Evening star., 1901-10-28
PROPOSED POSTAL CURRENCY.
Auditor Castle Advances n Plan Which
He Regards as Practicable.


Mr.. Henry A. Castle. auditor for the Post
Office Department, being requested to give
an opinion on the merits Of recent sugges-
tions in regard to postal currency as a SUBJ
stitute for the use of postage stamps in
small remittances, called attention TO the
fact that any innovation in this direction
must take into consideration the accounting
system Of the postal service as a leading
feature That system, he says, is now vast
and complicated beyond the conception of
persons whose attention has not been drawn
to its details. The financial transactions of
the postal service during the current fiscal
year will aggregate nearly $500, ,000.O0 and
next year at least 81 000, 600 O00 IL the pres
ent rates Of progress are maintained. There
are 543 clerks now in the auditors office
engaged In handling vouchers and keeping
accounts; at least fifty more are impera-
lively needed today. Any proposition which
involves further serious complication of
these accounts, as most of those recently
suggested do, would, Auditor Castle claims
necessarily meet fatal objections in Con-
gress and the department On the other
hand, he believes that any proposition
which involves a simplifcation and reduc-
ton of this enormous work should have
prompt consideration. Over 800 employees
Of the auditors Office are now engaged
wholly In handling money order vouchers
and keeping money order accounts. If
scheme could be devised which would re-
duce the issue of money orders of small de-
nominations and at the same time, provide
convenient currency for small remit
tances in lieu of postage stamps, and which
would in addition reduce the labor of ham
ding vouchers IN the auditors office, that
scheme would certainly be practicable and
Immediately popular.
In his annual report for 1900 Auditor Cas-
tie referred as follows to a plan which still
strikes him as the most feasible yet pro-
onG io an,Ntih IL %
further Improvement and simplification:
Bills are pending in Congress, and in
huentially supported, for the establishment
of a series of postal notes or checks, which
IL adopted under proper guards and restric-
tions would replace money orders In many
cases where they can now well be dispensed
with. The proposition is that these notes
shall be printed on the same general design
as the present government currency, and
shall actually circulate from hand to hand
as such currency, until by writing the name
of the payee on blank lines provided a note
is transferred into a personal check Of the
United States government, and made as
safe for transmtttal by mail as money or
der now is. To cover the expense of ham
ding and paying these notes a postage
stamp Is to be affixed on each and Cancelled
when the name of a payee is written in.
They then become payable at any post office
on proper Identification of payee and when
once paid are not to be reissued, but may
be treated as mutilated currency is-that is.
forwarded to the treasury through desig-
mated channels for redemption and destruc-
ticn. Great care must. Of course. be exer-
cised in arranging all the details of such
new venture. but 1t would seem to have
many points Of excellence, not the least Of
which Is that apparently the issue and re-
demptton can, by treating the postal note
as money ana not as a voucher be so man.
aged as to entirely avoid transmission to or
consideration in the auditors Office"
The auditor, as indicated in extracts from
his forthcoming annual report. recently
published in The Star, fully sympathizes
with the public desire for means of mini
mixing the use Of stamps in remittances or
any other use Of them as merchandise OF
currency. He specially calls attention In
that report to the fact that postal revenues
in certain localities are unjustly increased
or reduced by such improper use of postage
stamps. The ingenuity Of the best talent In
the Post Office Department has been exert
ed for years to devise the most eQuable
method for compensating postmasters That
now In force-payfng the lowest grade of
postmasters according to their cancellations
and the higher grades on their revenues
from the sale Of stamps-is unquestionably
the most perfect yet devised and It Is des-
tined, probably, to remain the fixed policy
OF the department Its only defect Is this
interference by the use of stamps at offices
other than those where they were actually
purchased To reduce that evil to the min
suggestion to limit the sales of stamps by
private parties to quantities OF 81 or less.
The adoption Of this policy makes it, Of
course, incumbent upon the government to
provide postal currency for use in small
rsmittances less complicated than the pres
ent money order. system. The auditor be-
lieves that the proposition embraced IN the
nual report n the most practicable yet
brought forward - 49, -. -