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ordnance equipment. In the old days of sail, the naval officer was first of all master of the motive power: why not in the days of steam? The acceptance of the proposal by the engineers was followed by the drafting of the provisions of a bill to be laid before the Secretary for transmission to Congress. Examination of this showed that, besides providing for the combination of the line and engineer corps, it enabled the voluntary retirement of officers in the grades of captain, commander, and lieutenant-commanders, should natural causes fail to produce a certain number of casualties in those grades, and in that of lieutenant; and that should the casualties and voluntary retirements be not sufficient to cause the average vacancies fixed, then a Board of Rear-Admirals should select a limited number of officers for retirement. Whether voluntarily or compulsorily retired, the officers affected were to receive the rank and three-fourths of the sea-pay of the grade next higher to that which they had attained at the time of retire ment. Here were two provisions that the Board contemplated enacting into law, which permitted valuable officers to go on the retired list, though it was plain that ships under construction would require when commissioned the services of all that could be gathered, and which also gave the benefits of retirement with increased rank and pay to officers who were unfitted for duty, and less deserving of such consideration than others retired because of disability incurred in the line of duty. I transmitted the bill to Congress with a recommendation for the enactment of its provisions, with the exception of those specified. It was believed that such a law would bring harmony into the service, and the results of its operation since enactment in 1899 have justified this belief. It still seems advisable that the voluntary and compulsory retirement provisions should be modified so that officers affected by them shall retire with the rank and threefourths of the sea-pay of the grade held at the time of retirement, and not be given a premium for getting out of the service. The bill further provided that the navy should receive army pay, that the title "midshipman" should replace that of "cadet " for students at the Naval Academy, and that the course at the

Academy should be reduced from six to four years. It created a corps of warrant machinists, and improved the condition of the enlisted force by conferring upon its members the same privileges and rights respecting retirement and pension that obtained in the army and marine corps. The enthusiasm aroused by sea victories during the war with Spain caused the enactment of the bill with some amendments and additions, the latter relating mainly to the marine corps.

It was loudly urged against this reorganization bill that it would operate to the disadvantage of the service; that the age was one of specialization, and that it was impossible to make a fighting man a "jackof-all-trades." Those who made these statements forgot that in amalgamating the line and engineer corps we were simply repeating history; that England's ships were once sailed by men especially employed for that duty and fought by soldiers who had nothing to do with the operation of the vessels. But the combination of these two types produced the sailor who could not only sail his ship, but who could fight it as well. When steamships entered our navy, the sailor, clinging to the traditions of his calling, jealously refused to surrender his privileges and prerogatives to the engineer. As the work of the soldier and the sailor gradually approached each other and finally intermingled, so has that of the navigator and the engineer. The Personnel Law was framed to meet special conditions, and so long as those conditions exist it will produce the results intended; but when they change, it will require revision. It would not be surprising should the machinists warranted under the Personnel Law become a future engineer corps, just as the late engineer corps developed from civilians appointed into the navy during the early years of steam.

The officers command a ship, but the brawn and its intelligent application are supplied by the enlisted men. In the old navy the ships were manned by sailors who could patch a sail, knot a parted shroud, repair a boat, sponge, load, and fire a gun, in fact, do any work appertaining to their rating. Boys were enlisted as powdermonkeys and for other light work. That they were distinguished by the same ardor as possessed their older comrades is shown

"A few years ago one of our ships with a cosmopolitan crew was anchored in the harbor of Villefranche. The crew represented nineteen different nationalities, and so inefficient was the organization that some wag painted on a board and hung in the gangway, "Ici on parle Anglais," like the signs in Paris shops. When the Trenton went into commission, as fine a body of Germans, Huns, Norsemen, Gauls, Chinese, and other outside barbarians as one could wish to see were on board. Of the whole number, not more than eighty could speak English. These men shipped for money. They had no sentiment for our flag or nationality, and possibly if it came to an action with a ship of their own or neighboring nation they would haul down the American colors and hoist their own."

by Captain Hull's report on the battle of the condition of our enlisted force when the Constitution and the Guerriere, in which reconstruction of the navy began: he said that "from the smallest boy in the ship to the oldest seaman, not a look of fear was seen. They all went into action giving three cheers and requesting to be laid alongside of the enemy." Enough Enough American citizens not engaging in the national and merchant marines, causing the employment of many foreigners in this branch of the governmental and industrial services, the suggestion was made in 1835 that boys be enlisted and trained in the ways of the sea. Congress incorporated the suggestion into law in 1837, and under the authority granted him Secretary Paulding enlisted several hundred youngsters and distributed them among the line-of-battle ships Columbus and North Carolina and the frigates Java and Hudson. The plan was inaugurated under auspicious circumstances, but, the Department announcing that the apprentices would not receive commissions, interest disappeared and failure followed. A second effort to establish the apprentice system was made by Secretary Welles. The experiment at first produced gratifying results, justifying a belief in important future benefit to the service. Thinking an opportunity to attain commissions would encourage the boys, Secretary Welles, in his annual report for 1864, suggested that "from among the apprentices on the schoolship, a selection of one-half of the midshipmen appointed might be made with great advantage to the service and to the country. . . . It would popularize the service and open to those who may have enlisted the highest positions and honors in the service." Mr. Welles succeeded in having a number of apprentices sent to the Academy, where they were examined for admission; and some of the able officers to-day are those who underwent their first naval experience as enlisted boys.

Discouraging though the attempts of his predecessors were, Secretary Robeson, in 1875, issued a circular authorizing the enlistment of a certain number of apprentices. There was imperative need of such action. The percentage of foreigners in the navy at this time had reached such a high figure that confusion and inefficiency prevailed. Admiral David D. Porter thus described the humiliating

National pride demanded an American navy. So the apprentice was encouraged. In 1881 the city of Newport ceded Coaster's Harbor Island in Narragansett Bay to the Government as a site for a Naval Apprentice station. During my administration the island of Yerba Buena, in San Francisco Bay, was acquired, and upon it a modern training station for apprentices was built. When Secretary Robeson made the third attempt to organize an apprentice training system, it was predicted that it would fail. To-day it is one of the important branches of supply for our enlisted force. It seemed a violation of the principles of the Republic to maintain a service which limited the achievements of an employee; and, regarding Secretary Welles's plan as eminently just and proper, I recommended that Congress enact a bill permitting the commissioning of enlisted men promoted from apprentices, after examination of their mental, moral, and physical qualifications. The law, as passed, fixes the number of these appointments at six annually. In the twenty-seven years during which the apprentice system has been in operation more than fifteen thousand boys have attended the course, and those who have not remained in the service have, in the majority of cases, made useful citizens. ful citizens. The apprentice system has also been important in bringing about the Americanization of the navy. Various

measures were adopted from the beginning of the new navy to displace the foreign element in the service. At the time of my entrance into the Department in 1897, almost twenty-five per cent. of the enlisted men were foreigners. As a means of reducing this proportion, enlistment stations were established in the interior of the country and along the lakes. The material thus obtained was of such an excellent character that when Congress made substantial increases in the enlisted force, these and additional stations were maintained. Recruits are placed on board receiving-ships, where they learn the rudiments of their future calling, and are subsequently distributed among training-ships. When their preliminary education is concluded, they are transferred to regular cruising vessels. Arrangements had been perfected before my retirement from the Department for the training of four thousand landsmen annually. Congress should authorize barracks for the accommodation of raw recruits. On shore, under the observation of officers, it will be an easy matter to reject those men who fail to show aptitude for the service, retaining only the best material to be wrought into the finished seaman. The effect of the enlistment of landsmen on the Americanization of the navy is shown by the fact that almost ninety per cent. of the enlisted force is to-day American by birth or naturalization.

Improvements in the matériel of the navy have brought about the necessity for an enlisted personnel of high intelligence and skill; and with these qualities has come the need of better provision for enlisted men. The sailors of the old navy were subjected to hard conditions; they are treated to-day as men. Fifty years ago they received whatever training was given them on shipboard. Even in the new navy, until 1897, only the torpedo school and the gun foundry were open to them. The use of electricity on board war-ships grew to such proportions during my time that it was deemed advisable to establish an electrical school at the New York Navy-Yard. The gunnery course was completed by practical training on the monitors Amphitrite and Puritan, in North Atlantic waters. To stimulate the men, the rating of gun captain was created. It is a gratifying fact that ships

to which gun captains were detailed showed considerable and immediate improvement in target practice. The clerks of the navy are known as yeomen. That men enlisted for this rating might properly understand their duties, a yeoman's training-school was established at New York. One of the later acts of my time was the direction to establish at the Norfolk NavyYard an artificers' school. Here experience in ship-work will be given to carpenters, ship-fitters, blacksmiths, coppersmiths, ship's plumbers, and men of other ship's trades. That every ounce of coal may produce the largest volume of steam and that engines and boilers may not be rapidly worn out, a training-school was provided for firemen. The Cincinnati, whose bowels are one mass of machinery, was selected for use as this school.

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No description of the personnel of the American navy would be complete without a reference to the Marine Corps. early Continental Congress authorized the organization of a body of marines. The Congress of the United States, which directed the construction of the first ships of the old navy, simultaneously provided for the commissioning of marine officers and the enlistment of men for the guards. In all our wars the marines have distinguished themselves. On nineteen separate occasions Congress has, by joint resolution, expressed its sense of appreciation of their valor and good conduct. After the Civil War a movement was inaugurated to abolish the Corps, but at thorough investigation by Congress established the inadvisability of such action. Many line officers have expressed the opinion that the Marine Corps is no longer needed on board ships, and several years before the Spanish War the attempt to bring about its abolition was renewed. Colonel Charles Haywood, now MajorGeneral, Commandant of the Corps, appeared before the Personnel Board in 1897 and earnestly opposed amalgamation with the navy. The Corps was reorganized and enlarged by the Personnel Law-action which met with general approval in view of the new laurels added to its record by the battalion which served at Guantanamo, where the Corps rendered especially brilliant service, as well as on the ships at Manila and Santiago, and ashore in China and the Philippines.

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By Augustine Birrell

ITH what feelings, I wonder, ought one to approach in a famous University an already venerable foundation, devoted by the last will and indented deed of a pious benefactor to the collection and housing of books and the promotion of learning? The Bodleian at this moment harbors within its walls well-nigh half a million of printed volumes, some scores of precious manuscripts in all the tongues, and has become a name famous throughout the whole civilized world. What sort of a poor scholar would he be whose heart did not beat within him when, for the first time, he found himself, to quote the words of "Elia," "in the heart of learning, under the shadow of the mighty Bodley"?

Grave questions, these, but put, I am afraid, with a certain pomposity of style, for how else can I account for the undignified trick my memory is now playing me, by summoning to its bar that irrever ent tale told of Calverley, then Blayds of Balliol? "The following episode occurred during one of Calverley's appearances at 'Collections,' the Master (Dr. Jenkyns) officiating. Question. And with what feelings, Mr. Blayds, ought we to regard the decalogue?' Calverley, who had no very clear idea of what was meant by the

decalogue, but who had a due sense of the importance both of the occasion and of the question, made the following reply: 'Master, with feelings of devotion, mingled with awe!' Quite right, young man, a very proper answer,' exclaimed the Master." 1

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"Devotion mingled with awe" might be a very proper answer for me to make to my own question, but I, possessing that acquaintance with the history of the most picturesque of all libraries which anybody can have who loves books enough to devote a dozen quiet hours of rumination to the pages of Mr. Macray's "Annals of the Bodleian Library," second edition, Oxford, "at the Clarendon Press, 1890," cannot honestly profess to entertain in my breast, with regard to it, the precise emotions which C. S. C. declared took possession of him when he regarded the decalogue. A great library easily. begets affection, which may deepen into love; but devotion and awe are plants hard to rear in our harsh climate; besides, can it be well denied that there is something in a huge collection of the ancient learning, of mediæval folios, of controversial pamphlets, and in the thick black dust these things so woefully collect, provocative of listlessness and enervation "Literary Remains of C. S. Calverley," 31.

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