Page images
PDF
EPUB

gardener, at $720 per annum; one packer, at $840 per annum; two messengers, at $840 each per annum; fifty-nine messengers, at $720 each per annum; six messengers (Filipinos), at $300 each per annum; one laborer, at $660 per annum; two laborers, at $600 each per annum; five charwomen, at $240 each per annum. In all, $312,690. Additional pay while on foreign service, $9,000. Act of Mar. 4, 1915 (38 Stat. 1067).

362b. Same—Increased pay for foreign service, employment of Filipinos, assignment to duty in War Department.—On and after July first, nineteen hundred and fourteen, the pay of clerks and messengers at headquarters of territorial departments, tactical divisions, brigades, and service schools, who are citizens of the United States, shall be increased $200 each per annum while serving in the Philippine Islands, such service to be computed from the date of departure from the continental limits of the United States to the date of return thereto: Provided further, That the money hereby appropriated for such of said clerks at $1,200 and $1,000 each per annum, and such of said messengers at $720 each per annum as may be employed and assigned by the Secretary of War to the headquarters of the Philippine Department, districts and posts therein, may, in case of vacancy and in the discretion of the commanding general, Philippine Department, be expended, in whole or in part, for the employment of Filipinos as clerks at not to exceed $500 each per annum, and messengers at not to exceed $300 each per

annum.

And said clerks, messengers, and laborers shall be employed and assigned by the Secretary of War to the offices and positions in which they are to serve: Provided, That no clerk, messenger, or laborer at headquarters of tactical divisions, military departments, brigades, service schools, and office of the Chief of Staff shall be assigned to duty with any bureau in the War Department. Id.

362c. Headquarters clerks to be known as Army field clerks; rates of pay for; subject to articles of war.-Hereafter headquarters clerks shall be known as Army field clerks and shall receive pay at the rates herein provided, and after twelve years of service, at least three years of which shall have been on detached duty away from permanent station, or on duty beyond the continental limits of the United States, or both, shall receive the same allowances,' except retirement,

The question was presented whether Army field clerks and field clerks, Quartermaster Corps, were entitled to heat and Ight allowances in public quarters which they are authorized to occupy. Such clerks who have had the requisite service prescribed in the act of August 29, 1916, creating those positions are by the statute given "the same allowances, except retirement, as heretofore allowed by law to pay clerks, Quartermaster Corps."

Held, that it having been definitely determined that no provision was made by law for furnishing pay clerks with fuel and light at public expense ia public quarters (Buls. of 1915; No. 5, p. 5, and No. 21, p. 7), it follows that the field

as heretofore allowed by law to pay clerks, Quartermaster Corps, and shall be subject to the rules and articles of war. Act of Aug. 29, 1916 (39 Stat., 625).

clerks are not entitled to such allowances. As in the case of pay clerks, Congress had made specific provision for commutation of heat and light, but no provision has been made for furnishing these allowances in kind. (War Dept. Bull. 15, Mar. 24, 1917.)

Held, that under the provisions of the statute providing for 200 Army field clerks a selection was necessary, and the statute was not, therefore, self-ex.cuting; consequently such clerks were entitled to the allowances therein provided for only from the date of their acceptance of appointment as field clerks and not from the date of the act, August 29, 1916. (Comp. of the Treas., Jan. 26, 1917; Id.)

The question was submitted to the Commissioner of Pensions whether the acceptance of the position of field clerk (act of Aug. 29, 1916, 39 Stat., 625) by a civil-service clerk receiving a pension would operate to cut off his pension in view of the War Department's ruling that field clerks are part of the Military Establishment and not subject to the civil-service rules and regulations.

Held, that since the appointment of such clerks is vested in the Secretary of War, they must be deemed as officers, and whether they be designated in military parlance as commissioned officers or noncommissioned officers is immaterial so far as the pension laws are concerned, the established rule being that one who serves under a commission or appointment from the Secretary of War is a person in the military service for pensionable purposes (Stout case, 19 P. D., 149); and that, therefore, under section 4724, Revised Statutes, and the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat., 1082), no pension can lawfully be paid to a person holding the position of field clerk covering the period of such service. Advised, however, that this ruling is subject to approval or modification of the Secretary of the Interior upon the appeal of any pensioner from the action of the Pension Bureau in dropping his name from the pension roll, because of his appointment and service as a field clerk under the act of August 29, 1916. (Commissioner of Pensions, Apr. 11, 1917, War Dept. Bull. 26, May 7, 1917.)

Upon inquiry (a) whether Army field clerks and field clerks, Quartermaster Corps, are exempt from militia duty, and (b) whether their enlistment in the National Guard is prohibited—

Held, as to (a), that since Army field clerks and field clerks, Quartermaster Corps, now occupy a status in the military service of the United States, they come within the provisions of section 59 of the national defense act which exempts "persons in the military and naval service of the United States," from militia duty, and therefore are exempted from such duty.

Held, as to (b), that the National Guard is plainly designed by the national defense act to be an effective force and to supplement the permanent military forces of the Nation, and that it is plainly the intent of the law governing its organization that its members shall be available for any service which it may be called upon to perform, and not be prevented from performing such duty by any paramount obligation in the permanent military force. This intent is clearly indicated by the exemption of persons in the military and naval service of the United States from militia duty, above cited. That special authority of law is necessary to justify the occupancy of status in both the Regular Army and the National Guard by the same person is indicated by the authority expressly conferred by section 100 of the national defense act for officers of the Regular Army to accept commissions in the National Guard with the permission of the President and terminable at his discretion. There is no such authority for any persons in the active military service of the United States, other than officers, to occupy such dual status. Therefore, the effect of the law governing the organization and maintenance of the National Guard is to render a status in the active permanent Military Establishment incompatible with a status in the National Guard. The enlistment of Army field clerks and field clerks, Quartermaster Corps, is therefore, in effect, prohibited by law. (War Dept. Bull. 34, June 8, 1917.)

An Army field clerk inquired whether he was entitled to credit for prior service as clerk in the Quartermaster Corps and in the Signal Corps for the purpose of making up 12 years of service under the act of August 29, 1916, which changed headquarters' clerks to Army field clerks, and provides that

362d. Same-Employed and assigned by Secretary of War; not to be assigned to duty in War Department.-Said clerks, messengers, and laborers shall be employed and assigned by the Secretary of War to the offices and positions in which they are to serve: Provided, That no clerk, messenger, or laborer at headquarters of tactical divisions, military departments, brigades, service schools, and office of the Chief of Staff shall be assigned to duty in any bureau in the War Department. Id., 636.

"after 12 years' service," as therein prescribed, they shall receive the same allowances, except retirement, as heretofore allowed by law to pay clerks,

Quartermaster Corps."

Held, that as the governing statute relates only to headquarters clerks changed to Army field clerks, and there is nothing in it to suggest a different purpose, it must be held that the phrase "after 12 years' service" refers only to service as headquarters clerk or as Army field clerk; and that in the instant case the field clerk was not entitled to count his prior service as clerk in the Quartermaster Corps and Signal Corps. (War Dept. Bull. 54, Sept. 26, 1917.) Under the Army appropriation act of August 29, 1916, Army field clerks after 12 years' service, 3 years of which shall have been on detached duty away from permanent station or on duty beyond the continental limits of the United States, or both, are entitled to certain allowances. In computing the 12 years' service, service as an enlisted man can not be counted. Service as headquarters clerk prior to the passage of the act and as an Army field clerk thereafter should be counted. (War Dept. Bull. 72, Dec. 24, 1917.)

Army field clerks are classified as enlisted men in the War Risk Insurance act of October 6, 1917, and are therefore required to make compulsory allotments. (Dig. Opin. J. A. G., January, 1918.)

[blocks in formation]

365a. Details of officers, except general officers, to be made on recommendation of board of officers.-No officer shall be detailed as a member of the General Staff Corps, other than the Chief of Staff and the general officers herein provided for as assistants to the Chief of Staff, except upon the recommendation of a board of five officers not below the rank of colonel, who shall be selected by the President or the Secretary of War, and neither the Chief of Staff nor more than two other members of the General Staff Corps, nor any officer not a member of said corps, who shall have been stationed or employed on any duty in or near the District of Columbia within one year prior to the date of convening of any such board, shall be detailed as a member thereof. No recommendation made by any such board shall, for more than one year after the making of such recommendation or at any time after the convening of another such board, unless again recommended by the new board, be valid as a

basis for the detail of any officer as a member of the General Staff Corps; and no alteration whatever shall be made in any report or recommendation of any such board, either with or without the consent of members thereof, after the board shall have submitted such report or recommendation and shall have adjourned sine die. Sec. 5, act of June 3, 1916 (39 Stat. 168).

(See paragraphs 366a-366e, 369a, 369b for the provisions of this section preceling this paragraph.)

365b. Promotion of officer while serving detail in General Staff Corps or other staff departments, status of.-If any officer detailed in the General Staff Corps, or as an officer of any staff corps or department of the Army, shall be promoted to the next higher grade while so serving he may be permitted to serve out the period of his detail, and the number of officers in the organization in which he shall be serving and in the grade to which he shall have been promoted shall be increased by one for such time as he shall be an additional number in said organization and grade; but the whole number of officers detailed to said organization shall at no time exceed the aggregate of the numbers allowed to the several grades thereof by law other than this proviso. Id. 169.

(See paragraphs 366a-36Ge. 369a, 365a. 365b, 370a, 370b, and 370c for the provisions of sec. 5 preceding this paragraph.)

366a. General Staff Corps, composition of. The General Staff Corps shall consist of one Chief of Staff, detailed in time of peace from major generals of the line; two assistants to the Chief of Staff, who shall be general officers of the line, one of whom, not above the grade of brigadier general, shall be the president of the Army War College; ten colonels; ten lieutenant colonels; fifteen majors; and seventeen captains, to be detailed from corresponding grades in the Army, as in this section hereinafter provided. Id. 167.

(For provision in sec. 3, act of October 6, 1917, giving the Chief of Staff the rank of general during the existing emergency, and fixing his pay and allowances, see paragraphs 350d and 350e, ante.)

366b. Same-Tour of detail in.-All officers detailed in the General Staff Corps shall be detailed therein for periods of four years, unless sooner relieved.

[ocr errors]

Id.

366c. Same-Temporary assignment to duty with any branch of Army. While serving in the General Staff Corps officers may be temporarily assigned to duty with any branch of the Army. Id.

366d. Same-Redetails limited.-Upon being relieved from duty in the General Staff Corps officers shall return to the branch of the Army in which they hold permanent commissions, and no officer

'Held, that the service of officers on a board sitting in the District of Columbia which was found after the completion of its report to be illegal was not service in the District within the prohibition of the Act, and that they were not therefore by reason of such service ineligible for service on a new board. (War Dept. Bull. 18, July 8, 1916.)

« PreviousContinue »