Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-03-03
A GOOD INCREASE
Gain Of 20 per. Cent in Two Years
in Money Order Business.
OVER $4,000 FROM LOCAL OFFICE
Marvellous Increase in Number st Or
ders Sent in Past Few Years-Han.
ding of Vouchers Has Become seri.
Gus Matter in Auditing Department.

-
Approximately s71,7OO was sent out
from the Ottumwa postoffice in money
orders during the year 1909, an in
crease of 20 per cent e two years
ago. In the $4,000 money order offices
under the United States government
orders %aggregating 1913, 0O0, 900 were
issued. The increase in this business
in the past few years has been mar
velous and the problem of handling
the large volume of business has be-
come so serious that plans are being
considered to change the form of the
orders SO that the work of handling
the vouchers in the auditing depart
mentdat Washington may be minimiz.
4. Few who fill out occasional money
orders at the p%ostofflce, relates the
Washington Post, stop to think of
the almost unlimite3 number of sim
liar orders which are issued daily
Throughout the country, much less do
they realize the enormous amount OF
labor involved in handling the millions
OF dollars thus deposited with the
United States postal employees. If
n takes into consideration the So 900.
3A4St1Sy IuS OliSGo ulldSl III IL
ment alone, including Alaska, Hawaii,
Guam and Porto Rico, it will ybe u.s.
Ter to gain an adequate idea of the
work of keeping track of the 50.000,O00
of these vouchers which passsthrough
the hands of out postmasters every
year. "
Yet all these money orders, which,
as banks, were sent out in book form
and by serial number, though they are
widely separated and travel thousands
of miles, with landings by many peo-
pie, are brought back after use, and,
like the parts of every well regulated
system in the heavens above or the
earth beneath, are restored to their
original form-for once more they are
placed in proper succession in books.
The headquarters for these incon-
spicuous but nevertheless consequent
tial slips of paper are in the Office of
the auditor in the p%ostofice building
at Washington. The accounts of all
the postmasters are settled there,
where weekly and monthly state
ments comprising hundreds of sheets
of figures, are sent for inspection.
Large city offices sometimes send
weekly 600 sheets, or t~hirty-siX coll
umns of figures, enumerating each Of
the 100, 900 or more orders accompany
ing them. To compare and settle ac-
counts as vast as these, to inspect and
verify them, assert, label and file
them, is only a skeleton part Of the
work required of this bureau.
AT the head of the great number of
people required is Henry A. Castle,
chief auditor for the Unites States
postoflice department. His bureau is
under the treasury. but it has entire
control of the settlements and ac-
counts of all branches OF the postal
service. During the six years which
Mr.. Castle has been Office he says that
he has witnessed a growth of more
than 20 per cent in the business. This
he attributes to the enormous expan-
sion of the postal service in every di-
rection.
From 100000 to $313,ooo,o 600.
When one considers the fact that
during the first year of the money ord
er system, which was started in 1864,
only a little over $1,000, 900 was issued
in domestic orders, as set up against
the $313, 000, 900 of the year just ended,
some idea of its growth may be imagin-
ed. Money order offices are springlng
up all over the country, some Of them
having been added since July l last.
This is due in large part to the open
ing up of the west and to the greater
free delivery facilities. In one week
over -three-quarters OF a million dollars
is paid in the Chicago office alone.
Every money order paid in the Unit
ed States comes to the auditors Office
as a voucher, and must be handled
many times before the accounts of the
issuing and paying postmaster can be
properly audited. Arriving at the office
these statements are first taken up for
the inspection division. Needless to
say numerous mistakes are found, and
strangely enough, most of them are
against the government. In addition
Him n hin nhnyninn rny in Qnyinun