The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-07-12
BONDS FOR THE PEOPLE.
How Great Popular Loan Is Being
Turned Out by Machine.

Turned Out by Machine.
Capt. alists Out in the Coid-Sorting and
Recording Subscriptions-A Card Index x
by States--U hen the People VIII Get
THEIR Bonds-The Designs to BE Very
Randsome-Interest Checks,
Correspondence of Boston Transcript
Washington, July s.-The turning out
of 5000, ZOO, 0Oosworth of new securities by
machine, as it were, is very interesting
spectacle. One may watch it's progress
in the War Loan office, which has Just
been established in the Post Office build
ing on Pennsylvania avenue. Here, in
several great rooms hastily improvised,
the building being as yet incomplete and
otherwise unoocupied, a large force OF
clerks is ut work. The treasury has been
obliged to hire 1925 extra people to attend
to the business details of the loan, and
bonds in the hands of subscribers at the
earliest possible date.
One of the rooms described is occupied
by about fifty men and women who do
| nothing but open letters and ascertain in
a oursory way the nature of their OOH
| tents. This is no small task, inasmuch
| as the number of applications received by
mail daily from would-be subscribers to
the war loan runs from 10000 to &C, 900.
| Nearly all of the letters contain checks
representing in each case the face value
| of the bond desired. The opener in every
instance compares the amount of the
check with the valus of the bond stated
in the accompanying application blank;
of course they must agree, or the applica-
ton will be thrown out and the check re-
| turned to the sender. If It'll seems to be
all right, the oheck-it may be a, draft, a
money order or occasionally even curren-
cy-is pinned to the applicat ion. and the
two are put aside on top of pile of 9TH
ers like them.
Messengers pick up the application
blanks and checks thus prepared and
sweep them, fifty or hu ndred at time,
into shallow baskets. From the baskets
they dump them upon long table in an
adjoining room, at which sit ten ex-
tremely busy men. Each blank with it's
pinned check must pass through the
hands of every one Of the ten, each of
whom is responsible for the correctness
of one or two little points, not looking
out for anything else. For instance one
clerk does nothing but make sure that the
signature and address on each applica-
tiDn are perfectly clear and legible:
another inspects the form of the check or
draft, to be certain it is not defective in
anyway.
Nearly all of the bids come in on the
application blanks which are furnished
by the treasury for the convenience of the
public. This is not essential, however,
and subscriptions offered in any clear and
proper way are accepted After the pa
pers have undergone the scrutiny of the
half-score of judges referred to they are
handed over to young,,women, who num-
Der them with the stamps. In this man
ner each application blank receives its
number, and the same number is put
upon the accompanying check. This
number follows the bid all the way
through the official process, and eventu.
ally will be found upon the bond itself
when issued.
Another room, occupied by more than
one hundred women and men, is devoted
to various kinds of clerical work in con-
nection with the loan. Part of this con-
sists in the making out of lists, each Of
which contains one hundred names of
subscribers, with their addresses, and in
each case the amount of the bond and it's
character, whether registered or. coupon.
Other semployes go over these lists, to
make sure that they are perfectly accur-
ate, taking one name at time and COM
pairing the list record with the original
application, to which the check still re.
mains pinned. Eventually the applica-
tions are filed in the War Loan office, and
the lists and checks are sent over to the
Treasury Department.
The room just described is devoted ex-
clusiyely TO the business Of considering
subscriptions of $500 and under; all the
bids exceeding $500 go to another room
passing through similar processes. All
applications from banks and other cor
poratiohs are put aside, and are not to be
considered at all until the private SUBJ
soriptiors have been filled: If there Is
anything left over when the people have
had all they want OF the bonds, then the
plutocrats may get slice. The present
appearances are that the bloated ones will
not obtain peseta of the loan. The rule
above described applies even to business
firms, and Jones 6 Jenkins, bootmakers,
will be thrown out just as quickly as the
Standard Oil Company.
This is the first real popular loan ever
issued by the government. Hitherto, on
every occasion when Uncle Sam has had
bonds to sell, nearly all of them have been
secured by banks and capitalists. There
was a so-called popular loan" in 1894.
out Of which the people managed to get
about twelve per cent; financial concerns
secured seyenty-five per cent, and the
rest was taken by individual money hold
ers like Russell Sage, who. himself &C.
CURED $50, 600 worth. 1t is an old story.
In 1879 the Treasury issued 1000, 600
certificates of $40 each, bearing four per
cent. interest, with the requirement. that
not more than certain amount should
be sold to any one person. Subscription
offices were opened all over the country,
and spectators hired large numbers of
men to buy the limit, each agent going
to the tall of the line as soon as his pur-
chase was made, and SO repeating again
and again.
"a LL-zA H.. L41