Henry Billings Brown

“ Thus, if the act should allow Army officers increased pay when ordered to sea or to a foreign port, it would not follow that naval officers would be entitled to a like increase, since such service would be wholly exceptional in the case of Army officers, while it is the natural and normal duty of Navy officers to engage in sea service, cruise in foreign waters, and lie up in foreign ports. ”

“ It is not for a moment to be supposed that Congress contemplated any such sweeping innovation. This construction would not only render nugatory and obsolete the proviso of the personnel act that officers, to be entitled to Army pay, shall be detailed for shore duty, but largely discriminates in favor of naval officers by adding 10 per cent to their pay for their normal sea duties without a corresponding addition to the pay of Army officers for the performance of their normal duties, which are upon land ”

“ This provision, however, would be wholly unnecessary if the act were given the broad application contended for, since the increased pay allowed to Army officers for duty beyond seas would apply to naval officers, without a special proviso to that effect. Shore duty beyond seas being an exceptional duty, both to officers of the Army and Navy, and being probably attended by increased expenditures, and dangers incident to a tropical climate, it is very natural that Congress should award them both increased compensation. ”