The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-04-01
navy RESERVES
To GET BACKING
FOR FAIR PAY
Representatives ChIndbIom and
Fields Expected Take Fight
to Congress Next Session.
WAR ASSURANCES IGNORED
Protest Against Rulings Comp
troIIer General Reducing Pay
to Status Their Enlistment

When the Sixty-eighth Congress
convenes next December it will be
asked point-blank by the fleet naval
servists-veterans having more
than twenty years of service to their
credit--to enact speedy legislation
correcting obviously unjust decisions
OF the Comptroller General as to pay
and rank Of these old-time sailormen.
The man who will likely wage the
fight for the old sailors is Repre-
sentative Carl r. Chindblom, I'LL
nois, aided by Representative Will
liam ]. Fields, Kentucky. Chindblom
made particularly brilliant fight
for the old sailormen during the
closing days of the last session. He
won the fight in the House. The
bill died in the Senate.
ENCOURAGEMENT RECEIVED.
Robert e. Peary Ship, 427, Veter-
ans Of Foreign Wars, at its last
meeting passed q resolution of
thanks in favor of Chindblom and
urged him to continue the fight i'm
mediately the Sixty-eighth Congress
convenes. Veterans of Foreign
Wars and American Legion posts
throughout the country have been
uEEGA I'D pass sTCSOluL1OYlBs
The legislation which would cor
rect matters for the fleet naval re-
servists is embodied in the so.called
naval omnibus bill This bin has
been held up since 1920. In the
meantime the navy men have pa
tiently waited and have done mighty
little crying over their lot.
|. Their misfortune is brought about
by the fact that they are really
serving two masters. The Secretary
OF the Navy issues an order. The
Comptroller General differs. The
sailor loses out in pay and status.
Several examples, showing how
some three thousand Of these old
time seafarers have been treated,
ara here given.
OFFICIAL ASSURANCE GIVEN.
Prior to the world war. the navy
operated on the old 1908 base pay
scale. During the war they received
two temporary increases in pay. On
June 10, 1922, Congress enacted the
Observation-Disclosures joint service
pay bill.
That bill contained a clause read
ing: Nothing herein contained
shall operate to reduce the pay now
being received by any transferred
member Of the fleet naval reserve
force" Transferred members of the
fleet naval reserve force are men
who have served twenty years at
sea. The clause quoted was inserted
in the bill by the Navy Department
expressly to protect the old-ttme
sailOrmen referred to.
The Comptroller General holds
that, in spite of the plain and simple
language OF the law, these old-timers
are entitled only to the pay they re-
celved when they were originally
transferred to the reserve force.
Secretary DENLY has made two ap-
peals to the Comptroller. Tho latter
sustained his original decision.
Senator WadsWorth and Represen-
tative Mckenzie have stated that the
Comptroller's decision violated both
the letter and the spirit of the law.
What this action OF the Comp
troller does is shown in the case of
Chief Quartermaster W. P. Ryan,
Oakland, Cal.
REDUCED FROM $1O4 TO $50.
After the war his pay, on the 1922
Wadsworth Mckenzie pay scale, was
SlO4 per month. He Is now reduced
to $50.
In Ryan's case this has already
meant the loss of the little California
bungalow being purchased on the in
stallrnent plan. It has meant h;r-
ing out at mental labor for Mrs
Ryan, while Ryan himself is doing
such shore jobs as an old sea-train-
ed sailorman can find among the
younger shore folk.
There are 100 men in the same
fix Ryan finds himself.
SERVED AS ENSIGN.
During the war, while Admiral
Henry B. Wilson was in charge Ct
naval operations out of Brest,
France, he had on his staff a fleet
naval reserve chief yeoman, with
twenty years of honorable and eff
Gent service to his credit. The chief
yeoman was so efficient that Admiral
Wilson wired to the Secretary of the
Navy and asked permission to issue
to this old-time sailorman a tempo
rary commission as ensign.
In the same cable the admiral ask
ed. What will be the status Of this
man when hostilities shall have
ceased and his temporary commits
sion shall have been revoked?" The
admiral was assured that the man
would revert to his previous status
as a chief yeoman in the naval re-
serve force, with full pay and credits
for twenty years Of service.
This assurance came from the
highest authority any navy officer
or man can appeal to-the Secretary
of the Navy. The Comptroller, how
ever, later decided that the man
would have to revert to a first en-
listment status and lose all Of his
previous service credits.
There are close to 5000 men in the
fleet reserve force similarly affected
by three or four similar decisions Of
the Comptroller.