Chapter 190. To increase the efficiency of the commissioned and enlisted personnel of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Coast and Geodetic Survey, and Public Health Service
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CHAP. 190.— An Act To increase the efficiency of the commissioned and enlisted personnel of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Coast and Geodetic Survey, and Public Health Service. May 18, 1920. [[H. R. 11927](/us/bill/66/hr/11927).] [[Public, No. 210](/us/pl/66/210).] *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,* That, commencing JanuaryIncrease of pay, Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Public Health officers.Rates from January 1, 1920. 1, 1920, commissioned officers of the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, and Public Health Service shall be paid, in addition to all pay and allowances now allowed by law, increases at rates per annum as follows:
Colonels in the Army and Marine Corps, captains in the Navy, and assistant surgeons general in the Public Health Service, $600; lieutenant colonels in the Army and Marine Corps, commanders in the Navy, and senior surgeons in the Public Health Service, $600; majors in the Army and Marine Corps, lieutenant602commanders in the Navy, and surgeons in the Public Health Service, $840; captains in the Army and Marine Corps, lieutenants in the Navy, and passed assistant surgeons in the Public Health Service, $720; first lieutenants in the Army and Marine Corps, lieutenants (junior grade), acting assistant surgeons and acting assistant dental surgeons in the Navy, and assistant surgeons in the Public Health Service, $600; second lieutenants in the Army and Marine Corps, and *Proviso*.Army contract surgeons.ensigns in the Navy, $420: *Provided*, That contract surgeons of the Army serving full time shall receive the pay of a second lieutenant.
Sec. 2. Emergency commutation of quarters, etc., to Army officers extended to June 30, 1922.Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Public Health included. That the rights and benefits prescribed under the Act of April 16, 1918, granting commutation of quarters, heat, and light during the present emergency to officers of the Army on duty in the field are hereby continued and made effective until June 30, 1922, and shall apply equally to officers of the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast *Proviso*.Enlisted men.Guard, and Public Health Service: *Provided*, That such rights and benefits as are prescribed for officers shall apply equally for enlisted men now entitled by regulations to quarters or to commutation therefor.
Sec. 3. Navy.Warrant officers to have extra $240. That, commencing January 1, 1920, warrant officers of the Navy shall be paid, in addition to all pay and allowances now allowed by law, an increase at the rate of $240 per annum. Sec. 4. Pay increased of enlisted men, Army and Navy, and female nurses. That, commencing January 1, 1920, the pay of all enlisted men of the Army and Marine Corps and of members of the female Nurse Corps of the Army and Navy is hereby increased 20 per centum: *Proviso*.Limitation.*Provided*, That such increase shall not apply to enlisted men whose initial pay, if it has already been permanently increased since April 6, 1917, is now less than $33 per month.
Sec. 5. Army and Marine Corps.Ration and commutation of noncommissioned officers increased. That all noncommissioned officers of the Army of grade of color sergeant and above as fixed by existing Army Regulations and noncommissioned officers of the Marine Corps of corresponding grades shall be entitled to one ration or commutation therefor in Commutation value.addition to that to which they are now entitled. The commutation value shall be determined by the President on July 1 of each fiscal year, and for the current fiscal year the value shall be computed on *Provisos*.Increased pay to field clerks.the basis of 55 cents per ration: *Provided*, That Army field clerks and field clerks Quartermaster Corps, whose total pay and allowances do not exceed $2,500 per annum, shall be paid an increase at the Limitation.rate of $240 per annum: *Provided further*, That such Army field clerks and field clerks Quartermaster Corps, whose total pay and allowances exceed $2,500 but do not exceed $2,740 per annum, shall be paid such additional amount as will make their total pay and No pay reduction.allowances not to exceed $2,740 per annum: *Provided further*, That this section shall not be construed to reduce the pay and allowances of any Army field clerk or field clerk Quartermaster Corps.
Sec. 6. Navy.Base pay for enlisted ratings. That, commencing January 1, 1920, the following shall be the rate of base pay for each enlisted rating: Chief petty officers with acting appointments, $99 per month; chief petty officers with permanent appointments and mates, $126 per month; petty officers, first class, $84 per month; petty officers, second class, $72 per month; petty officers, third class, $60 per month; nonrated men, first class, $54 per month; nonrated men, second class, $48 per month; nonrated *Provisos*.Firemen.men, third class, $33 per month: *Provided*, That the base pay of firemen, first class, shall be $60 per month; firemen, second class, $54 per month; firemen, third class, $48 per month: *Provided further*, Naval Academy Band.That the rate of base pay for each rating in the Naval Academy Band shall be as follows:
Second leader, with acting appointment, $99 per month, with permanent appointment, $126 per month; drum major, $84 per month; musicians, first class, $72 per month; musicians, Messmen.second class, $60 per month: *Provided further*, That the base pay of cabin stewards and cabin cooks shall be $84 per month; wardroom603stewards and wardroom cooks, $72 per month; steerage stewards and steerage cooks, $72 per month; warrant officers’ stewards and warrant officers’ cooks, $60 per month; mess attendants, first class, $42 per month; mess attendants, second class, $36 per month; mess attendants, third class, $33 per month: *Provided further*, That theFleet Naval Reserve.Retainer pay to, returning to active duty. retainer pay of those members of the Fleet Naval Reserve who, pursuant to call, shall return to active duty within one month after the approval of this Act and shall continue on active duty until the Navy shall have been recruited up to its permanent authorized strength, or until the number in the grade to which they may be assigned is filled, but not beyond June 30, 1922, shall be computed upon the base pay they are receiving when retransferred to inactive duty, plus theAdditional.Vol. 39, p. 590 additions or increases prescribed in the Naval Appropriation Act approved August 29, 1916, for members of the Fleet Naval Reserve: *Provided further*, That the rates of base pay herein fixed shall not beRates not further increased.Vol. 35, p. 128.Vol. 40, p. 871..*Ante*, p. 140. further increased 10 per centum as authorized by an Act approved May 13, 1908, nor by the temporary war increases as authorized by section 15 of the Act approved May 22, 1917, as amended by the Act approved July 11, 1919.
Sec. 7. That the Secretary of the Navy is authorized, in his discretion,Naval Academy.Civilian professors’ and instructors’ pay readjusted.*Proviso*.Expenditure limited. to readjust the prevailing rates of pay of civilian professors and instructors at the United States Naval Academy: *Provided*, That said readjustment, which shall be effective from January 1, 1920, shall not involve an additional expenditure in excess of $55,000 for the remainder of the current fiscal year. Sec. 8.
That commissioned officers, warrant officers, petty officers,Coast Guard.Pay, ratings, etc., to correspond with Navy. and other enlisted men of the Coast Guard shall receive the same pay, allowances, and increases as now are, herein are, or hereafter may be prescribed for corresponding grades or ratings and length of service in the Navy; and the grades and ratings of warrant officers, chief petty officers, petty officers and other enlisted persons in the Coast Guard shall be the same as in the Navy, in so far as the duties of the Coast Guard may require, with the continuance, in the Coast Guard, of the grade of surfman, whose base pay shall be $70 perSurfman.*Proviso*.District superintendents. month: *Provided*, That the senior district superintendent, the three district superintendents next in order of seniority, the four district superintendents next below these three in order of seniority, and the junior five district superintendents shall have the rank, pay, and allowances of captain, first lieutenant, second lieutenant, and third lieutenant in the Coast Guard, respectively.
Sec. 9. That nothing contained in this Act shall be construed asRestriction if service terminated since December 31, 1919. granting any back pay or allowances to any officer or enlisted man whose active service shall have terminated subsequent to December 31, 1919, and prior to the approval of this Act, unless such officers or enlisted men shall have been recalled to active service or shall have been reenlisted prior to the approval of this Act. Sec. 10. That any enlisted man or apprentice seaman who shallEnlisted men, Navy.Bounty, if reenlisting within one year reenlist in the Navy within one year from the date of his discharge therefrom shall, upon such reenlistment, be entitled to and shall receive the same benefits as are now authorized by law for reenlistment within four months from date of last discharge from the service: *Provided*, That this section shall become inoperative six months after*Proviso*.Inoperative after six months. the date of the approval of this Act.
Sec. 11. That in lieu of compensation now prescribed by law,Coast and Geodetic Survey.Pay, etc., of officers to correspond with relative Navy rank. commissioned officers of the Coast and Geodetic Survey shall receive the same pay and allowances as now are or hereafter may be prescribed for officers of the Navy with whom they hold relativeVol. 40, p. 88. rank as prescribed in the Act of May 22, 1917, entitled “An Act to temporarily increase the commissioned and warrant and enlisted strength of the Navy and Marine Corps, and for other purposes,”604Retirement.including longevity; and all laws relating to the retirement of commissioned officers of the Navy shall hereafter apply to commissioned *Proviso*.Longevity pay credit for all services of Army, Navy, Coast Guard etc., officers.officers of the Coast and Geodetic Survey: *Provided*, That hereafter longevity pay for officers in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Public Health Service, and Coast and Geodetic Survey shall be based on the total of all service in any or all of said services.
Sec. 12. Families of officers.Transportation to be furnished, on permanent change of stations. That hereafter when any commissioned officer, noncommissioned officer of the grade of color sergeant and above, including any noncommissioned officer of the Marine Corps of corresponding grade, warrant officer, chief petty officer, or petty officer (first class), having a wife or dependent child or children, is ordered to make a permanent change of station, the United States shall furnish transportation in kind from funds appropriated for the transportation of the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and the Public Health Service to his new *Provisos*.In naval service.station for the wife and dependent child or children: *Provided*, That for persons in the naval service the term “permanent station,” as used in this section, shall be interpreted to mean a shore station or the home yard of the vessel to which the person concerned may be ordered; and a duly authorized change in home yard or home port Payment, of cost excess.of such vessel shall be deemed a change of station: *Provided further*, That if the cost of such transportation exceeds that for transportation from the old to the new station the excess cost shall be paid Beyond continental limits.to the United States by the officer concerned: *Provided further*, That transportation supplied the wife or dependent child or children of such officer, to or from stations beyond the continental limits of the United States, shall not be other than by Government transport, Household effects of Navy personnel.if such transportation is available: *And provided further*, That the personnel of the Navy shall have the benefit of all existing laws applying to the Army and the Marine Corps for the transportation of household effects.
Sec. 13. Pay increases effective until June 30, 1922. That the provisions of sections 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of this Act shall remain effective until the close of the fiscal year ending *Provisos*.Enlisted men.June 30, 1922, unless sooner amended or repealed: *Provided*, That the rates of pay prescribed in sections 4 and 6 hereof shall be the rates of pay during the current enlistment of all men in active service on the date of the approval of this Act, and for those who enlist, reenlist, or extend their enlistments prior to July 1, 1922, for the term of No computed in retired pay.such enlistment, reenlistment, or extended enlistment: *Provided further*, That the increases provided in this Act shall not enter into the computation of the retired pay of officers or enlisted men who Pay, etc., readjustment.Special Congressional committee to investigate, etc.may be retired prior to July 1, 1922: *And provided further*, That a special committee, to be composed of five Members of the Senate, to be appointed by the Vice President, and five Members of the House of Representatives, to be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, shall make an investigation and report recommendations to their respective Houses not later than the first Monday in January, 1922, relative to the readjustment of the pay and allowances of the commissioned and enlisted personnel of the several services herein mentioned.
Sec. 14. No existing pay reduced. That nothing contained in this Act shall operate to reduce the pay or allowances of any officer or enlisted man on the active or *Proviso*.Allowances and gratuities.retired list: *Provided*, That the allowances and gratuities now authorized by existing law are not changed hereby, except as otherwise specified in this Act. Sec. 15. Appropriations made available.*Ante*, pp. 146, 152. That the appropriations “Pay of the Navy, 1920,” and “Pay, Marine Corps, 1920,” are hereby made available for any of the expenses authorized by this Act, and any part or all of the appropriations “Provisions, Navy, 1920,” and “Maintenance, Quartermaster’s Department, Marine Corps, 1920,” not required for the605objects of expenditure specified in said appropriations, may beTransfers.*Ante*, pp. 147, 154. transferred to the appropriations “Pay of the Navy, 1920,” or “Pay, Marine Corps, 1920,” respectively, as may be required.
Approved, May 18, 1920.