Evening star., 1922-03-05
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.

commissioned and enlisted
personnel of the Army. Navy.
Marine Corps. coast guard. coast and
geodetic survey and public health
service. drafted by a joint congress
sional committee. contains several
entirely new principles in dealing
with the services.
First. the fluctuation of the cost Of
living is recognized. and certain
amount of elasticity to cover these
fluctuations is provided. This is con-
tanned in the provisions made for the
subsistence and rental allowances for
the commissioned personnel.
Second. the principle is laid down
that certain number of years serv-
ice and experience are necessary to
entitle an officer to the pay fixed for
the various ranks up to and includ-
ing colonel.
Third, the principle is laid down also
that an officer who has served without
promotion an unrca sonable time is en-
titled to more pay.
Fourth. the bill takes into considera-
ton, in making subsistence and rental
allowances to the officers of these
services. the matter of dependents.
If an officer has a wife, minor chill
dren or dependent mother. he is held
to have dependents and receives the
regular allowances. But If he has
no dependents, then his allowances
are cut down. 1t has been estimated
that about 90 per cent of the COM
mic nf
have dependents.
The new pay bill. which was re-
ported last week from the joint COM
mittee to both houses of Congress,
will make an immediate saving to
the government of approximately
s13,000000 in the pay of these serv-
ices. and an ultimate saving of about
s2s.00o.000. if the strength of the
services remains as it is today.
Nevertheless, the compensation of
the commissioned officers and of the
enlisted men, except for the new en-
listed private and the man who has
been in the service but a year or
two, will not be lowered. In fact,
there is a slight increase in the COM
pensation Of the commissioned per-
sonnel over the present compensation.
The new bill goes back to the
basic pay of the act of 1908 for the
commissioned personnel Today they
are being paid under the act of 1920.
giving a temporary increase in pay
of about 90 per cent TO officers and
enlisted men. Bpt the allowances
for subsistence for the commissioned
al
rental allowances for officers who
are housed on goyernment-owne
posts are increased from s12 room
to $40 a room. The subsistence al
lowance is 60 cents a day. According
to their rank and dependents the Of
ficers are allowed a greater or SIS
number of daily subsistencies. This
is where the actual compensation of
the commissioned forces is increased
although their basic pay goes back to
the 1908 law.
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So far as the enlisted personnel is
concerned the bill leaves the pay for
all the non-commissioned, warrant
and petty officers of the services as it
is COQdE, WltH lHc II
duces, however. the pay of the newly
enlisted private and the man who has
had but a year or two of service. The
recruit will receive s21 a month in
stead of $50. But the s21 is 40 per
cent more than he received before the
war, when his pay was only $15
month. The man who has year or
two experience, or enlisted men of
the sixth grade, as they are called,
will receive $50 month instead of
s33 and $35. as they receive in the
Army and Navy. respectively, today.
In deciding to reduce the pay of the
recruit to $21 a month. the fact was
taken into consideration that these
men are clothed, housed. fed and
given medical attention free. Their
only expenses are for laundry. 1t was
the Judgment of the services that they
can be recruited as well at $21
month as at $50. The recruits have
no dependents, or. if they have, "they
have no business enlisting." as one
of the drafters of the bill put it.
But the joint committee took into
consideration the fact that men who
stay in the enlisted personnel of the
services, making 1t a career, are en-
titled to recognition. The family life
is recognized as the normal life.
these men have families and pro-
vision must be made for them. So
they have no reduction in their pres
ent pay. They draw. of course, their
rations, clothing, etc, from the gov
ernment. just as the recruit does.
Tho bill establishes al pay periods
for the commissioned officers. The
basic pay for these periods is as fol-
lows: First period. $1,500; second,
$4,000; third, s2.400; fourth, $4,000;
fifth, $500 and sixth. $4,000.
There is longevity pay for the Of
ffcers, however. as there is for the
enlisted men. In the case of the Of
-fcers, they are allowed an increase of
s per cent of the base pay of their
periods for each three years of serv-
ice up to thirty years.
The length of service Tor the varf-
Gus periods is as follows: First period.
up to three years; second period.
three years UP to seven: third period.
seven yasrs up to .ourteen years;
fourth period. fourteen years up to
twenty years; fifth period. twenty
years up to twenty-six years.
The first period covers the second
lieutenant as he entered the service.
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