The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-07-26
FIRST SnIpMENr OF VAR BONDS
statement Given Out Yesterday by the
 Treasury Department,

Washington, July 25.-The following statement concerning the new bond is- sue was made at the treasury depart ment to-day: "The first shipments of the new war bonds were made to-day. They consisted of 1000 bonds of SEQ each, and 1000 bonds of $500 each. The public mind is poorly prepared to com prehend the enormous labor and multi tudinous details connected with this great popular loan. In the first place, after the rejection and return of thou sands of subscriptions to which no al- lotment could be made, there remain about S00,000 persons to whom bonds will be allotted and forwarded in due course of express. It is not question only of S00,000 names. The name, in cluding state, county, town and street number of each subscriber must be transcribed and rewritten in various ways at least ten times. This is equiv- alent to entering once thus fully eX- tended, three million or more names. rms mere clerical work Is, however, put part of the problem; the collec- tion of checks and drafts received as payment for bonds, the computation of interest, preparation of checks in set clement for same, the engraving and printing of the kinds or denominations ot bonds, the accurate disposition of these in envelopes properly addressed; all these are a part of the problem that must be solved without error or omission. One simple fact will impress the mind with the magnitude of the operation. Each envelope must be sealed with three seals, which means that nine hundred thousand seals in wax must be imprinted to outgoing bonds.
 Another important feature is the linn itation and the ability of the express agency to receive forward and deliver the bonds after they are committed to their care for this purpose. This limi- tation is estimated by the express com pany at 5,000 items per day. Possibly if this limitation of ability did not ex- ist-it is naturally prudent limit, since on an average of only $500 in each
 
 receive as flduclary agents s2,500,000 of the securities per day, and if it requir- ed an average of three days to make deliveries there would be continuous trust of S7,500, 0,000--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 sums of $4,500 or less, may rest secure in the certainty that the bonds will come to them all in due ttme-they must patiently wait the operations of the government machin- cry. It is understood that deliveries on the subscriptions are attended to. Of these small subscriptions there are 23e,000 in number, and it is estimated that forty days will be required for their delivery. From this it will ap- pear that subscribers 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 larger subscribers quite rapidly, since numerically speak ing they aggregate less than one-third of the number of small subscribers. In the meantime the larger subscribers will be officially notified by the treas ury department when and how pay ments in addition to the per cent. deposit will be required, and before re- hitting funds they are requested to await such notice. Much confusion will thereby be avoided