Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1901-05-17
A TEMPTING ACCUMULATION
What the Government Does With un-
claimed Money Orders.

"What becomes of all the money Or
ders which are never presented for pay
ment 20 asked a Washington business
man of postal official. Every few
days we receive letters from our Gus
toners saying that they have forward
ed orders for goods, but the orders have
never reached our hands. And this is
true of every large mail order house in
Washington.
They disappear in various ways,
Was the reply. "Some are burned Or
torn up instead of the receipts, and
this is particularly true of interna
tional money orders, where the re-
ceipts are of the same size of the order,
only white i'll color. Some are sent 10
letters which are not addressed at all,
or are incorrectly addressed, and these,
together with thousands of other or
ders find their way to the dead letter
office Ultimately most of these letters
find oheir Way back to the remitters, or
uupllCdUcS dIt DIP plltu LUZ.
The British Government utilizes as
source of postal revenue all OF the
money in its hands which is not paid
out to meet money orders upon pres
entation, and derives about $50, 900 an
nually therefrom. Our government
does not attempt to derive any profit
from this source, and the money is
turned into the treasury, where it is
held to trust, as it were, to meet these
obligations. The government has no
desire to claim or contiscate the money,
and it will pay it's obligations in the
form of money order at any time upon
presentation, upon satisfying itself, in
the instance of long lapse of years,
that there has been no previous pay
ment by duplicate OF otherwise. In
Great Britain, l believe, this money
becomes forfeited to the government
after certain number OF years, four,
L think. The British Government evil
IDENTIFY proceeds upon the theory that
if Il holder of a money order, or the
sender, does not seek to cash the order
within reasonable time, the govern
ment can put it to good advantage by
applying the amount to its own use.
Such practice undoubtedly facilitates
the business of the governments end
of the contract, and is strictly legal if
authorized by law. In nearly all money
transactions there is limitation upon
the validity of any voucher which rep
reSentS cash as to its time for presen
tation. Even note payable without
date is barred by the statute of limita
tions in the various States.
There is to-day an accumulation
of over S2,5O),O00 ia the treasury of
these unclaimed money orders which
has been gradually pilfng up year af-
ter year during the thirty five years
the government has been conducting
a money order business. With each
individual order the government has
made special effort to effect payment
to the payee OF restore the amount to
the remitter, and, failing, can do
naught but keep the amount. The fact
that So 900 duplicate orders an annual
ly issued would appear to indicate that
the American people are extremely
careless in the handling of these money
Nhara ha ori no lC
how they are disposed of would fill q
volume.
1.-The government has issued $4,000
600, 600 in money orders, and has paid
every cent of this great sum except the
So, 500, 900 1 have mentioned. A single
order may be issued up to 500 in
amount, and the average is about 81 so,
the smaller offices issuing the great
bulk of orders and the larger offices
cashing 95 per cent. of them.
"Traveling men, actors, circus men,
railroad employees and others. whose
business requires them to move from
place to place, are very fond of buying
orders payable to themselves. They
cannot spend an order as a bill and as
no one but themselves or the indorsees
NAV secure the amount of the orders
they are Just that much ahead when
they get into the next town, making
| themselves their own bankers with the
government as a depository. Some
times an actor or a circus man will
lpresent dozen orders at the close OF
the season which he has bought from
time to time, and their amount repre-
sents savings which otherwise wooulc
have been spent.-W Washington Star.