St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1893-06-10
THE SOLDIERS RECORDS
Inc Government Completing the
Work of Tabulatinc.

Inc Government Completing the
Work of Tabulating.
| The most remarkable feat of svstem-
lzatlon ever brought to success-perhaps
the best illustration of the power of
method in human affairs-is now near
completion in one of the departments of
the general Government, says writer in
! the Philadelphia Press. An idea which
will save $500, 900 year to the nation
which has preserved vast and invaluable
| records and has made minutes worth
days in the administration of an impor-
tant branch Of the national affairs, is
certainly matter of everybody's con-
| Germ.
The preservation of the records re-
ierred to, if nothing else has been &C.
| compllshed, Is so important that it NAV
be called absolutely indispensable, for
those records are the individual histo-
rles Of the Union forces in the War of the
Rebellion. They were crumblinp to
dust; if lost they could never be re-
placed, and not a day too soon was the
solution of the problem of their prescr-
| vation reached
All the records of the volunteer armies
are filed in the Record and Pension Office
Of the War Department. This office
should not he confounded with the PEN
sion Office of the Interior Department,
with which it has no connection. The
adjudication of pension claims is the
work of the Pension Office With that
class of work the Record and Pension
Office of the War Department. has moth
ing to do further than to furni>h to the
Commissioners of Pensions the histories
of soldiers in order that their claims may
be adjudicated.
In one OF the rooms of the Record and
Pension Office saw small basket fast
ened against the wall 1t contained ONE
dozens of decaying bits of paper. Colonel
Ainsworth, chief of the office lifted them
gently. They ran through his fingers and
fell like dead leaves into the basket
These are fragments of soldiers re-
Cords" said he. Every one of them
bears soldiers name or some essential
part of a soldiers story. They will be
taken from this basket, and, with infinite
care, put together like the pieces of
child's puzzle. 1t can he done; it has
been done in many cases which looked as
hopeless as this. Then the facts which
they disclose will be preserved in clearer
form and forever
The ink upon the fragments was faded,
the names barely legible; but the writing
will be deciphered, the facts will be cor
related, and soldiers story will be
saved, on the very threshold of oblivion,
by the nation which he served And
when the record is called for-and q
thousand such are demanded every day
it will be found, not by an interminable
search of smoudering sheets and
volumns, but instantly, as one turns to
word in dictionary where its full
meaning is set forth
The wonderful system which makes
this possible may be appreciated when
one learns that there are about &c, 900, 600
separate entries relating to over 2, 100000
persons in the original. war records; that
two or three or perhaps 100 of them
may refer to a single soldier that these
were in the first place scattered as if for
the purpose of concealing them, and
that to-day it is as easy TO find all Of
them which bear upon single case as it
is to turn to mans name in the direc~
tory.
Now and then during my stay amid
the records saw men with small baskets
passing rapidly through the rooms.
They are the mail carriers said
Colonel Ainsworth. II have introduced
system of communication between the
various parts of the offices which OBJ
viates one of the worst forms of deley ex-
listing under the old system. In such
large office as this, where papers pass
through many hands, much time is ordi-
narily lost by the accumulation of matter
upon the various desks. A clerk could
finish his work upon great many pa
pers and then transfer them to the next
man, who might have been waiting in
idleness for some hours. That is impos-
sible now | have messengers who start
from the main office at five minute inter
walls and make the rounds.
Each clerk has a basket of cards bearing
the numbers by which various depart
ments are designated When he has
finished work on paper he fastens to it
a card bearing the number of the depart
ment to which it should 90 next. The
carrier takes it from a box provided for
it and delivers it by number. When it is
to returned the clerk simply turns the
card over, and there upon its back is the
number of the department from which it
came. The next carrier going the oppo-
site way takes it back. BY this system
the average delay is not more than two
and half minutes. 1t used to be twenty
four hours
1t is now proposed to reduce the rec.
ords of the Revolution and the War OF
1912 to the same system, aud doubtless
this will be done. Then this Govern
ment will have the most complete mill
tary history that exists anywhere.