Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1898-07-28
rHE NEWpopULAR WAR LOAN.
Ehe Preparation, Recording and Distribu~
ton of the Bonds a Herculean Task
The Distribution Begun.

WASHINGTON, July 26.-The follow
ing statement regarding the new bond
issue was made at the treasury depart
ment yesterday:
The first shipment of the new war
bonds was made to-day. They con-
sisted of 1000 bonds of $50 each, and
1000 bonds of $500 each. The public
mind is poorly prepared to comprehend
the enormous labor and multitudln-
Gus details connected with this
great popular loan. In the first
place, after the rejection and
return of thousands of sub
scriptions to which no allotment could
be made there remain about 3OO,00U
persons to whom bonds will be allotted
and forwarded in due course by ex-
press. 1t is not a question of 30O,ooo
names. The name, including state,
county, town and street number OF
each subscriber, must be transcribed
and rewritten in various ways at least
ten times. This is equivalent to enter
ing once, thus fully extended, 3,OoO,o Oo
or more names.
The mere clerical work is, however,
ton of checks and drafts received as
payment for bonds; the computation of
interest and preparation of checks in
! in settlement for same; the engraving
and printing of ten kinds or denomina-
tons of bonds; the accurate DISPOSE
ton of these in envelopes properly adj
dressed-all these are part OF the
problem that must be solved without
error or omission. One simple fact
will impress the mind with the magnl-
tude of the operation: Each envelope
must be sealed with three seals, which
means that 9oO,o seals in wax must
be imprinted to outgoing bonds.
Another important feature is the linn
itation in the ability of the express
agency to receive, forward and deliver
the bonds after they are committed to
their care for this purpose. This linn
itation is estimated by the express
company at 5000 items per day. Pos
sibly if this limitation of ability did
not exist-it is a naturally pru-
dent limit, since. on an average
If only $500 in each en-
velope. the express company would
received as fduciary agents, So, 500, 900.
If the securities per day, and if it re-
quired an average of three days to
make deliveries, there would be con-
tinuous trust of So 500. O00-as large an
amount, perhaps, as the responsibility
of the express company would justify.
The facts thus cited go to show that,
while subscribers in the sum of 81, SOC
or less may rest secure in the cer-
tainty that the bonds will come
to them all in due time, they must pa
tiently wait the operation of the gov
eminent machinery. 1t is understood
that deliveries on the subscriptions of
$500 and less, for which the money has
been all received, will be made before
the large subscriptions are attended TO.
Of these small subscriptions there
are 100000 in number, and it is
estimated that 40 days will
be required for their delivery.
From this it will appear that sub
scribers in amounts larger than $500
will not begin to receive their bonds
until after September 1. From that
date on the bonds will be put in the
hands of the large subscribers quite
rapidly, since, numerically speaking,
they aggregate less than one-third of
The number of small subscribers
In the meantime the larger sub
scribers will be officially notified by
the treasury department when and
how payments in addition to the two
per cent. deposit will be required, and
before RENTING funds they are re-
quested to await such notice. Much
confusion will thereby be avoided.