William Howard Taft

“ Provided, that hereafter longevity pay for officers in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Public Health Service, and Coast and Geodetic Survey shall be based on the total of all service in any or all of said services.'
It is this proviso which it is said repealed the laws of 1912 and 1913 above quoted. It is urged that the words 'longevity pay shall be based on the total of all service in any or all of said services' are inconsistent with the exclusion of service in the Military Academy or in the Naval Academy from the calculation of longevity pay. ”

“ The question whether service in either of the Academies was Army or Navy service which should count for longevity pay and retirement was a long-standing issue between the officers of the Army and Navy who were graduates of the two Academies on the one hand and the officers who were not graduates and the accounting officers of the Treasury on the other. ”

“ After equalizing their pay, it was intended to give any officer or any man in either of the services the benefit of longevity increases for any service which he might have had in any other of the services. ”