Evening star., 1907-11-16
MORE CLERKS, MORE VASES
APPEAL OF THE PAYMASTER
GENERAL OF THE NAVY.
Best Men Are Drawn Away From
the Service-Stagnation
in Promotion.

In his annual report Paymaster Gen.
| eral Rogers of the navy makes an ear.
nest appeal for more clerks and better
compensation. He says the bureaus en-
ergies are being paralyzed by the made
quaey Of its clerical force. 1t not only
cannot put into effect further necessary
and advisable extensions of usefulness
| he says, but even its current work is car
ried on only by the utmost effort, which
| cannot be continued.
Bad as is the state of the pay of the
clerical force of the Bureau. says the
paymaster general, that of the clerks al
| the general storekeepers' office at the
| yards is infinitely worse, and not only
| can no good work be expected from men
so inadequately paid, but there can be
but one result-disorganizatio which un-
der the largely increased cost of living
| has already set in in the yards located
| near the larger cities.
| At the navy yard. New York. there ex-
| lists, under the charge of the general
| storekeeper, an officer of the pay corps,
one of the largest department stores in
the United States.- 1t does business OF
s24, 100000 annually. shipping each year
all over TIL country and the world 469,
600 packages weighing q 800 tons.
According to the paymaster general
the bureau has experienced considerable
difficulty during the year in providing pay
officers to perform the various duties
af1oat and ashore and an increase in the
corps Is much needed. He says the corps
| should be sufficiently large to allow for
at least two years training afoat and
ashore before an assistant paymaster is
intrusted with responsible duties. The
paymaster general says has been in some
cases disastrous to the officers, a re-
proach to the pay corps and q discredit
| to the naval service. 1t Is pointed out
that as about one-half Of the corps mas
reached the higher grades at young
age, stagnation In promotion faces the
men below them. and Is having a degen-
Grating effect. From May, 1908, to July,
1915, period of over seven years, there
will be but two retirements from age in
making a condition for the future that
Is not pleasant to contemplate.
The paymaster general says that the
remedies for this state of affairs are to
ere ate flow of promotion by demanding
of the corps the greatest degree of eff
cheney and in default of that to retire or
drop wholly from the navy those falling
short of that standard. He says that can
be accomplished by establishing wise
and just system of selection and by max
motion, and respectfully by considering
serious professional lapses as moral de-
linquencies. as, in fact, they are. since
they show defects in character and
standard
Inadequate clerical force and poor pay,
the paymaster general says. account for
the lamentable condition of affairs pre-
vailing at the New York yard. 1.-The in
vestiga tor he says, need look no fur
ther than these facts to account for
many of the vexatious errors Of the gen.
eral storekeep pers' offices. Good men
men whom 1T is we'll worth while for the
naval establishment to retain in it's serv-
ice-will not remain for such pay as is
now allowed. The result is constant
restlessness and ever-present striving for
transfer to the higher-paid positions in
other governmental departments, and a
steady annual drain by loss of many of
the best clerks. Effort is cramped by
such a condition, and the bureau and it's
subordinate offices at yards and stations
must always, while 1t continues fall far
short of realizing a high state of eff
ciency.'
The paymaster general renews the rec
omme ndations of his predecessor that
some relief be afforded by Congress to
the paymasters' clerks of the navy, whom
he described as a long suffering and de-
serving class. He says these clerks
should in common justice be given the
benefits of increased pay and retirement