318  Pharmaceutical  Corps  in  U.  S.  Army.  {Am'Mayr'i9^8rm* 
Corps  which  has  made  it  difficult  to  obtain  a  good  class  of  men  and 
retain  the  services  of  non-commissioned  officers.  When  the  Hospital 
Corps  was  organized  in  1887,  it  was  recognized  that  its  members 
would  be  required  to  do  work  that  was  not  attractive  to  enlisted 
men  and  which  would  require  special  qualifications.  .  .  .  Opportuni- 
ties for  extra  duty  pay  are  provided  in  other  branches  of  the  service, 
but  are  denied  to  Hospital  Corps  soldier."  To  this  he  might  have 
added  that  in  the  other  lines  of  service,  the  intelligent,  capable  man 
can  be  promoted  and  attain  commissioned  rank  and  keep  in  the  line 
of  advancement,  but  in  the  hospital  Corps  he  can  never  become  more 
than  a  sergeant  and  after  years  of  faithful  service  and  reenlist- 
ments  he  may  be  credited  finally  with  the  non-commissioned  grade 
of  master  hospital  sergeant. 
At  that  time,  Brigadier-General  Tasker  H.  Bliss,  commanding 
the  Southern  Department,  in  his  annual  report  said :  "  The  condi- 
tion of  the  Hospital  Corps  at  the  present  time  is  a  matter  of  very 
serious  concern.  The  number  of  men  present  for  duty  is  altogether 
too  small  to  permit  the  efficient  performance  of  the  work  that  regu- 
lations, orders  and  customs  of  the  service  seem  to  require  to  be 
done.  The  service  is  so  arduous  for  the  really  good  men,  and  so 
unattractive,  and  the  pay  is  so  small  that  the  application  for  trans- 
fer to  the  Corps  of  a  superior  man  is  now  an  extremely  rare  oc- 
currence. There  are  very  few  applications  for  authority  to  reenlist, 
while  there  is  a  constant  depletion  due  to  desertions  and  discharges." 
A  writer,  editorially  commenting  upon  these  Departmental  re- 
ports, wrote :  "  Owing  to  these  and  other  inequalities  of  pay  and 
opportunity,  the  Hospital  Corps  is  now  recruited  mainly  from  men 
who  realize  their  inability  to  make  good  in  other  branches  of  the 
service  where  the  pay  and  opportunities  for  advancement  are  so 
much  better.  It  is  a  matter  of  official  record  that  the  morale  and 
quality  of  the  Hospital  Corps  are  progressively  declining  quanti- 
ties." 
In  the  report  of  the  then  Surgeon-General,  he  urged  that  "  the 
Secretary  of  War  recommend  to  Congress  the  reorganization  of 
the  Hospital  Corps  "  and  openly  stated  that  this  "  was  one  particu- 
lar in  which  the  Medical  Department  is  unprepared  to  fulfill  its  re- 
sponsibility to  the  Army  and  the  nation."  The  reorganization  then 
recommended  by  keen  and  competent  military  authorities  has  not 
yet  been  accomplished,  despite  the  present  war  necessity  for  more 
efficient  service.    The  Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Association, 
