The Washington herald., 1917-02-01
Army and Navy News
Best, Seryice Column In City.

A plan for furnishing a practical edu-
cation along helpful lines to the 225 ap-
prentice boys in the Brooklyn Navy shops
has been forwarded to Secretary Daniels
by Capt George e. Burd, industrial su-
perintendent of the yard. The attitude of
Secretary Daniels on the question OF ad-
vancing the. opportunities of enlisted men
and civilian workers IN the navy is well
known and 1t Is believed he will adopt
the idea OF Capt Burd and probably ex-
tend 1t to all the plants of the Navy De-
partment.
Capt. Burd, noting that many of the
apprentice boys did not rank with others
in writing, spelling, arithmetic and
grammar. started an investigation which
brought out that 70 per cent of the young
sters had made no endeavor to acquire
an education after they left grammar
school and went to work. Thirty per-
cent attended night school or adopted
some other method of improving their
minds, and in this 80 per cent were the
brightest boys among the apprentices.
Capt. Burd's plan contemplates max
ing educational instruction a part of the
day of the apprentice boys. Each boy
is to receive two days of instruction each
week and Uncle Sam Is to foot the bills.
The cost will be small, amounting only
to the loss of the time of the boys in the
shops, but this. Capt. Burd figures, will
be made up many times later on in the
way of increased efficiency. The Board
of Education has agreed to furnish three
or more teachers for the proposed Navy
Yard School.
Women newspaper illustrators and
writer's who are to confer with Dudley
Field Malone, collector of the port of
New York, as to their right to go aboard
revenue cutters to meet incoming steam
ships are to find difficulties in the way
The regulations governing the United
States Coast Guard expressly forbid the
commanding officer of any vessel to take
any woman on board for passage with
out the special permission from the Sec
retary of the Treasury.
Miss Lous Rogers and Miss Elizabeth
Watson, who are leading the women's s
fight, assisted by Mrs. William L. Colt.
arranged the conference with Mr..
Malone.
The regulations OF the Coast Guard
apply to all vessels of the service,
whether II be a large cruising cutter or a
harbor tug. The tugs OF the Coast Guard
stationed at the Battery, New York,
perform the duty of giving transporta ton
to the collector OF customs or his rep
resentatlves in boarding incoming vessels
for making examinations as called for
by the customs revenue laws.
The tugs are in no sense under the
rules of the collector of customs The
movements OF the tugs are governed
by the Cost Guard Division Commander
of New York. That officer furnishes the
necessary transportation to the collectors
force, but the Coast Guard does not
undertake to furnish any other trans
portation than that required by the
collector of custom for boarding incom-
Ing vessels.
The law establishing the Coast Guard.
as approved January 2S 1915. authorizes
the Secretary OF the Treasury to issue
regulations governing the service. In
many respects the Coast Guard regula-
tons closely follow the navy regula-
tions. Under the regulations it is di-
rected that a commanding oflcer ''shal!
not permit a woman to reside on board
Of. or take passage in, the vessel
Coast Guard cutter) without spe-
ciaI permission of the Secretary of the
Treasury" 1t is further provided that E
commanding officer may not receive on
board passengers without the permission
of the Secretary of the Treasury.
In asking for passage on a Coast
Guard cutter the newspaper women at
New York. it Is explained. are demand
ing a privilege which the regulations for
bid and which no Coast Guard officer
could accord even to a member of his
own family without first obtaining for
that particular passage the permission
of the Secretary of the Treasury.