The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1917-07-13
KEEPING SOLDIERS PAY ROLL
System Perfected by Long Study
Mems Money Comes Regularly

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Mems Money Comes Regularly
Washington, July eff one should
ask almost any soldier of the army
! who is the most important officer
thereof the soldier would be most
likely to reply the paymaster on
payday" Yet this important and
indispensable department of Uncle
Sans military establishment per
forms its duties so quietly and is so
little mentioned in Official bulletins
and reports, that its value in the ser
vice is likely to be underestimate.
There is perhaps no influence so
potent in the maintenance and pre-
seryation of discipline and order in
armies as their Just aud regular pay
ment Especially is this true in time
OF war.
When it is considered that the Unit
ed States is likely soon to have an
army of one million or more men
scattered over the four quarters of
the globe, some idea of the colossal
task involved in their regular pay
ment may be formed. It is assured
however, that every soldier on Uncle
Sans payroll will receive his pay
regularly, whether he be stationed
within sight of Washington on the
fighting front in Europe, in the Canal
Zone, or at remote posts in Alaka or
tho Philippines
In the opinion of experience no
system can be devised which, equal
to the present one, can be made to
combine the advantages of prompt
payment, the safety of the public
money, and an accurate and pronpt
accountability.
The present pay system o! the army
is the result of years of study on the
part of those who from time to time
have served at the head of this de-
partment Of the military establish
ment. The department is as old as the
military establishment itself The
earliest legislation creating pay de-
partment- is the resolution Of the Con-
tinental Congress, in session at Phil
adelphia June 16, 1775, as follows:
Resolved, That there be one pay,
master-general. and deputy under
him, for the army, in a separate de-
partment; that the pay for the pay
master-general himself be one hun
dred dollars a month, and for the
deputy paymaster under him $50 q
month"
For many years after the establish
ment of the government the pay de-
partment of the army was conducted
under a rather loose system. As a
rule the duty of paying the officers
and soldiers was in charge of a chief
paymaster, sometimes designated one
way, sometimes another, and, of Off.
GERS of the line usually lieutenants.
detailed for the purpose. This pay
corps was at different times larger
or smaller, according to the eXigen-
cies of the service as viewed by Con.
gress, as its officers also for the same
reason had better pay and rank at
some times than at others
The principle of the payment of the
army by line officers detailed for the
purpose remained substantially the
same until 1921. In that year the
system was improved by an act of
congress which practically abolished
this mere pay corps and established
in its place a pay department, with
chief under the direct orders of the
secretary of war. and subordinates
forming an independent staff
By act of congress approved Aug
ust "a 1912, the Office of paymaster.
general was abolished and the pay
department. the subsistence depart
ment. and the quartermaster's depart
ment were consolidated into a single
| corps known as the quartermaster
corps.
Vast improvements have been made
in the pay system of the army since
the early days Of the Republic. The
| system, or lack Of system in vogue
| during the War of 1912, and the war
| with Mexico resulted In considerable
losses to the government. BY the time
of the Civil War, however. the pay
| department of the military establish.
ment had been well systematized.
The statistics of the war department
show that during the long conflict
between the states, in which the pay
department of the United States
army disbursed S1,1O0,OOO,00O the de-
falcations and losses of all kinds