The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-10-27
BY FREDERICK j. HAsKIN

BY y. bAot&lN
WASHINGTON, D. c.. OF. 27.-The
navy this week is beginning an inter
sive campaign for recruits. Thirty
eight thousand young Americans are
wanted to put on the blue uniform ana
be trained into artisans, machinists,
aviators, gunners, radiomen, torpedo
men, electricians, clerks, submarine
men, and the other vocations neces-
sary to the operation of Uncle Sans
fighting ships and the naval shore es-
adjustments. From now on for many
weeks the recruiting offices will be
busy enlisting young men who elect
to take advangtage of the undoubtec
opportunities which the navy offers
them.
It may come as a surprise to some
that the navy so soon after the dis
armament agreement is seeking 49,
600 new men. The answer is obvious.
Even the reduced establishment per
mitted by the treaty permits the
American navy to have $4,000 men in
its service. These men enlist for a
relatively short period of time. The
new recruiting is to find men to take
the places of those whose enlistments
have expired or who are leaving the
service to go into the reserve or re-
tirement
For instance, the navy this year is
losing $500 chief petty officers who
have served the required time and are
now going on the retired list with
good pay. These men, whatever oc-
equations they may now take up, will
continue to draw from SGT to 1874 a
month from the government for the
rest of their lives. This is a reward for
long and faithful service, granted by
a law now four or five years old.
Those who are retiring after 16
years of service will get $67 a month.
Those who have served full 90 years
will get sos. A man who retires af-
ter 80 years service gets $134 a month
for life. These allowances amount TO
1904, S1,260, and $1,60S, a year re-
spectively; and, calculating them as
income on capital invested at four per
cent, they are the equivalent of $40
100, $751; 500 and $40, 200 respectively,
hanNed over by the government to the
retiring petty officers for their free
use during the remainder of their
lives. Inasmuch as a boy can enlist
in the navy at the age of IS, it will be
seen that he can gain the smallest of
these rewards when he is 81 years old
and needs only to stay in the service
until he As in order to secure the larg.
est.
No other Nation
So Generous.
No other nation is so generous to
its sailors. The existence of this re
tirement law is one of the chief rea.
sons Why the navy is able TO enlist
men of calibre of those who now
serve in it. Because of this and other
attractions, the naval service has now
become highly selective. OF those
apparently qualified who apply fol
enlistment, only one in three can get
in at all The navy is now able tc
pick its men with great care.
The young man who enlists in the
navy can do so in the knowledge thai
he is taking up a career of fundamental
use and value to his fellow country
men For every dollar the people pay
him the people get value received, and
this is true even if he and his mates
never have to go to actual war fol
their employers. In fact, the view
that a navy is an essential but expen
siye ornament in time of peace ant
only pays for the money invested II
it after a war comes is q view that is
rapidly passing away. The chief value
of the navy is its peace-time value
and it serves the country well merely
by existing.
The recent revelations made by the
revolutionary governments Of Europe
in ransacking their foreign office:
and publishing the secret documents
pigionholed therein have constituted
a powerful endorsement of the wisdom
of the policy of the United States il
maintaining a strong navy during the
past 80 years. We are beginning Il
see something of the fate we have es
capped. and to understand that for tha
escape we can thank the American
navy. Even without its splendid rec
ord in the World war, the navy hat
justified all the effort spent upon it.
These formerly secret but now pub
Iished archives show that for the gen
Grafton preceding the outbreak OF thu
q. L,