The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1899-08-09
SOME VIEWS AT WASHINGTON
fny g A EnMARpsl

said of incompetency and rottenness In
| the war department 1t is positively re-
freshing TO note case of brilliant per-
Torrance, the highest efficiency and com.
potency and u careful conserving OF the
people interests wherein hundreds OIL
thousands of dollars of the taxpayers
money has been saved by one OF the Of
fcers OF that department. That man is
| Brigadier General +. C. Ainsworth, CHIEF
OF the record and pension division OF the
war department. General Ainsworth is
| we'll known in Southwest Texas. where ne
1 was stationed at Fort Mcintosh, near La
redo. for a long time. He never tires
singing the praises of the people of Texas.
| He says they are the salt of the earth, the
biggest hearted and most generous people
in the world. Many men In that section OF
the State will remember the army sur
geon whom some called captain, some ma
jor, and some Just plain DOC" Aims
worth. And they will not remember him
without also remembering also that he
was, as he is today always the gentleman,
frank and open, hail fellow well met, al
ways courteous and amable, ft COM
panion for any man, and good officer
II they don't remember those things about
him, then they never knew him, for mat
| is exactly the Kind of man he is. But
that's another story. ! started out to tell
OF Doc Answorth's good offices to the
American PEOPLE.
The senate committee OH military af-
t,;f In a
report on the condition of the record and
pension division of the war department
This was In 1892 1t seems that Captain
Airsworth was called from duty down at
Fort Mcintosh in December 1856, and
placed in charge of the record and pension
division of the surgeon generals Office
AT that time an arrearage of 951l calls
from the commissioner of pensions existed,
many OF which were months old. In less
than three months the arrearages were all
answered and the work kept current, and
all calls thereafter made promptly an
swered. Then came Ainsworths master
piece. AS soon as the work was current,
DR. Ainsworth evolved from the inner re-
cesses of his brain the solution of prob
lem that had been puzzling the people of
the war department and congress for
many years That was the salvation of all
the records of the civil war; including the
hospital records.
This plain, every day army "sawbones.
this unpretentious surgeon and captain in
the army, right from the frontier, where
people are used to doing their own think
ing and doing it quickly, made change in
If thaca hat cavoi tho
army records from sure destruction and
saved the taxpayers of the country hun
dreds of thousands of hard earned dol
lars. He invented and adopted the card
index record system and Immediately be-
gan the work of transcribing onto those
cards every entry on the hospital records
relating to any soldier, and without the
employment o. any additional clerks he
completed the card Index records of all the
soldiers of the Union army ever treated
in hospital of which any record exists.
For many years prior to 1886 the prob
lem of reproducing and preserving the
rapidly decaying muster rolls was one
which seemed impossible of solution. Pho
Biography, photolithography and various
other measures were proposed, but none of
them would have cost less than several
millions OF dollars. All we're finally aban-
doned as impracticable, and the complete
destruction OF these records in the near
future was looked upon as inevitable. They
searching them was facilitated tenfold
and without the addition OF a clerk to tho
force or dollar to the regular appropria-
m tlA
Ainsworth had transferred to cards the
1O.oOO,OO0 entries upon the $4,000 volumes
of hospital registers, and so arranged
them, when completed, that twenty clerks
now do with ease and with degree of ac-
curacy and completeness, wholly unat.
tainable under the old system, much more
work than the $50 formerly employed in
this branch could possibly do. Legislation
was then enacted transferring all the mus
ter rolls of the army to this division pre-
sided over by Captain Cnow GeneraD
Ainsworth, and the name changed TO the
record and pension division" of the war
department. Major The had then been pro-
moted) Ainsworth then proceeded to adopt
the card-index record system and amply It |
to the muster rolls of the army the same
ms he had the hospital records. These rec
ords are of the greatest importance. The
records, which contain the history of the |
No'untcer soiuleTS, consist OF more than |
ACE 600 muster rolls and l40, 900 bound VOL |
umes, besides vast accumulation of |
other documents of miscellaneous ma
tlre.
When it is considered that the adiudica.
ton of almost every one of the innumera-
BILE claims arising out of the volunteer SER
vice is based upon the evidence furnished
by these records, some conception of their
value and Importance can be formed. In
one year alone calls were made upon them
from various sources in nearly half a mil
lion cases. of which 3i5,759 were claims for
pension, Si,724 for pay and bounty. 1904
for certificates in lieu of lost discharges
lo,s3S from adjutants general of States
ana 1880 for removal of charges of de-
sertion. For many years to come the de-
nands upon these records for information
to be used in the transaction of current
business Of the government must con-
tinue, perhaps with some diminution IN
frequency, but II is safe to saw thai mn
one OF the present generation win live
to see the day when reference To them viii
ne unnecessary. The numerous Inquiries
Nnich are now being made and which
come In every day for the service records
Of Officers and soldiers of the wars n, ths
revolution and of 1872 are sufficient ~
snow the great value which the records az