The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-19

gether, and assumed a determined, sol-
 dier-like pose. From that day MT
 Hughes has had entire command of
 himself
 After Hughes was graduated from
 Columbia Law school he became one
 of Walter S. Carters kids" MT. Car
 ter was famous for gathering bright young lawyers around him and among
 these was the present governor of New
 York. At first MT. Carter was a little puzzled at his new acquisition. Though he had spent four years at college and two at the law school, Hughes had not entirely shaken off a certain rusticity of manner. He was tall and gaunt, with prominent eheelxbones and teeth, and was somewhat unconventional in dress. His old associates especially remember that, during his first weeks at the office, Hughes wore low shoes and white yarn stockings, which appeared to especial ad- vantage when he assumed a sitting pos ture, with his trousers pulled half way up to his knees. Carter who was pune tiliousness itself, was somewhat amazed at this spectacle and once spoke to Eu-. gene H. Lewis, one of his associates about it. But there isn't space here to give Mir. Hughes career and, besides. the public knows what he has done, as life insurance and public service re- former and governor.
 MeClure's Magazine has electrified the
 country by publishing the truth about the
 navy and, according to reports received
 here, a congressional investigation is al-
 most certain The criticism of the navy
 has brought out much criticism of the
 army, and an investigation has shown 0
 surprising inertia in this branch of our
 fighting machine.
 Brig. Gen. J. Franklin Bell, chief of the
 rfa i,a4fs tod fr, ff1fa aIsxyisa
 months ago that something was wrong.
 The army has an authorized strength of 100000 men. It comprises, according to the last reports, a total of 62, b16, short
 age of 3S1S4. Officers are so scarce sometimes only one in two companies that the war department has announced
 that the first class at West Point would
 be graduated in February instead of June.
 as usual. There Is a shortage of over seventy men in the rolls of the Military Academy. Desertions among the enlist
 ed men are a matter of great concern. What then, is the matter with the
 army?
 The army's answer Is: Overwork and in- adequate pay. The salary list is thirty seven years behind the times. Although the American standards and cost of liv- 1 ing have been radically changed, the l pay of the army has not been increased | since 1870, except to add an allowance 1 for fuel. A comparison between the pay l in the army and civil life shows widely l disproportionate returns.
 l The most radical criticism of the sys- 1 tenn was found in the report made to tthe war department by Major Gen. Adolphus 1 w. Greedy, commanding. He said: Compelled by reports to believe that l half the company officers were necessari- l ly living beyond their pay, an investiga-
 tion was made by the division commander | which discloses the narrowing fact that l this condition is true as to more than I three-fourths of them. It appears from l confidential reports certified to by the 1 officers concerned that in the Northern l division during 1906 only seven tone large 1 ly in debt out of thirty-four captains and | first lieutenants, selected with reference l to conservative character and good hab- its. were able to live within their pay. | Excluding one officer, who is making 1 extraordinary efforts to adjust debts in- I cured by frequennt changes of station, 1 there were but three captains who lived l inside their pay averaging s166.27 each, 1 against thirteen captains whose average l deficiencies were $262.S2
 'The condition of the first lieutenants l is lamentable, only two living within
 their income to the extent of S1450 each, l as against fifteen whose average excess | of expenses, over salaries amounts Ito | $465.4S."