HOW WAR INCREASES WERE MET.
The enlargement of the paymaster’s department to meet war conditions at the beginning of the war, and until the enlisted strength was raised to 75,500, was effected in the following manner:
1. By the temporary appointment and advancement to the grade of captain, pursuant to act of May 22, 1919, of eight of the permanent pay clerks of the department.
2. By the temporary advancement of enlisted men of experience and long service under this department to the grade of pay clerk.
3. The new enlisted clerical personnel was partly obtained from enlisted men who had previously been employed as pay roll clerks at shore stations and aboard ships of the Navy, and from men enlisted and enrolled from civil life with clerical experience outside. The men obtained were detailed in the regularly established offices, and there formed into classes for instruction in their duties, the commissioned officers and senior clerks being used as instructors for this purpose. In addition to the above, and to the end of creating a proper spirit and morale, and bringing about a better understanding throughout the department of its aims and purposes, a series of lectures by the Paymaster and subordinate officers was delivered at headquarters, and afterwards published and distributed to the entire personnel of the department. Later on, in order to meet the further increased demand for clerical assistance, a school for the instruction of men in paymaster’s department work was established at the Marine barracks, Parris Island, S. C. This was, however, in addition to the system of instruction previously instituted in the permanently established offices. The school was of considerable value in that it aided in the selection and assignment of men (recruits) with previous clerical experience to duty in the paymaster’s department. The demand for clerks for both home and overseas service, however, was so great for some time before the close of the war, that it was not possible at any time to keep the men under instruction in the school or in the offices for sufficient length of time to complete the prescribed course that had been laid out for them. As a consequence, many men had to be sent out with but a meager idea of the duties they were to perform. The clerical forces of the permanent offices, therefore, finally became so drained of experienced clerks and stenographers taken away to supply the demand for expeditionary and overseas forces that it became necessary to enlist or enroll women to perform these duties.