Rensselaer Journal, Volume 12, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1902 — NAVAL OFFICERS ARE IN DEMAND [ARTICLE]

NAVAL OFFICERS ARE IN DEMAND

Secretary Moody Sets Forth Needs of His Department in Report. WANTS INCREASE IN THE FORCE Urges That More Midshipmen Be Secured for the Naval Academy and that 3,000 Enlisted Men Be Added to the Rolls,

Washington dispatch: The annual report of the secretary of the navy, submitted by Secretary Moody to the president, bears out the statements which have come from the navy department from time to time by expressing the keenest anxiety as to where the nation should find officers to command ships In case of need. Says the secretary: “The most imperative' need of the navy to-day is of additional officers. 1 cannot overstate this need. It Invites the instant attention of congress. The administration of the department is embarrassed almost daily by the lack of officers below command rank. This condition half been approaching for some years, and Was clearly apprehended and stated by my predecessor in office, ft is acute today, and, when the already authorized are completed it will be desperate unless there is early action.” Short of Officers. Other features in the report are subordinated to this acute need. Secretary Moody has gone into the matter In detail, and the outcome of his Investigation is that the navy is now short of 577 officers of the line to man the serviceable ships even with the minimum number of officers required. When the vessels now in course of construction are ready, 623 new officers will be required to man them, and in the meantime not less than 160 officers will leave the service through resignations, retirements, and deaths, so that four years from now the navy in the matter of officers under present conditions will be left, the report says, in this state: Deficiency in old ships, 577 officers; needed for new ships, 623 officers; needed to fill vacancies, 160 officers—total deficiency, 1.300 officers. To supply the deficiency, the secretary expects, under existing conditions, 355 graduates from the Naval academy during the four years, and not more than six per annum of enlisted men who may be raised from the ranks. Asks More Midshipmen. The secretary would meet this difficulty in the first place by increasing the number of enlisted men permitted by the law to receive commissions from six annually to twelve, and by increasing the number of midshipmen at Annapolis immediately. He submits to congress recommendations to that effect and emphasizes most strongly the need for adopting them. He says: “The officers we need can be obtained from three sources only—by appointment from civil life, by promotion from the ranks, or by education and training in the Naval academy. The first source has been so uniformly rejected by the opinions of all that I will not discuss it. Congress has indicated its opinion by abandoning this method in the army and marine corps, and would not, it is assumed, adopt it for the line of the navy. The law already allows promotion from the ranks of not exceeding six enlisted men per annum . . . and under this law there have been up to the present time three warrant officers commissioned as ensigns. I recommend that this law be amended to permit the promotion of not more than twelve per annum. Depends on Academy.' “But the main source of our supply of officers must be from the Naval academy. The duties of the modern Ea val officer are so varied and complex that they demand a rigorous and protracted education and training. This training and education can best be obtained at the national school at Annapolis. That school produces officers the equal of any in the world. “I therefore earnestly recommend that -without a year’s delay the number of midshipmen at the academy be increased sufficiently to meet the present and prospective needs of the service." \ “The present number of enlisted men authorized by law is 28,000. By enlistment since the close of the fiscal year the number of men in the service has been brought up to 25,258 on Nov. 15, current, and It is believed that by February next the full number authorized will be enlisted. The same reasons which demonstrate the necessity for an increase of officers call for the Increase of men. The Increase can bp made gradually and I recommend that an addition of 3,000 be authorized during the next fiscal year.”