The Red Cloud Chief

HOW IT IS IN THE NAVY

POSITION AND REMUNERATION OF THE ENLISTED MEN.

The Vast and Varied Force of Mechanics in the Service—Here Skilled Labor Finds Steady Employment With Sure Pay Seaman Class Worst Paid.

Although the seamen and even the petty officers of the United States navy are largely of foreign birth, there never was a time when places in the navy below the rank of commissioned officers were so attractive to native Americans. As the old wooden ships and the old fashioned steam propelled ships give place to modern marine machines the navy becomes more and more suited to the tastes of capable Americans.

Since the Kearsarge laid her bones upon Roncador there are left in really active service only 10 wooden ships, though there are 15 others used as receiving ships and as schoolships of one sort or another. All the sailing ships that ever move from place to place are the training ships and schoolships. The navy has long been made up chiefly of steam propelled vessels, and it will be only a few years before the whole active list will be composed of iron or steel steamships.

This gradual change in the navy has wrought a marked change in the personnel of the petty officers and the enlisted men, as in the conditions under which they work. Captain Codman's mournful cry that there are no more sailors is as true of the navy as of the merchant service. The navy still ships seamen at wages ranging from $16 to $34 per month, but it also ships a host of artificers, mechanics, firemen and whatnot at wages sometimes exceeding $70 per month

The new navy as it grows will need an increasing number of men in these special classes. There are nearly as many new vessels building as there are wooden ships now on the active list, and every new iron steam propelled monster that is added to the navy creates an increased demand for the skilled and high paid classes of enlisted men. Already there are some scores of machinists at $70 per month, boiler makers at $60, blacksmiths at $50, plumbers at $45, water tenders, oilers, firemen and printers at from $30 to $40 per month, to say nothing of coppersmiths, shipwrights and coal passers at wages varying from $50 per month down to $22.

The seaman class, the worst paid of all in its lower branches, is very well paid in the higher ranks. The lad that enters as a third class apprentice at $9 per month may reasonably hope to become chief master at arms at $65 per month. The lad with a gift for music may easily find himself transferred to the special class that includes musicians, writers and apothecaries, and here the wages vary from $18 to $60 per month.

There is a special provision of law to encourage good men to remain long in the service. The ordinary term of enlistment is three years, and by this provision any honorably discharged man who re-enlists within three months from the date of his discharge returns to the navy with his pay raised $1 per month. The extra dollar is added at each re-enlistment, and there may easily be half a dozen re-enlistments, or for that matter a dozen. It means that a good man who sticks to the service for life gets a three months' vacation every three years, followed by an increase of pay.

It usually happens that the man who thus enlists and re-enlists has reached the grade of petty officer at his third or fourth enlistment, and after that the larger pay of his new place increases regularly $1 per month every three years, should he choose to continue in the service. There are other small perquisites of one kind or another that swell the earnings of the sailor that sticks to the navy, and there awaits him in old age a safe retreat ashore with old companions.

It is true that mechanics in the navy receive nominally smaller wages than men of their trades ashore, but they are subject to none of the uncertainties of business. The navy goes right on in times of panic, and there is no docking for illness. Employment and pay are secure for the rest of a man's days, and promotion is almost within his own control.

The aristocratic organization of the navy doubtless has kept many self respecting native Americans from enlisting, but the service is vastly more democratic in practice than in theory. True, no enlisted man may hope to become a commissioned officer, but the enlisted man of tried ability and known good conduct always earns the respect and the consideration of his superiors.

The brutal officer of the deck is almost unknown in the United States navy, and the self respecting enlisted man is seldom made to feel that any one looks down upon him. His food is wholesome, clean and abundant, and the officer of the deck must taste it before it is served to the men at any meal. His quarters are better and better as the navy improves, and the privileges of the well ordered seaman are many and agreeable.

The navy department holds out as an inducement to men that think of enlisting the prospect of seeing foreign parts. "Yes, through a porthole," was the old time Jack Tar's cynical comment when a recruiting poster met his eye ashore. But the seaman whose own conduct does not curtail his "liberty" may see foreign parts as an enlisted man in a satisfactory and instructive fashion.

There are scores of enlisted men who are thoroughly trusted ashore as the most staid inmates of the wardroom. A man's repute in this regard is not left to mere chance, but is matter of careful record. The man who can make up his mind to endure with patience a life of discipline and regularity finds the navy agreeable, interesting and profitable.

New York Sun.