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During the year 1913 two new ships, the New York and Terus, will be placed in commission, which will require an additional___

Making a total of..

Men.

144

835

The CHAIRMAN. Is this increase in the appropriation necessitated by the proposed increase in the number of men?

Col. RICHARDS. The increase in the appropriation is made up of three items. As to the first increase, $50,610, last year the corps was increased by 13 officers whose pay was appropriated, as we anticipated they would come in. We did not expect that they would come in on the 1st of last July, and we did not ask for a full year's pay for each one of them; but now they have all been or shortly_will be appointed, so for the fiscal year commencing the 1st of next July we must ask for the full pay for one year for all.

Mr. ROBERTS. You have all the officers?

Gen. BIDDLE. They have not yet all been commissioned. There is an examination going on now, which started yesterday.

Col. RICHARDS. They will be in very soon now. That represents an item of $50,610 increase over last year. There is also here an item of $12,910, which is an increase over last year, for longevity pay of officers already in service. The longevity pay is, as you know, based upon the length of service rendered; these officers are getting along in service, and we must provide for the increase in pay allowed to them by law as longevity pay. The whole item, $1,014,058, represents a mathematical calculation, and the details of that calculation I will insert in the hearings.

The statement referred to by Col. Richards follows:

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Col. RICHARDS. There remains a further item of increase of $14,260, which is covered by the proviso asking that there shall be applied to the Marine Corps a provision of existing law granting to officers of the Navy sea pay. That proviso is contained in the act of May 13, 1908; it states that the officers of the Navy on sea duty and on shore duty beyond the continental limits of the United States shall, while so serving, receive 10 per cent additional pay. This is a provision exclusively for officers of the Navy. We have in the Marine Corps a foreign-service pay which is similar-a 10 per cent increase for officers serving abroad on shore duty. This was contained in the Army act of March 2, 1901, but marine officers serving at sea, serving alongside of the officers of the Navy on board ship, do not now nor have they received this sea pay for four years; that is, since the law of 1908 was passed. Marine officers' pay is regulated by Army pay; the Army does not serve afloat; in consequence, marine officers serving afloat do not receive sea pay. There is only one instance where Army officers actually serve afloat; that is, where they are actually. assigned to duty on board transports, for which duty there is a spe

cific provision of law giving Army officers foreign-service pay, but, owing to the letter of the law, the Marine Corps has never received

sea pay.

Mr. BUTLER. It applies to both the Army and Navy, but not to the Marine Corps?

Col. RICHARDS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BUTLER. And if this provision of law should pass, it would give the officers of the Marine Corps the same rate that the officers of the Army and Navy now have?

Col. RICHARDS. Yes, sir. We have many instances showing the injustice that this condition works, not only directly to the marines afloat, but also and more particularly in reference to our expeditionary work. We sent this past year two expeditions, one to Nicaragua and one to Santo Domingo. Both of them expected to serve on shore; one did serve on shore, the one that went to Nicaragua. The other, on board the Prairie, went to Santo Domingo, and when they arrived there conditions did not actually require their landing, so during the 72 days that they were absent from the country on board this naval transport, not an Army transport, merely because they were not landed while absent and so did not perform foreign shore service they could not receive this increased pay. Mr. ROBERTS. Who made that ruling?

Col. RICHARDS. It was strictly in accordance with the letter of the law as interpreted by the Comptroller of the Treasury, and follows from the fact that service afloat is not recognized in the statute as service entitling the Marine Corps to foreign-service pay. And this we ask to have corrected by the enactment of the proviso inserted in the bill. The Court of Claims has made a ruling as to the purpose of foreign-service pay. They say:

It is clear that the extra allowance provided by these statutes was intended by the Congress to apply to such officers only who may be regularly assigned to foreign posts or stations, as a compensation in part, at least, for the sacrifices and hardships they are required to endure going to, while at, and coming from such assignments.

It seems to me that an officer who goes to sea is in identically the same situation as an officer going to a foreign station. He is required during his absence to maintain his family at home as well as to maintain himself wherever he may be; Congress has recognized this condition for the past 10 years by providing extra compensation for such service. We ask only that Congress may extend this benefit to the Marine Corps.

The CHAIRMAN. Let me ask you this question with reference to that. The law with reference to the pay of the Army regulates the pay of the Marine Corps:

Col. RICHARDS. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. If this provision is inserted will it throw out of harmony the pay of the Army officers?

Col. RICHARDS. No, sir; it will not. The pay of the Marine Corps is regulated by the Army pay. Whatever is specifically provided for the Army applies also to the Marine Corps. In reference to this sea service, the Army performs no sea service except in isolated cases, and the statutes distinctly recognize that where they do perform this service in such cases they get the foreign-service pay.

The CHAIRMAN. It also provides for additional pay for foreign service on land?

Col. RICHARDS. Yes, sir; we all get additional pay there, but when it comes to the application of existing statutes to the Marine Corps, inasmuch as the service of the Marine Corps on board ship is not recognized as foreign service, no extra pay, or sea pay, is there paid to its officers and men. We frequently find cases like this: The fleet is assembled off Cuba, as it was last summer. There were marines sent down there from home, detailed for foreign shore service. in Cuba, who were landed there. At the same time when the fleet arrived off Cuba some additional marines, part of the fleet's detachments, were landed.

The marine guards so landed from the ships were landed for temporary duty, that is to say, the duty ashore they so performed was considered as duty incidental to their service on board ship. These ships' detachments served right alongside marines sent from the States; they did the same duty, but they did not receive the foreignservice pay. This was due to this same condition, that the service of the Marine Corps afloat is not recognized as service outside the continental limits of the States entitling officers and men to increased pay. It is proposed by inserting this proviso that there shall be one uniform rate of pay provided for marines who so serve outside the continental limits of the United States, whether such service be ashore or afloat.

Mr. TRIBBLE. I am in entire sympathy with the Marine Corps. What are the duties of the Marine Corps?

Col. RICHARDS. The primary function of the Marine Corps is to furnish expeditionary forces in connection with naval operations and to supply marine detachments for the service afloat.

Mr. TRIBBLE. Can they man a vessel, take charge of a warship and man it?

Col. RICHARDS. The enlisted marine aboard ship performs almost every duty that a sailor performs; of course, he has no duties connected with the navigation or the steering of the ship. Such duties are never assigned to the marines on war vessels. The marines are sometimes called upon at sea to exchange duties with men of the Navy.

They have their quarters in their own part of the ship, which they themselves keep clean. They form a separate gun division, manning guns of the secondary battery and of the intermediate battery of caliber as high as the 7-inch guns. There was a time when, by reason of their distinctive military character as soldiers, they were excused from such duties as painting and coaling ships. Now, however, there is no such distinction. The marines perform every arduous duty that the sailor performs, and in addition to this they perform certain ceremonial duties when the guards are paraded. In addition to this they are stationed as sentries and orderlies about the ship. As a matter of fact it is exceptional for a marine aboard ship to have a "night in." He must do his day's work as a sailor does and then he has a broken night's rest. Under emergencies marines are sometimes detailed in the fireroom as stokers and coal passers.

Mr. ROBERTS. Emergency duty?

Col. RICHARDS. In emergencies. They are at all times required to keep up a neat appearance as soldiers. Afloat in battle they perform duties at the intermediate and secondary batteries as gun captains, gun pointers, signal men, and so forth.

Mr. TRIBBLE. Can they perform those duties on the vessels?

Col. RICHARDS. They perform those duties on board the vessels, as gun pointers, gun captains, and signal men. They man the guns up to the 5 and 6 and 7 inch guns; they form a distinct gun division at battle stations.

Mr. TRIBBLE. If the war vessels were short of men, if you had men in the Marine Corps they could be supplied?

Col. RICHARDS. Only under the direction of the Navy Department. In the Spanish War a shortage in the Iowa's complement was so supplied by increasing the marine detachment.

The CHAIRMAN. Under existing conditions they do that work now; they man the 5 and 6 inch guns?

Gen. BIDDLE. They man probably all except the turret guns. They do not man them.

Col. RICHARDS. The men of the Navy, with the exception of the anchor watch on board ship and other quartermaster's watches, get their night's rest while the marines must stand night watches in addition to the other duties they perform in common with enlisted men of the Navy. As a general rule, marines aboard ship very seldom get a whole night's rest. It might be said in general that marines perform all the duties of sailors, except those of the special branches. I am now speaking distinctly of the enlisted men of the Marine Corps. In addition they stand regular watches, night and day. While in the old days marines were regarded merely as Infantry aboard ship for ceremonial and police functions, under modern conditions they are considered an important part of the fighting complement of naval vessels..

Mr. TRIBBLE. They are used first in case of war or trouble in any foreign country or at home, they are the first on the ground?

Col. RICHARDS. That represents their expeditionary duties as a naval infantry force. In the training of the marines for expeditionary duties the aim and object is to provide a mobile force of infantry ready to move at an instant's notice, and in the past 10 years it has been our practice to embark detachments for expeditionary duty within 24 hours

Mr. BUTLER (interposing). Fully equipped?

Col. RICHARDS. Fully equipped in every way. In the performance of this expeditionary work the marines, by reason of the existing statutes, are discriminated against in the matter of foreign-service pay. We ask, through this legislation, that this be corrected.

Mr. BUTLER. A marine on shipboard is an artilleryman and on shore an infantryman?

Col. RICHARDS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BUTLER. And he is trained in both branches of the service? Col. RICHARDS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BUTLER. Your corps is older than either the Army or Navy? Col. RICHARDS. It was first recognized in the statute.

Mr. BUTLER. As being the oldest corps?

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