The present pay of the officer is ample but none too great, while the pay of the men is too niggardly to entice any one into any kind of employment in this country, save the unfortunate or the idle and vicious, seeking temporary relief from suffering for food, shelter and raiment.
The number and monthly pay on first entrance in the different grades (omitting musicians, artificers, etc.) of the Line of the Army, are as follows:
| 40 | Colonels | $291.67 | |||
| 40 | Lieutenant Colonels | 250.00 | |||
| 70 | Majors | 208.33 | |||
| 430 | Captains | Foot, | $150.00 | Mounted | 166.67 |
| 530 | First Lieutenants | " | 125.00 | " | 133.33 |
| 430 | Second Lieutenants | " | 116.67 | 125.00 |
Mark here the great gulf between officers and men in the gradation of pay, uniformity above and uniformity below:
| Pay | Rations | Clothing | ||||
| 40 | Sergeant Majors | $23 | $4.00 | $3.83 | Total, | $30.83 |
| 430 | First Sergeants | 25 | 4.00 | 3.81 | " | 32.81 |
| 1,860 | Sergeants | 18 | 4.00 | 3.73 | " | 25.73 |
| 1,720 | Corporals | 15 | 4.00 | 3.71 | " | 22.71 |
| 17,264 | Privates | 13 | 4.00 | 3.34 | " | 20.34 |
Perhaps the police of our great cities, in the character of duties and the ends to be accomplished, bear a greater resemblance to the Army than any one other public organization in the country, and it may not be unfair to compare their pay, organization and administration (in the 454 largest cities there are about 36,000 policemen). The following represents the grades, numbers, salaries, etc., in the three representative cities of the Republic, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, omitting surgeons, detectives, clerks, etc.:
Mark the uniformity in gradation of pay throughout! Their average hours of duty are nine. The only articles they furnish themselves which the soldier does not are quarters, subsistence, clothing, and equipments. The average cost of clothing and equipments per month in New York is $5.42. San Francisco has a retired list on half pay after twenty years' service at sixty years of age.
In 1891 there were employed in the Post Office Department in the 454 largest cities in the United States, 10,443 letter-carriers (nearly half the number of enlisted men in the Army) with monthly pay as follows: 1st class, $83.33; 2d class, $66.66; 3d class, $50.00; the average monthly pay being $73.00 per month, or a total annual pay of $9,161,137.00, nearly one-third more than the total pay and allowances of the 25,000 enlisted men in the Army.