Col. RICHARDS. Yes, sir; in the sense I state. Congress first recognized it by passing laws creating it as an organization for service on board vessels of war.

Mr. TRIBBLE. And you can perform the service of either?

Col. RICHARDS. The enlisted men; yes, sir.

Mr. TRIBBLE. What service do they perform on shore?

Col. RICHARDS. They form a mobile infantry, located at various navy yards and stations at home and abroad. Their service at the navy yards, however, is incidental. Their main purpose, according to the policy of the Navy Department, as announced in one of the documents presented by the Secretary of the Navy to Congress last year, is this:

This corps is primarily an adjunct of the Navy, to be used as a mobile force, stationed on board ship, in home ports, and at advance bases, always ready to act in conjunction with the Navy in preserving order beyond the territorial limits and in occupying strategic points in advance of the Army when to move the Army would occasion war. The number on shore is based on the necessary brigade organization. The number afloat provides a full detachment for each of the large ships of the fleet. Sea service is necessary to keep the corps in touch with naval conditions.

In other words, their service aboard ship is necessary in order that the marine himself and the marine officer will be familiar with naval methods, and thus cooperate efficiently when formed as an expeditionary force in naval operations.

Mr. TRIBBLE. And land methods also?

Col. RICHARDS. And make them as a land force more able to cooperate in the advanced base work. The advanced base work means this: A fleet, under modern conditions, in order to maintain itself on the sea at a distance from home, requires a base of supplies. The distance that the fleet can reach out at sea in active operations depends on the location of that base. They may have a home base, when the fleet is operating in the immediate vicinity of the coast, but should it be necessary to extend their field of operations, the fleet requires an advanced base located at a distance from the coast, which must be temporarily fortified and defended. This duty can only be performed by a force of infantry and artillery. The Marine Corps fulfills that function. Through such a service by the Marine Corps, the fleet will retain its control of the sea at a distance from home. This is known as advanced work. To perform that advanced base work efficiently it is necessary to have a mobile force, a force ready to move at the shortest notice.

Mr. MACON. An advance guard?

Col. RICHARDS. Not exactly an advance guard. An advance guard is a detachment of Infantry or of all arms, located on a march well in advance of the main body. Its duty is to guard against surprise, or for purposes of security and information. The advanced base work consists of taking and holding for the fleet a base, located at a distance from home, where it may coal, repair, and replenish.

Mr. ROBERTS. I want to get the status of the enlisted man in the Marine Corps fully in my mind. At the present time if he is on board ship or stationed in this country he gets a certain rate of pay? Col. RICHARDS. Yes, sir.

Mr. ROBERTS. If he is landed on foreign shore, he gets an increased pay?

Col. RICHARDS. Yes, sir.

Mr. ROBERTS. But the sailor in the Navy, if he is in this country of abroad, he gets a certain rate of pay?

Col. RICHARDS. A sailor's service is distinctly recognized as a service afloat, and his rate of pay has been fixed accordingly. While I do not like to make any comparisons as to the rates of pay

Mr. ROBERTS (interposing). Just answer my question. A sailor in the Navy gets the same rate of pay whether he is detailed on shore or at sea?

Col. RICHARDS. Yes, sir.

Mr. ROBERTS. It makes no difference whether he is in Chinese waters or down in the Chesapeake Bay?

Col. RICHARDS. No, sir; he gets the same pay.

Mr. ROBERTS. His pay is fixed?

Col. RICHARDS. He has no shore service.

Mr. ROBERTS. He gets no foreign-service pay?

Col. RICHARDS. No, sir.

Mr. ROBERTS. He gets no shore service?

Col. RICHARDS. No, sir.

Mr. ROBERTS. The purpose of this is to give the marine a status over that of the sailor?

Col. RICHARDS. The purpose is to bring the pay of the marine as nearly as possible up to the sailor.

Mr. ROBERTS. An officer of the Navy gets a certain rate of pay while on shore duty?

Col. RICHARDS. Yes, sir.

Mr. ROBERTS. And an increase at sea?

Col. RICHARDS. Yes, sir.

Mr. ROBERTS. And another rate of pay when on foreign service? Col. RICHARDS. His sea pay and foreign service pay are the same. Mr. ROBERTS. The law makes a distinction in the case of the naval officer with regard to what service he is performing in the matter of his pay?

Col. RICHARDS. Yes, sir.

Mr. ROBERTS. But it makes no distinction as regards the enlisted man?

Col. RICHARDS. No, sir.

Mr. ROBERTS. As the law exists at present, it makes a distinction according to the service being performed in the pay of an officer of the Marine Corps?

Col. RICHARDSON. Yes, sir; but for shore duty only.

Mr. ROBERTS. What you desire is to give the commissioned officer and the enlisted man a special status while on sea duty?

Col. RICHARDS. We ask to give them a foreign service pay while serving aboard ship, both for the officer and for the enlisted man, and in connection with the case of the enlisted man much as I dislike to draw comparison, it is necessary for me to invite your attention to the difference in the rates of pay enjoyed by the sailor and the marine. I do not wish to be understood as indicating a belief that the sailor's rate of pay is too high; but I do consider that the pay a marine receives afloat is too low. Many years ago when, by reason of his military character, the marine was relieved from certain duties performed by sailors, such as painting and coaling ship, then there was perhaps some reason for his receiving less pay than the seaman branch. This condition, however, has been corrected. I have pre

viously indicated that he practically performs all the arduous duties that the sailor performs. Now it seems to me no more than reasonable that his pay should be brought up to that of a sailor as near as possible. The enlisted marine's pay is Army pay, but Congress recognized during the Spanish War that under war conditions the enlisted men of the Army and Marine Corps should be paid a war pay, which was then fixed at an increase of 20 per cent. Now, the Navy is on a war footing at all times; its enlisted force, both sailor and marine, perform as arduous duties in time of peace in preparing for war as they actually do in time of war. It seems no more than right that the enlisted marine should receive the foreign-service pay serving afloat.

There are many articles of clothing not within the Government's allowance for the marine which he must procure in his service afloat, and this represents an additional expense to him. Of course, the enlisted man in the Marine Corps has a rank which corresponds with the grades of the seaman branch of the Navy. Now, as it stands, a sergeant major of the Marine Corps receives as his base pay $45 a month.

Mr. ROBERTS. What is the base pay for the Marine Corps, the Army or Navy pay?

Col. RICHARDS. The marine receives Army pay. A sergeant major or first sergeant would receive about $4.56 clothing allowance, making the total of $49.56. That grade corresponds, I think, to chief masterat-arms in the Navy, who receives $71.50 a month. In this first sergeant's rate of pay be increased 20 per cent while serving aboard ship, this would make his pay $58.56, and this would still be materially less than that allowed the corresponding grade in the seaman branch, $71.50.

Mr. ROBERTS. The law does not carry into the compensation of the commissioned officer and the enlisted man in the Navy the same idea with regard to an increase for sea duty or foreign service?

Col. RICHARDS. The law fixes the pay of the naval officer on a shoreduty basis, and then provides that he shall receive additional compensation for sea or foreign service. The law fixes the pay of the enlisted man of the Navy on a sea basis, since his service is almost entirely at sea, and there is, therefore, no need for giving him additional compensation while at sea. In the case of the marine officer and man, their pay being fixed by law on a shore-duty basis, there is the same need for additional compensation as in the case of the naval officer to whom it is now given by law. The marines serve ashore and afloat; the sailor serves rarely on shore and regularly board ship.

Mr. ROBERTS. There is a certain number who do some shore duty, especially among petty officers and warrant officers?

Col. RICHARDS. Yes, sir; there are some at the naval training stations.

Mr. ROBERTS. And some enlisted men?

Col. RICHARDS. Yes, sir.

Mr. ROBERTS. And at the navy yards and stations?

Col. RICHARDS. But it does not run through all the grades of the enlisted force of the Navy as it does in the Marine Corps.

Mr. ROBERTS. The reason you want to take the enlisted man of the Marine Corps along with the officer in this increase of pay is because your enlisted man does serve both ashore and afloat?

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Col. RICHARDS. Yes, sir.

Mr. ROBERTS. And in the ordinary discharge of his duties as a marine you think there should be a difference in his pay when afloat because he is at times obliged to go ashore?

Col. RICHARDS. Yes, sir; I think there should be a difference, but in recognition of another thing that I pointed out heretofore, that the service aboard ship is arduous service for the enlisted man of the Marine Corps, and such should be adequately compensated for. Another circumstance that must be considered is this: When we fill a ship's detachment we pick the best men we can find to go aboard the ship, and we send them aboard the ship to perform arduous service where the rate of pay is materially less than that of a sailor's. We think it no more than fair that this foreign-service pay should be allowed to the enlisted man of the Marine Corps while serving afloat, so as to bring his pay up as nearly as possible to that of the seaman who serves right with him.

The CHAIRMAN. Please put in the hearing a statement of the pay of the enlisted seaman in the Navy and the enlisted man in the Marine Corps, so that we will have a comparison of the two.

Col. RICHARDS. Yes, sir; I will.

The statement is here attached.

1 The rates of pay in this comparison include, in so far as present rates of pay of both services are coneerned, the longevities, extra compensations of all kinds, and bounties allowed to each.

Enlisted men of the Navy receive 4 cents per mile for travel allowance on discharge, while marines receive but 2 cents per mile or transportation, but this difference was not considered in the above rates. The rates of pay for enlisted men of the Navy are those shown on p. 836-837, "Estimates of appropriations, 1914."

Average pay of all petty officers (Navy), $84.43.

Marines: First sergeant in charge of detachment, $65.99. Average pay, $65.99.

Average pay of all petty officers (Navy), $58.28 (first class).

Marines: First sergeants, $65.99; gunnery sergeants, $65.99. Average pay, $65.99.

SECOND-CLASS PETTY OFFICERS.

Average pay, all petty officers, second class (Navy), $44.89.
Marines: Sergeants, $38.76. Average pay, $38.76.

THIRD-CLASS PETTY OFFICERS.

Average pay, seamen, first class (Navy), $36.97.

Marines: Musicians, $23.60; privates, $23.60. Average pay, $23.60.
NOTE.- -Marines total pay per month includes clothing allowance.

Mr. BUTLER. Two transports went on an expedition to Santo Domingo. They both tied up, one on each side of a long dock. The marines were taken off of one transport and landed, and they will get the pay under the law. The marines on the other ship were not taken off and landed, and they will not get the same pay? Col. RICHARDS. No, sir.

Mr. BUTLER. Is that statement correct?

Col. RICHARDS. Yes, sir; not only for the period that they were landed but from the time they left the United States until they return. In other words, if there are two detachments and one fulfills the purpose for which it was organized-that is, it lands-and the other does not, and they are both absent from the United States for the same period of time, one gets the foreign-service pay and the other does not.