Evening star., 1940-09-01

A move to provide additional pay
ment, while on training camp duty,
for those members of the District
National Guard who are employed
in other than Federal and District
governmental jobs may become
moot before the Guard can take
any advantage of it. For while the
estimates provide for the increased
pay Congress will not act on the
appropriations until some time in
1941, when 1t is expected that the
Guard will be in the Federal serv-
ice, engaging in training in large
scale maneuverS in the field.
The estimate provides 50 a day
additional for enlisted men, over
and above their service pay as
troops on the same scale as en-
listed men of the Army receive. It
is intended to encourage the enlist
ment of men employed by civil firms
and to meet the conditions provided
for members of the Guard who are
employed by the District and Fed
eral Governments. These men,
while on field training duty, receive
their pay, and the leave they take
for this Is in addition to their reg
ular annual and sick leave, and they
get 1t without loss to their eff
cheney records. On the other hand,
many OF the men employed by
civilian firms have to sacrifice their
pay for the two weeks or more they
may be in camp. while others give
up their regular vacations for this
duty.
They formerly received this addi-
tional payment to compensate them
somewhat for their loss of pay, but
it was stricken out of the appro-
priations as an economy measure
during the early part of the So
called depression period and has
never been restored. But in the
event that the Guardsmen are
called to active training duty for a
year this pay will not be available,
but they will only receive their
Army compensation, according to
their ratings in the ranks. But
also the governmental employees will
not receive their service cards for
this duty. The pay is given them
only for the annual two weeks of
training duty, and the service is
supposed to be limited to periods OF
this length, although it has been
abused to some extent, so much SO
that some Of the Government de-
partments complained. and the War
Department issued orders prohibit
ing National Guard units from call
ing on Government men for longer
than the training periods.
About so per cent of the members
of the local Guard, it was said. are
employees of either the Federal or
District Governments, which means
that just one-half Of the troops have
pecuniary advantage over the
others in the same commands.
Local officials have received un-
official information that they may
expect a call into the field again
anywhere between September Is and
January l. They also have re-
ceived little information concerning
the mobilization point for the local
troops. They may be assembled at
one of the nearby Army posts. and
then sent to more distant quarters,
possibly in the South where the
weather conditions will permit of
better training during the winter
months. 1t was recalled by veteran
members of the Guard that when
they were called to the colors during
the Mexican embroglio which pre-
ceded the World War, they were
modified at Fort Myer, where they
spent many weeks before being sent
to the border. At the time they
were called into service for the World
War they had practically a year of
hard training in the field in con-
nection with the Mexican troubles.
But the personnel problems seems
well to be among the top notch ones
for the consideration of the direct
ing officials. Aside from the elm
ination of those having more i'm
portant civilian jobs. there is the
economic rrobler11S which il apnears