Evening star., 1902-03-05
M 0 N EY BY M ALL
SOME STEPS IN THE TRANSAC-
TON EXPLAINED.
Repayment Of Orders and the Mysteri-
Gus Advice-The Latter for
Protection Of All.

II have been sending money through the
mails for score of years, but l confess
there are kinks in~the. transaction, especial
ly as to repayments. of orders, and that
mysterious thing which is called an 'ad-
vice, which 1 have, been quite unable to
untwist,' said gentleman to clerk in
the money order division of the Washing
ton city post Office the other day.
You are no stranger on that PROPOSE
tion," replied the clerk, 'but the practice,
once understood, is not difficult. On the
question of the repayment of a money order
the public confuse the domestic with the
foreign or international orders. That Is
where the trouble lies. The differentiation
is important. and may be clearly explained.
"a domestic money order will be repaid 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 Or
der is issued, or is a live order Tor tnat
time. Should the order be not presented oy
that date, 1t becomes invalid, put only III
name. The postmaster cannot repay upon
presentation a domestic order which has
become invalid by reason of age, so he ap-
plies at the department at washington TOT
what is termed warrant. This warrant
Is issued in the building opposite Ihe star
office upon receipt of the application there
for. and in due and short time he receives
the warrant without cost to him.
Foreign Orders More Difficult.
1.-THE same process obtains If it Is the
payee who wishes to secure payment of the
order and has failed to present 1t within
the prescribed year. Therefore, remember
that it makes no difference how old your
money order may be, as the term invalid
Is departmental phrase and in nowise af-
fects the actual validity of your order. A
United States money order is like gov
ernment bond in the sense that II is always
good at the department for it's face value,
If 1t Is proved never to have been cashed,
whether 1t be year or decade old
mo. postmasters cannot issue duplicate
orders. as where the original order is lost,
burned, etc, and they must apply to the
department for such. The public should re-
member that 1t takes anywhere from one
day from post offices close to Washington
to five days from those. on the Pacific coast
for the application to reach the depart
ment. a day or two to issue the duplicate,
and then the journey back to the applicant.
If you are the payee OF a lost order you will
receive your duplicate as exped1tiouSly as
the mails will transport it.
''It Is the foreign or international orders
which cause the public to ask SO many
questions when it comes to repayments. as
the process of repayment is necessarily
more complicated International orders are
not repaid as are domestic orders. If you
desire an international order repaid take 1t
with you to the office Of issue, or send 1t
there by mail If you are resident Of an
other place The postf master then makes
formal applicatioI.to the department, who
in turn is obliged TO make request upon the
postal administration, rdf the country upon
which the order Is drawn for permission to
repay the amount Of the order to the remit
ter. 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 du-
plicate the foreign country authorizes re-
payment in the United States, and takes
credit for the payment In the postal ac-
counts between the contracting countries.
THE procedure is much more complicated
than in the repayment Of domestic order.
Recollect, that 1t takes time for the mails
to cross and recr9ss the ocean. and the
period usually CONSUMED in getting your
money back in the Instance of British or
central European. country is about six
weeks, and from Japan, Hong Kong, the
Australian colonies, Cape Colony and India.
about three months. We have had people
come In and ask for their money on an in
ternational repayment in two weeks or
scarcely time for the fast mails to go over
and back.