The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-09-27
IMPROVED M%ONEYORDERS
NEW FORM HAS ADVANTAGES OVER
THE OLD-A SIMPLE SYSTEM.
II Postoffce Serves, Among other
Things, as a Substitute Savings
Bank-Extended to Cuba.
Washington Letter In New York Post.

and shape as is practicable" said Superin-
tendent Metcalf, speaking of the new form
of money order which made its bow to the
public on Labor day. THE form of order
previously in use was prescribed by law, so
that we could not deviate from it till the
last postal act restored to the department
the discretion Ii formerly enjoyed. Acting
on that privilege, we have adopted this new
style, and shall introduce it as rapidly as
the exhaustion of the old stock will per-
init. We could not very well begin at an
earlier date, because our printing contract
lasted until Sept. g.
There has been considerable complaint
from banks that our money orders were not
uniform with the commercial paper they
had to handle in large quantities, and its
odd shape gave the tellers considerable
trouble. A complaint from such a source is
important, because 75 per cent. of our or
ders are now collected through the banks.
This department has practically a member
ship of the clearing house in eighty cities,
and our orders are cleared there the same
as ordinary bank paper. 1t took some little
time to get the mercantile community used
to the idea of collecting these orders
through the banks, and 1 remember visiting
one populous city not so many years ago
and seeing armed messengers go from one
Of the leading business houses every morn
ing to the postoffice carrying a days ac-
emulation of money orders in big bags.
1t was a godsend to that concern to show
it how to turn its postal business into the
same bank channel through which the rest
of its business went.
Nobody who has not looked into it has
any idea how extensively our money orders
are used not only in retail trade conducted
through the mails, but in newspaper SUBJ
scriptions and the like. We have now got so
that we print, for very large patrons, blank
application for money orders with the name
and address of the patron and the name of
the city postoffice or station at which the
orders are to be payable. This saves time
for a purchaser or subscriber, reduces the
chances of error to a minimum, and en-
ables the dealer or publisher to send out
these blank applications with his advertise
venient as possible to his prospective Gus
toner. This is undoubtedly a great stimulus
to trade. One religious weekly, of large cir
culation, for instance, used thirty-five thou
sand of these applications in a single day.
A SAVINGS BANK.
Another very great use which has come
to be made of our money orders is as a
means Of depositing savings. A person who
distrusts banks, or who finds it %inconveni-
ent to %patronize them, will take his savings
to the nearest postoffice and buy a money
order payable to himself. The difference be-
tween our system and that of the ordinary
savings bank is that the bank usually al
lows a deposition interest for the use of his
money, while we charge him for taking care
of 1t. The charge, however, is for an indef-
sented here which were thirty years old.
and such a period as five years is not at all
although the average life Of a
money order is only six days. The most
aged orders are usually presented by execu-
tors or administrators of estates, having
peen round among the papers Of the de-
cedent. One woman who had been using the
who had accumulated thirty orders in five
years, being in need of the money lately.
presented the whole thirty at once. and we
gave her ore warrant for the entire amount.
The growth of the ~money-order system
IN popularity has exceeded all expectation.
The increase of our business in 1895 over
1897 was. in round numbers, SIG, 900, 600. We
have not the figures for the last quarter of
1899. but If they maintain the ratio of the
crease of $50, 900, 900 over 1893. AS fast as
practicable We have extended the use of the
system to smaller and smaller communities,
until We have now some $4,000 money-order
offices. That is one Of the reasSns why we
have aimed at such extreme simplicity IN
the new style of order. Many of the offices
are in small spaces, occupying, perhaps. one
corner of a general store. the ~torekeepe
being the postmaster, and he and his wife or
daughter, or possibly a clerk, transacting all
the business.
NO CHANCE FOR ERROR.
THE chances of error here. as you will
see, are large unless the system is made
extremely simple. Under the old rule of
filling out the advice blank in duplicate
as a separate operation it was a not un-
common thing to nave the amount differ
= rvrs+% 49, A. $780, -r.-z +
take as s25.42 on the order itself and $42. %
on the advice sheet being a fair sample.
Other errors which crept in frequent
ly were variations in the name of the
payee and of the office of payment. Then,
too, We were continually getting into trouble
with the marginal numbers. A person UNI
used to business methods, or to working in
the midst of noise and confusion, would cut
these numbers in such a way that whereas
the written text might call for $40 the mar
gin might call for only 40 cents. In all
such cases we had to have a tiresome cor
~reSpondence with the postmaster at the is
suing office to ~straighten the accounts out.
with the new form of order, we have
dispensed with this marginal nuisance. As
a check upon fraud or mistake in handling
such paper, however, ii is necessary to re-
sort to either an advice or a device. Banks
use a device: we find it more practicable to
use an advice. We have done away with the
danger of differences between the oredr and
the advice in the three essential points by
having the blank advice sheet bound in
under the order blank, SO that by slipping
we make the advice an absolute facsimile
of the order itself. as to not only subject
matter but handwriting. On the order the
amount is written in words, and then, on
the same line, further to the right, in fig
ures again. These figures are carried by the
carbon into the corresponding spaces in the
blank beneath, but that part of the blank is
separated by a line of perforation from the
receipt. which Is torn off and given by the
postmaster to the person who buys the or
der. The postmaster files the application,
which. being made out by the purchaser OF
the order, is the only voucher retained by
the issuing office. The purchaser. on getting
his receipt, is supposed to look at it's figures
and see whether they tally with the amount
paid by him to the postmaster. If they do
not, hat is his time to complain. He can
compare. also, his receipt with the order
itself before sending the latter away to the
plete and yet very simple system Of checks
and balances. Z"
BUSINESS EXTENDING.
GAS I have said. the simplicity of this ar
rangement was desirable on account of the
number of small Offices which now issue
money orders. The paying offices give US
cent. of our money orders are paid at the
large offices, where experienced clerks act
as tellers. A man In such a position needs
about the same training as a teller at q
bank, including Quickness Of perception
when there is any suspicious circumstance
attaching to a transaction. Our losses, in.
deed. grow steadily smaller as we continue
to improve the system and the people anC
toned TO it. 1t is not intended, of course
to make this a money-making feature fol