Show t AMERICAN MENOPV Wooden Ships Gold Lace and Pay The Work Whitney Has on Hand I Washington Letter1 The United States Naval Register for 1885 which has just been issued is an interesting and instructive work It is a volume of 211 pages Of these 210 contain con-tain lists of the officers of the navy with their residences station and record of service and one page contains a list of thirtyfive ships upon which they are supposed to serve According to the register reg-ister there are borne on the active roster of the service 1 Admiral 1 ViceAdmiral 7 RearAdmirals 16 Commodores 45 Captains 85 Commanders 257 Lieutenants Lieuten-ants 82 Lieutenants junior grade 183 Ensigns 82 Naval Cadets 158 Medical Officers 119 Pay Officers 235 Engineer Officers 38 Professors and Chaplains 31 Naval Constructors and 200 Warrant Officersa total of 1613 In addition to these there are 94 Officers of Marines On the retired list of the navy there are 337 officers of all grades most of them df superior rank and consequently in the enjoyment of superior pay This list alone comprises fortyeight Admirals drawing 4500 a year each and thirtynine Commodores or officers of equal rank who receive each 3750 per annum The total number num-ber of offcers on the navy pay rolls exclusive ex-clusive of cadets at the Naval Academy is 2144 Turning to page 191 of the register they are all contained on one page it is found that the number of ser vicable ships is thirtyfive towit One first rate eleven second rates nineteen third rates and four fourth rates The I one first rate ship is the Tennessee and two of the fourth rates are the famous S Tallapoosa and the little old Michigan on the lakes Actually there are but thirty three ships of any character as war vessels ves-sels To man these there are 1613 officers and nintyfour marines But not all these ships are in commission Five of them at least are laid up and two or three of them are undergoing repairs This makes a pretty topheavy navy S Two thousand officers and but twenty five or thirty old wooden ships suggest a preponderance of gold lace fat salaries and idleness not pleasant for the American Ameri-can public to contemplate A further glance at the register shows that the Admiral S Ad-miral lives in Washington and has nothing to do but attend to his magazine literature His salary is 13000 a year The ViceAdmiral is chairman of the Lighthouse Board an organization which is in session about one hour in a month Of the seven RearAdmirals but two command squadrons The others have some nominal duty on shore to which they are assigned to enable them to draw duty pay Not one of the sixteen Commodores Com-modores is at sea Nine of them command com-mand navy yards but the assignments of the other seven are as merely nominal as those of the Rear Admirals and for the same purpose For instance Commodore Com-modore Luce is superintendent of the Naval War College whatever that is When a Commodore is I waiting orders he receives but 3000 I I salary When he is on duty however I slight he is paid 4000 hence the scramble for nominal assignments Of the fortyfive captains six command ships twentyeight have nominal shore duty and eleven live quietly at their homes the department being unable to find even nominal work for them Of the eightyfive commanders but nineteen are at sea twentyone are idle and the remainder re-mainder have nominal duty on shore Of the whole staff corps numbering 580 officers but seventynine are at sea And so page by page one might analyze the navy register and prove that the Government Govern-ment is supporting needlessly and in idleness threefifths of the 1700 officers on the active list of the navy I While Secretary Whitney is investigating II investi-gating the evils that exist in his department I depart-ment and projecting measures of reform he should spare no effort to devise a plan I I by which he can relieve the naval service of its topheavy load Secretary Chandler Chand-ler made some little headway He got Congress to pass the law of 1882 which stopped promotions until certain grades had been reduced to a less number but that process of weeding out is very slow What is needed is a thorough overhaul I ing of all officers of the navy under forty years of age with a view to keeping in the service only those who are absolutely worthy and competent The others should be wholly retirod with a years pay as an aid to start them anew in life |