Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-07-07
ARMY PAYMAS1ER Is POPULAR MAN
 WITH FIGHTERS
Branch of Service as Old as Army Itself, and" " Has
 Maintained Good Record.

Washington, July eff one should ask almost any soldier of the army
 who is the most important office: thereof, the soldier would be most likely to reply, "the paymaster on pay day." Yet this important and lndls- pensable department of Uncle Sans military establishment performs it's duties so quietly and is so little men, 1tioned in official bulletins and reports that its value in the service IS likely to be underestimated.
 There is perhaps no influence so po-
 tent in the maintenance and preserva- tion of discipline and order in armies as their just and regular payment. Es- pecially 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, scat tered over the four quarters of the globe, some idea of the colossal task
 involved in their regular payment may
 be formed. It is assured, however,
 that every soldier on Uncle Sam's pay
 roll 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 Alaska or the Philip pines.
 In the opinion of experts with years of experience no system can be devls- ed 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 prompt accountability.
 The present pay system of 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- pa1tm,nt, is the resolution of the Con- tinental congress, in session at Phila- delphia, June 16, 1775, as follows:
 Resolved, That there be one pay master general, and deputy under him, for the army, in separate de- partment; that the pay for the pay master general himself be one hum dred dollars per month, and for the deouty paymaste1' under him, fifty dollars per mOnth.'
 For many years after the establish ment of the government the pay de- under q rather loose system. As a | rule the duty of paying the officers and soldiers was in chrage of chief paymaster, sometimes designated one way, sometimes another, and of offic- i CTS of the line, usually lieutenants, detailed for the purpose. This pay | corps was at different times larger or smaller. according to the exigencies of i the service as viewed by congress, as it's officers also for the same reason had better pay and rank at some times 1 than at others. D.
 The principle If the paymcnt of the ! army by line officers detailed for the ] purpose remained substantially the| same until 1921. In that year the sys- tenn was improved by an act of con- gross which practically abolished this mere pay corps and established in it's place pay department, with chief under the direct orders of the secre- tary of war, and subordinates forming an independent staff.
 By act of congress approved Aug. A, 1912, the office of paymaster- gen ,ral was abolished and the pay depart ment, the subsistence department an.; he ousrtermaster's department were into single corps known IS 'h, quartermaster corps.
 Vast improvements have been made n the system of the army since the 'arly days of the republic. The sys- em, or lack of system in vogue dur ng the war of 1912 and of the civil val, however, the nay department of he military establishment had been yell systematized. The statistics of he war department show that during the long conflict between the states, n which the pay department of the 1rited States army disbursed $1,1O0,- 100000, the defalcations and losses of I'll kinds amounted to less than one enth of one per cent.