The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-04-07
ARMY HEROES
INDIGNANT AT
I UNEQUAL PAY
Military Law Favors Regu-
lars as Against Draft Men
and Volunteers.
HOW DISABILITY OCCURS
1925 a Month Given in One
Branch and Only $21
in Others.

were First Lieutenants, one In the Reg
ular Army. the other in the National
Army. Each had served abroad with
distinction and each had lost leg. They
were discussing what they would re-
ceive as compensation for their injuries.
well. It might be WORSE" said the
regular. II will get s125 month.
three-quarters pay on retirement and I
guess I can hobble along on that until
something turns up and I get used to
this wooden limb"
Rather soft for you," said the other.
4 get $21 a month and can't hobble or
anything else on that until ! build up
my practice again."
Here are two men of the same rank,
each wearing the same uniform, each
with the initials "U. g." on his coat
collar, with tho same amount Of mill
tary experience, each having offered his
all to his country, each having received
the same kind of wound in, perhaps, the
same battle, each having entered the
army from civil life and looking forward
again to an attempt to pick UP the
dropped threads with the handicap Of q
serious physical injury.
Laws Inconsistency.
Yet one of these men because Of the
Inconsistency Of military law will be
retired from the army with a monthly
pension sufficient at least to sustain life,
while the other will be discharged 'for
the convenience OF the service with
Walking with a new wooden leg is not
easy.
Men who left college and the profess
slons or business to go into the army
when this country declared war are Just
waking up to this sharp distinction be-
tween the Regular Army and other
branches of the service as regards re-
tirement for wounds. They had all been
getting the same pay and the same al
lowances, and had supposed that all Of
flcers in the army were on a basis of
equality when they were retired because
OF disability.
They had been too busy fighting to
think much about retirement until they
were wounded. the reasons for the In
consistency being too deeply hidden in
military statute books to be excavated
by men busily engaged in training or
pushing an offensive. But when they
were knocked out and began to wonder
through the long days In the hospitals
what the future had in store for them
they found that there was one set of
military laws for the regular and an
other for the volunteer.
Some runlors of this began to reach
the hospitals in France where officers
with the ~. S. R." on their collars filled
the cots There were few regulars
among them. This is no reflection on
the RegularsArmy officer as such. for it
is a matter of common knowledge that
most of them were kept in this country
for training troops, only SO per cent. 60
ing abroad, while In the whole army the
officers from civil life greatly outnum-
bered the regulars.
Began to Get Angry.
But the fact remains that most of
them were reserve officers of the guard
or the national army and they became
intensely interested in the reported dis
tiRction. They dug out copies Of the
compensation law and of the military
laws and found that the reports were
we'll founded. that the regular officer was
In a much more advantageous position.
Then they began to get mad.
An officer wrote back letter. part of
which was printed in the Army and Navy
Journal, in which he said:
The regular gets retirement with
three-quarters pay, but the others are
assured only the protection extended
through the war risk Insurance act How
three-quarters pay Of the regular for life
when retired. The argument that the
regular has given up his whole life to
the mileary service and always has had
Government salary will not appeal very
strongly to those officers who came from
the ranks of citizens and went to war at
their country's call. The War Depart
ment has held that there IL now only one
army. and that the United States army.
II that is so. why not treat all officers
alike?''
But these men found that a Regular
Army officer did not need the qualifca-
tons OF always having served the Gov
eminent to get that preferment in pay.
They found that men who had been grad
uated from the officers training camps,
young men from civil life who had taken
provisional commissions in the Regular
Army also were eligible to retirement
with three-quarters pay.
What Bulletin AZ shows.
That this was not the result of old
army laws. framed before any one saw
IN prospect the formation of a great citi-
zen army. is shown by the date of the
order under which provisional officers in
the Regular Army are admitted to the
provision OF retirement The order Is
contained in Bulletin 40, dated July 20,
1918. at time when the American army
In France was just beginning It's sue
cessful push against the Keeling German
line, and the hospitals were becoming
hlled with both officers and men who had
never thought OF entering the army two
years before. For the enlisted men of
the regulars have preference also.
The distinction In which the provision
al officers shared indicated to the
wounded men that the inequality was
mot because OF long Regular Army
service which none of them was willing
to deny would have a particular claim
on remuneration from the Government
These provisional officers differed not at
all in training experience and profess
sional standing from the reserve Off
GERS who may have graduated from the
same camp at the same time There was
sharp distinction which none OF them
believed to be anything but unjust
ut Ii eminently unfair that such a
distinction should be made" said Lieut.
Col. Theodore Roosevelt when asked
what he thought Of It.
The wounded reserve officers. many
of them 10 incapacitated that they
would have difficulty In going back to
their former work or could not go back
TO 1t began to grow bitter and when
they arrived In this country brought
the question up sharply before Regular
Army officers in the hospitals They
found that there was nothing TO be
done. II was a matter of law--three-
quarters pay for disabled Regular
Army officers and men, a percentage OF
$40 month for all other officers and
men. The retirement clause was left
ont aF thu Galarfiya Sarvica Act which