60TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. J REPORT 2d Session. No. 2201.

RANK AND PAY OF CERTAIN RETIRED OFFICERS OF THE NAVY.

FEBRUARY 15, 1909.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. OLCOTT, from the Committee on Naval Affairs, submitted the

following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 4924.]

The Committee on Naval Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 4924) providing for rank and pay for certain retired officers of the navy, having fully considered the same, favorably report the bill to the House of Representatives with the recommendation that it do

pass.

Similar bills have been favorably reported by this committee to the Fifty-seventh, Fifty-eighth, and Fifty-ninth Congresses, and although some changes may have been made in the detail of retired officers to active duty since the former reports were made to the House the merits of the measure remain the same, and the committee adopts the former reports, together with the letters of Hon. Charles H. Darling, Acting Secretary of the Navy, dated March 8, 1904, and the letter of Hon. Truman H. Newberry, the present Secretary of the Navy, dated February 17, 1909, both addressed to Hon. George E. Foss, chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs of the House of Representatives.

[House reports, Fifty-seventh Congress, first session, and Fifty-eighth Congress, second session.] Section 1462 of the Revised Statutes prohibits the employment of retired naval officers on active duty except in time of war. Exception from the provision of said law is made in appropriation act approved June 7, 1900, authorizing for a period of twelve years from said date the employment on active duty at sea and on shore of such officers. While so employed, by the same act they receive the pay and allowances of officers of the active list of the grades from which they were retired.

Section 1459, Revised Statutes, withdraws retired officers from the line of promotion on the active list, and the act of August 5, 1882, prohibits promotion on the retired list.

By the provision in the act of June 7, 1900, during the period in which active employment is authorized, as far as relates to assignment to duty, the retired officer is placed upon the same footing in law as the officer of the active list. He is practiH R-60-2-Vol 1-57

cally withdrawn from the retired list and becomes, as to duty, to all intents and purposes an active officer.

No corresponding amendment was, however, made to the statute above quoted prohibiting promotion. Therefore, while performing above duty of whatever character, the retired officer received the pay of the grade from which he was retired, and during the whole of his employment, which may be for twelve years, receives no advancement, as do other officers of the military services.

The total active duty of a few of the officers in the grade of lieutenant may be as great as forty years.

This bill is intended to give to these retired officers actively employed credit for advancement for their active services. The period of such duty is utilized to fix the rank with that of an officer of the active list of corresponding active service and thereafter to promote them side by side. No credit whatever attaches for such time as may have been spent upon the retired list not employed.

There is at the present time less than 20 officers who will fall within the provision of this measure. Of these there are 5 whose active duty since retirement, added to previous active service, will entitle them to advancement. The increase in pay involved is approximately $3,500. Some of the others may hereafter, if continued on active duty, earn promotion to a higher grade. If all are so employed during the whole period of twelve years, 16 will eventually be advanced.

During the past year two retired officers have, while on active duty, died. A few exceptional cases of retirement following the civil war exist where this bill, if enacted, would operate to reduce the rank and pay of the officers if ordered to duty, and one case at least wherein, under the act of June 7, 1900, the officer's pay is less than his retired pay.

As the purpose of the measure is intended to be beneficial, a proviso is attached to exempt such cases from its operation.

This bill is approved by the Navy Department and is in accord with the recommendation of the Secretary made in his last annual report. The amendment is also recommended by the Secretary.

NAVY DEPARTMENT, Washington, March 8, 1904.

SIR: Referring to the bill (H. R. 9055) providing for rank and pay for certain retired officers of the navy, and to the department's communication of January 30, 1904, printed as a pamphlet and headed "No. 43, H. R. 9055, providing for rank and pay of certain retired officers," in regard thereto, I have the honor to advise you that after careful consideration of the matter the department concludes that inasmuch as the detailing of retired officers to active duty under the provisions of the naval appropriation act approved June 7, 1900, is entirely within its discretion, the views of the Bureau of Navigation, as quoted in the letter above mentioned, are without such force as to justify the conclusion arrived at, which is adverse to the passage of the bill. The letter under consideration is accordingly withdrawn, and concurrence is expressed in the views of the committee as set forth in House Report No. 1788, Fifty-seventh Congress, first session, after the approval of the bill by the department through its then Secretary.

The bill H. R. 9055 is therefore commended to the favorable consideration of your committee. CHAS. H. DARLING,

Very respectfully,

Hon. GEORGE EDMUND Foss,

Chairman Committee on Naval Affairs, House of Representatives.

Acting Secretary.

NAVY DEPARTMENT, Washington, D. C., February 17, 1909.

SIR: The department is in receipt of your letter of the 10th instant requesting views and recommendations regarding H. R. 4924, “for the relief of certain retired officers of the navy," and has the honor to inform you that the department favors the enactment of this measure.

Very respectfully,

TRUMAN H. Newberry,

Secretary.

Chairman Committee on Naval Affairs, House of Representatives.

Hon. GEORGE E. Foss,

Under the provisions of this bill no officer on the active list will be affected injuriously or otherwise in any manner whatever. At present there are 22 commissioned and 9 warrant officers on duty who would be benefited. Many of the officers who would benefit by this legislation were retired when promotions were slow, from eight to thirteen years being spent in the grade of ensign alone. At the present time only three years are required in this grade. The beneficiaries under this act are all in the lower grade, and their ages range from 40 to 67 years.

60TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. ( 2d Session.

PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS IN THE NAVY.

FEBRUARY 15, 1909.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. DAWSON, from the Committee on Naval Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 25814.]

The Committee on Naval Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 25814) authorizing the President to appoint a professor of mathematics in the navy, having had the same under consideration, favorably report the same without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass.

This measure provides for the appointment of a professor of mathematics by taking an officer from the retired list and making him an extra number in that grade. By this manner of appointment the Government will obtain the services of a graduate of the Naval Academy for the difference in pay between the retired pay of an ensign and the active-duty pay of à lieutenant, thereby saving to the Government the retired pay of an ensign. If a civilian were appointed the Government would have to pay the full salary of a lieutenant in addition to the retired pay of an ensign.

a

The beneficiary intended in this measure, as understood by the Navy Department, is Ensign R. J. Hartung, U. S. Navy, retired, who graduated from the Naval Academy in 1891, having had approximately nine years of service on the active list. During the past eleven years Ensign Hartung has been engaged in educational work, which particularly fits him for the duties of a professor of mathematics in the navy. Many of the professors of mathematics are employed at the Naval Academy, where it has been the endeavor on the part of the authorities there to obtain instructors who have had military experience in order that the midshipmen may be in the hands of the military not only at drills but in the recitation room. A special board was appointed to investigate the methods of instruction at the Naval Academy, known as the Wainwright Board," and one of its recommendations was to the effect that naval officers should be detailed as instructors wherever it