The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-26
NAVY IN ALARMING NEED OF OFFICERS So Declares Our Fighting Bob
 Evans NOT ENOUGH FOR WAR Says BattIeships Could Not Be Hand led Efficiently In Case of Unex- pected HostiIities-Sounds
 Warning to Congress.

Should the United States be plunged into sudden war with another power there would not be sufficient naval off, cers in commission to properly handle the battleships now flying the Stars and Stripes, is the startling declaration made by Rear-Admiral Robley D. Evans in an article entitled "Our Unnamed Navy and Congress- in Hampton's Magazine for May. Coming from such an authority as Fighting Bob this statement carries an appeal as wei as profound warning. Admiral Evans vigorously emphasizes that lat the present moment we have not sufficient officers for the ships now in commission and this condition is growing worse month by month as new ships are ordered into service. There Is not single battleship in the fleet today that has her proper complement of officers to fight her to the best advantage, and this can never be corrected until the number of officers is largely increased. and this increase must be in the upper grades as well as in the lower.
 When this increase -4as been author ized some plan must be devised by which retirement will be more rapid in the up- per grades, thus bringing younger men to command and flag ranks
 "A large retired list will cost money, but l sec no other way of bringing about the efficiency which we all desire, and fin saying this I disclaim any reflection on the men now in the flag and command ranks. They are as efficient and able as any set of men could be under the conditions which have surrounded them since the Civil war closed"
 Fighting Bob puts the remedy for this deplorable condition squarely up to the American people and Congress, declar ing: Whenever the people of the United States want a change in the conditions described. which are undoubtedly not as good as they should be, and are willing to pay for a better condition, they have only to force their representatives in Congress to give them what they want The navy Is theirs, and the money to make it what 1t should be comes from them. They canont have a good thing without paying for it. Furthermore, if they decide that officers and men shall be in proper proportion to the ships they have now, or must have in future, then they must pay for them"
 Another disquieting admission Is that on the cruise of the Atlantic fleet to the Pacific under his comand 'it was fre- quently the case that half the battleships were in charge of midshipmen as officers of the deck, a condition forced upon us by the shortage of officers of proper rank and experience.
 That this practice was wrong and dangerous and put much extra work upon the captains was well konwn to all but there was no help for 1t, and In a way 1t was an advantage to the mid shipman. I say, In way, because, while 1t gave him experience in handling the ship, 1t deprived him of the opportunity of learning practically the duties of a junior officer, which are of vital impor- tance. The proper handling of enlisted men is one of the most essential requi- sites of a naval officer. and this funda- mental part of his education can be bet ter learned as a junior officer than in a higher grade.
 "A scheme of selection somewhat on the following line would, In my judg- ment, meet the necessities of the case and give the best results. Promote a certain number of the enslgns by selec- ton, say one-third, the other two-thirds by seniority-offcers three times passed over to be dropped, or retired. Promote half the junior lientenants by selection and half by seniority-offcers twice passed over to be dropped. Promote two thirds of the lieutenants by selection and one-third bp seniority, and retire those twice passed over. In the grades of lieutenant and commend CT all promotions to be made by selec- ton. Captains to be promoted by sen iority. All selections to be made by a board of flag officers and captains"