Half-pay officer

“ Besides, I was of opinion that a man’s profession, whatever it might be, ought to supply him with enough money to satisfy all his wants; and the very poor pay of an officer would never have been sufficient to cover my expenses, because my education had given me greater wants than those of officers in general. ”

“ I believe there is no worse system of paying officers than that which we have at present in our Army, where nobody can ascertain but by the most difficult process of minute inquiry what really the pay of an officer is. We have a number of major generals, and there are not any two of them whose pay is the same. ”

“ Of course such officers will be able to get most of the work they require performed for them by their own men; but, at the same time, it is a hardship both to officers and servants. In all cases an officer has made an advance of from two to three months’ pay to his servants ”

“ All the officers—the ensigns and staff-officers excepted—are to be appointed from the half-pay list, according to their present rank, taking care, however, that the former only are recommended who have not taken any difference in their being placed on half-pay. The men are to be engaged without limitation as to the period of their service, and without any allowance of levy money, but they are not to be drafted into any other regiments. ”

“ To suppose, then, that an officer taken from the army to disburse provisions and money, and to superintend the transportation of Indians, is to receive his regular pay, and $150 a month, and then to receive besides, $12,000 for nine months, in the shape of commissions, while the same officer, if he had been assigned to disburse provisions and money, and to superintend the transportation of troops, would receive his regular pay, and $20 a month, and nothing more, presents an inconsistency so glaring, as to set at defiance all justice or regularity in the provisions of the laws. ”

“ A chief petty officer is not the highest rating of the enlisted service. There is a most efficient body of men called warrant-officers, who wear a sword, are called "Mr.," and draw up to $2,400 a year. There are warrant boatswains, gunners, machinists, carpenters, pharmacists, and pay-clerks. But they must remain in service, even as most commissioned officers, till they are sixty-four, before they draw their pension of three-quarters pay. Also, like commissioned officers, they get no clothing allowance and have to pay for their food. ”

“ The present pay of the officer is ample but none too great, while the pay of the men is too niggardly to entice any one into any kind of employment in this country, save the unfortunate or the idle and vicious, seeking temporary relief from suffering for food, shelter and raiment. ”

“ The question of pay for their men was a constant anxiety for the officers, who were themselves receiving a mere pittance in comparison with the salaries paid to men of equal education and experience in other departments of the civil service. So we find, in 1904, that fine officer, Superintendent Wood, in the Yukon making reference to the fact that though an increase of pay had been granted to others the pay of the Police had remained practically the same since their organization. Wood feels that it is humiliating for the men. "A constable's life," he writes, "is not altogether an enviable one. ”

“ That any officer, no matter what his denomination or rank, civil or military, who is employed by the government to perform such services, is entitled to such reasonable compensation, over and above his official salary or pay ”

“ There shall be allowed and paid to each commissioned officer below the rank of brigadier-general, including chaplains, and others having assimilated rank or pay, ten per centum of their current yearly pay for each term of five years' service. ”

“ How Unequal are our Ways: These Officers must have large Half-Pay, while the common Soldiers are not allowed small Half-Pay—who have been exposed generally to greater Hardships than their Officers. Either let all have Half-Pay or none. ”

“ As the government is supposed to furnish a habitation of a certain number of rooms for each commissioned officer, there is quite an augmentation of the pay when the duty requires a station where there are no public quarters, as is the case in most of the service for the weather bureau, and commutation is paid. The pay of the enlisted men varies according to their rank and station of duty, but is based upon the army pay table. ”

“ None of the other officers seem to have imagined that it was not their duty to devote all their mind, talent, and inventive faculties in performing the service to which they were assigned without any other pecuniary reward than the pay and allowances accorded by law to other officers of the same grade.
If the present joint resolution should give sanction to the opposite view of the duty of an officer, it is easy to perceive how injuriously it will affect the service. It is less easy to estimate the amount of the claims on the Treasury that would thus be sanctioned. ”

“ This amendatory act distinctly limits the computation of increase pay for length of service to yearly pay of the grade or rank of the officer entitled thereto. The allowance of $200 a year under § 1261, Revised Statutes, in 'addition to the pay of his rank,' is manifestly not the yearly pay of the grade. The purpose of the additional allowance is to compensate the officer during the time he is designated for a special service as aid. His longevity pay is to be computed on the yearly pay affixed by law to the grade or rank to which the officer belongs. ”

“ That the claimant was employed as watchman or guard at the jail in this city for one year, at a salary of twelve hundred dollars per year, paid to him monthly by the disbursing officer of the Department of the Interior, and it is conceded by the appellants that the pay of such employees was fixed at that rate by the secretary of that department. ”

“ It is therefore unsafe to venture on any general statement affirming that after so many years' service a civilian may expect so much pay or such and such rank.
I am perhaps justified in saying that for the first five years of his service, especially if married, he will be a poor man, that when of ten years' standing he will be fairly well off, and that after twenty years' service he should be drawing in the ordinary line not less than £1800 a year. Of course, if an officer is a favourite of fortune, he may do very much better. ”

“ The act is as applicable to those officers whose actual service has been continuous as to those who have actually served at two or more distinct periods. If an officer has been twice in the service, the grade, the pay of which is the test of computation, is the lowest held by him since entering the service for the second time. ”

“ Consequently, it is necessary to have a veritable army of officers and guards. The pay-roll is enormous, although individual compensation is small. Because the compensation is small there is a constant shift in the guard personnel. As a rule most of the guards are unfit for the service. This assertion is supported by the testimony of a number of the officers of the system. ”

“ If any man persistently comes to receive his dues, he is detained to do active duty for a month or two, which effectually checks his zeal and his love of dollars.
When the pay of officers is so trifling, it is to be supposed that the better classes do not enter the army as a profession. The higher grades are generally named for political services, whilst the lower are filled by men raised from the ranks. Except in a few special cases, it is rare for a man to have gone through all the grades of officer. ”

“ It is worth ever so much more to the holder, and he must of course have its real, not its regulation value. The pay in the English army is, for the officers, ridiculously small. The habits of the army, among officers, are ridiculously expensive. An officer is not expected to live upon his pay. ”

“ We are further cited to a decision of the Comptroller of the Treasury (10 Comp. Dec. 523) , holding that officers of the pay corps of the Navy are entitled to mounted pay, as officers of the pay corps of the Army are given by law cavalry or mounted pay. It may well be that in these cases mounted pay was descriptive of the compensation to be paid, and an officer may therefore be entitled to it, although he renders no mounted service. ”

“ The salaries are far beyond any compensation paid to any other officer of government, either State or Federal, for corresponding services. A lieutenant receives higher pay than a very large majority of the judges of the highest judicatories known to the States; a commander far surpasses them, and equals the salaries of a majority of the Governors of the States. Remove the temptation which high pay and no labor present, and you will obviate the evil. ”

“ The last consideration has been too often lost sight of in the allowances heretofore made. The compensation which may suffice for the decent maintenance of a worthy and capable officer in a position of onerous and representative trust at a post readily accessible, and where the necessaries of life are abundant and cheap, may prove an inadequate pittance in distant lands, where the better part of a year's pay is consumed in reaching the post of duty, and where the comforts of ordinary civilized existence can only be obtained with difficulty and at exorbitant cost. ”

“ He stopped himself.
“Well?” demanded the sergeant.
“Well,” repeated Constable Fellowe, “it might be as well perhaps if I kept my thoughts to myself.”
The sergeant nodded grimly.
“If you get into trouble you will only have yourself to blame,” he warned. “Colonel Black is an influential man. He is a ratepayer. Don’t forget that, constable. The ratepayers pay your salary, find the coat for your back, feed you—you owe everything to the ratepayers.”
“On the other hand,” said the young man, “Colonel Black is a ratepayer who owes me something.” ”

“ The solution of the question as to mounted pay depends upon whether such pay is given to an officer whose duty requires him to be subject to mounted duty, or whether it is a term used to designate the pay of aids whether they are required to render mounted service or not. ”

“ Considerable difficulty in making such selections is found in the circumstance that the pay of $5 per month provided by Congress for these policemen is entirely inadequate, for the reason that the class of men needed by the government for this service would, if not so employed, earn a much greater amount by work done for their own benefit. ”

“ The presence of the officer at the pay-table is a nominal business in most cases, and the non-commissioned officer does all the work, while in every case he is held responsible for any errors that may occur. Each man is given a stated weekly rate of pay, and at the end of each month there is a general settling up, at which the accounts of each man are explained to him; he is told what debts he has incurred to the regimental tailor, the bootmaker, or for new clothing that he has been compelled to purchase to make good deficiencies ”

“ By the time we could get word back from Washington, the guilty party had left the State and blame had been shunted round on a poor half-witted fellow who didn't know what he was doing; but we forced pay for those logs."
It is a common saying in the Northwest that it takes eight years to make a good Mounted Policeman—eight years to jounce the duffer out and the man in; but in the Forest Service, men over forty-five are not taken. For men who serve up to forty-five, the inducements of salary beginning at $65 a month and seldom exceeding $200 are not sufficient to retain tested veterans. ”

“ An officer found guilty of misconduct, or proving in efficient, would be liable to reduction in rank for a certain time. At present a number of officers are not classified, but remain temporary warders at a fixed rate of pay of 7s. 6d. per day for an indefinite term, not being appointed to the permanent staff until a vacancy occurs, which according to the evidence may extend to eight or nine years. This system gives very little encouragement for officers to qualify for higher ranks. ”

“ In towns where the population and business grew very rapidly an adjustment made at a time when the compensation would amount to three or four dollars a quarter might be very inadequate, when, if readjusted according to the later returns, the salary might amount to $600 or $800 per annum, while the officer, if he served at all, would be compelled to serve at the inconsiderable compensation originally established. ”

“ We cannot believe that it was the intention of Congress that an officer upon retirement, and whose promotion shortly before his retirement was made for the purpose of giving him an increase of pay as well as rank, was intended to be given the higher grade of pay reserved for those of distinction or long service in the grade to which the retiring officer was promoted, leaving those in the active service who earned the right to promotion to receive the lower grade of pay. ”

“ Whenever the Militia or any part, or Corps thereof, shall be called out for actual service, the Officers, non-commissioned officers and men so called out shall be paid at such rates of daily pay as are paid to Officers, non-commissioned officers and men of the relative and corresponding grade in Her Majesty’s Service, or such other rates as may for the time being be fixed by the Governor in Council. ”

“ When said board finds that an officer is incapacitated for active service, and that his incapacity is not the result of any incident of the service, such officer shall, if said decision is approved by the president, be retired from active service on furlough pay, or wholly retired from service with one year's pay, as the president may determine. ”