment has had to warn the staff officers
that unless they desist from their war
upon the Navy Personnel Bill there
Will be some -courts-martial.
The trouble is as old as the Navy.
We inherited our naval system from
England, with all its traditions and
prejudices. In the olden times the
English war ships We're Differed by
gentlemen" and worked by sailors
who were of the lowest social caste.
They corresponded to the serfs who
drudged in the fields.
Macaulay says:
There were gentlemen and there
were seamen inl the navy of Charles
| III. But tfeo seamen were not gentle
N men en- and the gentlemen were not sea-
-. 49, ..--- ,h~sh
Presently there interposed' a third
class between these TWO. The fgentle-
men" could . not keep the ships 8. .ac-
counts. possibly gould not even read or
write. SO there came the "Purser," the
predecessor OF the Payfhaster or to-
day There had to be doctor, the
precursor ofrthe Surgeon. b, Neither of
these belonged to the nobility, they
were always of the middle class in So
ciety, and were, not held to be the
equals of the officers. This feeling still
pervades the Navy, and the American
Navy even worse than the British. The
Engineer has come in to reinforce the
staff, and the line officers seem to be
in even more violent opposition to him
than to the Paymaster and Surgeon.
81 The line officers claim sthat they are
the men. who fight the ships, who are
commissioned by the President to COM
mand men, and that in some way they
are, distinctly superior to the men who
keep the ships accounts, manage her
motive power and care for the health
of her company. So far as social SUI
periority is concerned, the claim is
hard to reconcile with known facts.
Under the old system which still ex-
appointed to Annapolis as rewards for
partisan services When a Represen-
tative had an appointment to give out
it usually went to some one who had
helped him gain his election. Quite
often this was the keeper of the leading
1T. yi,t,-t
the line officers are sons of men who
sold beer and whisky over the bar. and
were serviceable in packing caucuses
With the competitive system now in
vogue in many districts the poorest
boy in the district has his chance, and
can win an appointment by mental
and physical superiority over his COM
petitors.
The staff officers reply to the line
that when it comes to "fghting' they
are all literally in the same boat. They
all have their duties in battle, and one
is just as important as the other. The
engines are just as essential parts
of the ships fighting power as her
guns, and the Engineers responsibility
in battle Is second only to that of the
Captain. The staff are exposed to pre-
cisely as much danger as the line Off
GERS. The staff officers say that they
paid for their own education, whereas
the line officers were educated at the
, expense of the Nation. They claim
also that they are the product of a
higher selection. than the line officers,
since their appointments came directly
from the President. AS to the fighting,
an engineer officer gave mortal offense
some years ago to the line officers and
received a feprimand from the Navy
Department by writing an article for
magazine I'm which he extolled the
part taken by the Engineer of the
Sassacus inh the, celebrated fight with
the Albemarle in Albemarle Sound
when the. little double-ender rammed
the huge iren-cfad and came near de-
stroying h-r. Appreciating the emer-
gency and the necessity of throwing
the whole weight of his vessel upon
the iron-clad. the Engineer uncoupIei
his engines and worked the reversing
machinery himself at imminent risk
Of his own destruction and that Of his
vessel.
At the time of the passage of the
present Personnel Bill, two or three
years ago. 1t was attempted to get rid
Of much Of this friction between the
two branches by eliminating the En-
gineer Corps altogether. The Engi-
neers then In service were given places
in the line. and the line officers were
to take their details as Engineer Off
Surgeons, Paymasters and Construc-
tors were to be given relative rank up
to Rear Admiral, but not to be ad-
dressed by their titles the same al the