Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-05-24

There is bill pending before the
senate and the house at Washington |
which should interest every person in |
this country who has any occasion to
transmit money by mail, and this
means nearly everybody, from the far
mer who wishes to subscribe for his
country paper to the largest CONNER
cial concerns. The bill is known as
senate bill No, 3643 and house bill No,
1852 the post check" bill.
The bill was introduced in the SEN
ate by Mr. Mcmillan of Michigan (rep)
and in the house by Representative
John J. Lentz (dem.) of Ohio and its
full title is " A bill to prevent robbing
of the mail, to provide a safer and cas-
Ter method of sending money by mail,
and to increase the postal revenues"
Briefly this bill proposes the follow
ing: To reprint all 81, 81 and So bills
now in existence and have their faces
provided with blank spaces, the notes
to be printed in the heaviest style Of
art employed in the national bureau Of
engraving. Each treasury note, coin
certificate, silver certificate or other
form of currency Of 81, 81 and So de-
nomination to be replaced with a
'post-check" note OF like denomina-
ton, based on the same foundation, and
existing under the same law as the note
retired, thus in no way changing the
present financial system of the govern
ment. This money. with the new face,
to pass from hand to hand in the ordi-
nary transactions of business, just as
the notes now do. Then when one
wishes to send money by mail in small
amounts, say for 81, to subscribe for
magazine newspaper or for any other
purpose, one may take a 81 bill. write
on it's face in spaces provided for the
purpose the name Of the person or
firm to be sent to, the city and state,
and affiX a 2-cent postage stamp in
square Indicated write ones initials
and the date in ink across the face
Of the stamp and transform this piece
| the United States government, as safe
| for transmission as any piece of ex-
| change.
The scheme is very simple and
| seems to be quite feasible. 1t would
| appear to be an easy matter-pro-
! viding one chance to have the cur
| rency-tO take a one, two or five dol
lar bill from ones pocl1etbook and
make a check Of it simply by writing
upon its face the name of a person to
| also provides for the retirement of
| $50,000,000 Of the larger denomination
bills and replacing these with frac-
| tional currency in smaller postal
| checks ranging from 10 to so cents.
These would require only a 1 cent
postage stamp. Thus the cost of send
ing $3.50 by mail would be, under the
post-check system, cents, against
the present cost for money order for
the same amount of II cents-includ-
| ing the revenue stamp, or of 10 cents
without this temporary tax
But aside from the lesser cost it
would be a great saving in time and
! annoyance. The tedious and often
| inconvenient trip to the postoffice to
secure a money order would be done
away with, and a safe, convenient and
| instantly available form of trans
missible money would be supplied,
with which the American public could
| transact business by mail which now
aggregates, in the small sums repre-
| sented by inclosed postage stamps, sill
yer pieces, money orders. express or
| ders and other inconvenient and
| sometimes unsafe mediums, upward of
$1,000, 100000 year.
But think of the advan tages Of the
post-check to the farmer! Often he is
miles from money-order postof1ice
and so has to wait convenient time
Till he visits town to pay small bill
or send a subscription. Under
post-check system he would only have
to make check of his currency, seal
it in an envelope and hand it to the
rural delivery mailman as he makes
his rounds.
And even if the farmer does chance
to be near postoff1ce it may not be
money-order office; on the contrary,
it is likely not to be. Of all the post
Offices in the United States two-thirds
are not money-order Offices, and these
are in agricultural communities where
it is especially inconvenient for the
citizens to secure safe money to send
IN the mail. The farmer, more than
almost any other person, must keep
currency about him. He cannot run
to a bank or safety-depOsit box every
time he wants to pay a bill or give his
farm hands their wages. SO if he
could combine this keeping of cur
rency with a safe and ready system Of
checking it would be particularly to
his advantage and convenience.
Another point that might be to the
farmers advantage. This post-check
money might be so fixed that it would
be useless to any person who might |
steal it. There are times when the far
mer wishes to keep more money in his |
house than he has immediate use for. |
If this were in post-check currency his |
wife could make each bill check pay
able to the order of her husband and |
thus retire the bills so changed from |
general circulation without in any |
sense impairing their value When
wishing to use this money the farmer
could make trip to the nearest post