Show OPERATING AGAINST THE I ENEMY Secretary Alger has rendered a decision de-cision in which he holds that men serving serv-ing within the limits of the United States at a time when there is no army within said limits are not operating against an enemy notwithstanding the existence of war conditions The case upon which the decision was based arose in connection with the claim of some officers who had exercised a higher high-er command than their grade and who I contended they were entitled to the pay of the higher grade The paymaster pay-master general maintained that the troops were not operating against the enemy until they had actually left the shores of the United States and in this he is upheld by the secretary i This decision Is probably a correct one and at all events It Will have to be accepted at least for the present It is an anomalous condition that calls it forth The volunteers were called out to fight Spaniards and there are none in the country In any event the soldiers sol-diers in the various camps are willing I and anxious to meet the enemy and if they do not the lJult is not theirs 1 What would be the ruling in a case I where there was a foreign foe on our shores and part of the army was five hundred or a thousand miles away and I never met him and never expected to Would he be technically operating against the enemy Of course as an actual fact an army cannQt operate against enemy where there isnt one I |