The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-04-12
- S7re II
MONEY BY MAIL.
Some Steps in the Transaction Ex-
planned.
Washington Starr

washington Starr
~ have been sending money through
the mails for a score of years, but |
confess there are kinks in the trans
action, especially as. to repayments OF
orders, and that mysterious thing
which is called an advice, which
have been quite unable to untwist, .
said a gentleman to a clerk in the
money order division of the Washing
ton City postoffice the other day.
You are no stranger on that prop
osition," replied the clerk, but the
practice, once understood, is not diff
cult On the question of the repay
ment of a money order the public con-
fuse the domestic with the foreign or
international orders. That is where
the trouble lies. The differentiation is
important, and may be clearly ex-
planned.
"A domestic money order will be re-
paid to the holder upon presentation
at the Office of issue. 1t is good for
twelve months from the last day of the
month in which the order is issued, or
is a live order for that time. Should
the order be not presented by that
udIp, II DeCOIllGS lilN anu, Jul OIlly III
name The postmaster cannot repay
upon presentation a domestic order
which has become invalid by reason of
age, so he applies at the department at
Washington for what is termed a war
rant This warrant is issued in the
building opposite the Star office upon
receipt of the application therefor, and
in due and short time he receives the
warrant without cost to him.
THE same process obtains if it is the
payee who wishes to secure payment
of the order and has failed to present
it within the prescribed year. There
fore, remember that it makes no diff
ference how old your money order may
be. as the term invalid is depart
mental phrase and in nowise affects
the actual validity of your order. A
United States money order is like
government bond in the sense that it
is always good at the department for
it's face value, if it is proved never to
have been cashed, whether it be year
or decade old.
mo, postmasters cannot issue duph-
cate orders, as where the original or
der is lost, burned, etc, and they must
apnlv to the department for such. The
public should remember that it takes
anywhere from one day from postof-
fees close to Washington to five days
from those on the Pacific coast for the
application to reach the department,
dav or two to issue the duplicate. and
then the journey back to the applicant.
If YOU are the payee of d lost order
YOU will receive your duplicate as eX-
peditiously as the mails will transport
it.
1T is the foreign or international
orders which cause the public to ask
so many questions when it comes to re-
payments, as the process of repayment
is necessarily more complicated In
ternational orders are not repaid as
are domestic orders. If you desire an
international order repaid take it with
you to the office of issue or send it
there by mail if you are resident of
another place. The postmaster then
makes formal application to the de-
partment, who in turn is obliged to
make request upon the postal admin
istration of the country upon which
the order is drawn for permission to
repay the amount of the order to the
remitter. You see, even though you
have the original order with YOU in this
country, the advice has gone abroad.
and it may be paid there to the payee
by duplicate. This is guarded against
by various methods, and if the order
has not been paid abroad by duplicate
the foreign country authorizes repay
ment in the United States, and takes
credit for the payment in the postal
accounts between the contracting coun-
tries.
THE procedure is much more COM
plicated than in the repayment of
domestic order. Recollect, that it takes
time for the mails to cross and recross
the ocean, and the period usually con-
sumed in getting your money back in
the instance of a British or central
European country is about six weeks,
and from Japan, Hongkong, the Aus
tralian colonies, Cape Colony and In,
dia about three months. We have had
people come in and ask for their money
on an international repayment in two