The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1897-06-17
HOW UNCLE sam PAYS
The ked-Tape Government Employees
Undergo TO Secure Their Wages.
BUT HANDSOME BILLS THEIR REWARD
serious Conflict of Testimony Re.
garding the Burial Place OF n
british GeneraI-Items from the
Swauk Mining Country.


question of settlement for the same seems
a very simple one, providing the requisite
funds are available.
With the government, however, this
process is surrounded by such an intri-
cate network of red tape that it becomes
"A very formidable affair.
No money can be paid out of the treas.
ury department until specifically provid-
ed for by act of congress. The bill which
covers salaries of government clerks is
called the executive, legislative and jul
diciai' bill, and this takes up each de-
partment, bureau by bureau, and states
how many clerks of each grade may be
employed therein. After this bill is pas
sed by both houses of congress-, signed
by the vice president and speaker OF the
house, approved by the president and
filed in the department of state, the pom
derous machinery for paying the wages
earned is fabricated" for another year q
work.
From this bill the secretary of the
treasury causes to be made statements for
each bureau. giving in detail the amounts
appropriated for each specific item for
which an appropriation was made by
congress. These statements, or "wpr-
rants" as they are called, are recorded
by the auditor and comptroller of the
treasury department and sent to the vari-
Gus bureaus. by the bureaus they are
forwarded to the secretary OF the proper
department, and he in turn sends them
to the financial division of his office.
| Alter being entered in the ledgers they
are endorsed by the secretary as received
| and recorded and forwarded to the sec
ond comptroller of the treasury depart
ment for filing. This insures uniformity
in titles and accuracy in amounts in all
the branches of the service interested in
the appropriation.
The next step is for the financial clerk
| to request the department for a certain
sum OF money from which to meet cur
| tCiit w litI ltt
is received the secretary of the treasury
issues warrant upon the treasurer di'
rectng him to set aside certain sum IN
favor Of the dlsbursng clerk, and from
this sum are to be paid in cash all drafts
issued by the disbursing clerk.
At this stage OF the proceedings the
money is ready to be paid over for the
asking, and the clerk is ready for hi.
wages.
Payment is made twice a month, al
the middle and end. The day before pay
day, a clerk from the financial division
makes a tour Of the Office. carrying a biz
receipt book and box Of slips of paper
Each clerk signs the receipt book anC
receives slip of paper, about two by
| four inches in size, containing state
ment as to its grade and the amount o
money then due him. At $50 on tn,
morning Of pay day the clerks all go tt
the door of the proper discussing officer
form in line, and AZ they in turn surren
der their slips OF paper. receive envelopes
similarly numbered and marked and con
tanning the proper amount Of money
| Almost invariably the bills are new snC
untoided notes, numbered consecutively
thus showing they have never before
| been used.
In the interior department alone there
are $500 names and in the entire official
corps something like $1,000. No mis-
takes are made, and at the close Of the
! year the books Of the various auditors ex.
actly balance.