The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-02-21

prepare the condition of the membership
of the order in California by what is known
as the card system-a system which at a
glance will tell the standing OF any
member.
AS the order has been growing it has
been discovered that there was need for
more complete and more accurate statistics
than had been furnished in the past, and
the commission appointed to gather such
facts and figures as will enable it to de-
termine at any time the standing of the
order concluded that the statistics should
be compiled so as 10 show o. Full name,
place OF birth, occupation, name and num-
Der of lodge, name of Jurisdiction, num-
Der and amount OF each beneficiary certifi
cate for each mem Der; % date and age of
admission; 81 date OF and age at sus-
pension or withdrawal by final card; a.
date of and age at death and cause OF
death; 81 duration of EN- bership-years,
months, days; (6) number of men bers at
each present age, December 81 of each
year, in each class, viz. $1,000 or $1,000; (7)
schedule of assessments by months ana
years
To secure these by the ordinary meth
Cd> would have proved q very tedious
Il DOR and results presented would have
been very cum bersome, so 1t decided to
adopt the card system, now IN vogue in
the pension bureau at Washington, D. c.
The accompanying card is the very con-
else form in which the history of each in
dividual member is brought down. To
reach this conciseness was a matter of
study and the card was not evolved in a
day.
Our statistics" said the grand re-
corder, will when completed give the Of
fetal record of every man who now is or
has ever been membe- OF the Order of
Workmen in this State. These cards will
be divided into three classes, and they
. will be those of the living ana in good
standing. the living who for one cause or
another have been suspended, and the
dead. The cards will be placed in spe-
cially constructed racks that tit in a cabi-
net, arranged in alpha betical order, so
that after finding the name of an individ-
ual by means of what is known as Graves
o index, the most intelligent index ever pre-
pared, the card can be found in a minute,
and that tells the standing OF the mem Der
at once. Under the old system it would
take long research through applications,
reports, files and books, and the searcher
was lucky if he could get a satisfactory
record in half an hour.
But TO accom- plish what has already
been obtained has required a great deal
OF labor. There has been the overhauling
OF N ore than "a 900 original papers TO as
certain the name, nativity, occupation
ana OCner data 10 make the preliminary
entries. Then there was the search to
discover the progress OF a mem Der after
having been admitted into the order and
MS standing on the last day of the last
year. 1t has taken time and as the phrase
goes great deal of digging.
The cards are mum bered numerically
in the order of the issuance of beneficiary
certificates. The first one is that issued
10 William II. Wood, member of Cali
fornia Lodge No. l, who is still alive, now
In his sixtieth year and a resident of ST.
Helena, Napa County, where he is raising
vines. He was at the time he joined a
printer in the employ of Joe Winterburn
and was with him for many years. He is
a past master workman OF his lodge but
he has never occupied any higher posi-
ton, not being anxious for Office.
From these cards." continued the
grand recorder, there has to be made up
the statistical tables that have to be for
warded to the statistical commission.
These are made out on sheets specially
prepared by the commission and when
completed will be of incalculable value to
the order in determining upon examina-
ton of the deaths, occupations and other
information the class of people who. as
they say in insurance circles, are the best
risks
Now that the card entries are almost
finished it will not require much time to
keep up the record of each individual
member. This is the only order that has
done this work, and now that it is done it
will prove great convenience