The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1903-01-29

particulars Of each vouclIer-its number,
place OF Issue and amount. are carefully
set fortlI.n Ihese reports, with the accom-
panyins 100OO0 small vouchers from each
Office, nld corresponding reports with
vouchers in smaller numbers from all the
other cities, OF the country, are made up
and forwarded once week to the Office
of the Auditor for the Post-office Depart
ment in Washington.
AN AUDIT OF THIRTY MILLION SMALL
$40 40 VOUCHERS.
When these reports with their inclos-
ures reaeii the Auditors Office they are Mt
first handled iii the Inspecting Division
Here each voucher must he carefully
checked with the entry on the Postmaster
statement, which statement consists OF
sheets containing six columns with 40
items in each column. After this check
ing. the columns must all be footed up
and verified. totals carried forward, az
gregate amounts compared. and all tech
meal requirements of the law complied
with. This work is performed by clerks
receiving an average of $1,000 per an
mum, and more than 100 clerks are con-
stantly engaged in it.
From this Division these 30,000,00O
vouchers are taken to q section of men
standing at round tables, who distribute
them i'll piSeon-holes labeled with the
VI tie NUcit tity SGNtishs
originated. This seems to be simple
process. but as the aggregate weight of
these orders amounts to many tons III Nie
course of year, the duty is a very Ia
borious one and involves great care to in
sure accuracy.
From the round-table section these
vouchers are taken to the desks of the
money-Order assOrters, who arrange them
in alphabetical order according to the
towns in each State where they were is
sued.
They are then taken to another section,
where they are arranged in numerical or
der by towns, varying from few orders
issued in remote hamlet i'll Idaho to the
multiplied thousands issued in the larger
cities of the country.
After being thus arranged IN numerical
order in each town of issue, these 3O,OOO,-
OOO little money orders are ready to be
checked against the accounts of the is
suing Postmasters. This is q hgl-grade
clerical duty, assigned to another special
class of well-paid employees whose func-
ton consists in comparing the amount
given in the order with che amount which
the Postmaster has debited to himself in
each case as being the money lie received
when the order was issued. All this as
sorting work is necessary to get the
vouchers in shape to be checked by the
account of the issuing Postmaster. And
this detailed, careful checking is neces-
sary to detect the errors or attempted
frauds, which consist in acknowledging
the receipt. for instance, of So or So, when
in reality the Postmaster issued and col
lccted money for an order of $50 or 500.
The necessity fer this scrutiny is devel-
oped by the hundreds of discrepancies in
amount which are detected every day by
these yigilant auditors.
Having titus been finally checked by the
lD<.<,kv Nar, AsrtN
100000 small orders, with their col
leagues Of larger amounts, are now ready
to be tied in bundles, labeled with the
name of the post-Office where issued and
inclusive Numbers, and then stored away
in the fbes tOf the Bureau in accessible
form, whore;f under the law, they must be
retained for seven years. Here are Co.
100000 manipuJa tons in the Post-Ofiice
Department. .as well as 60,O00,0O0 audit
ing operations and 90,000,OO0 manipula
tons in the Auditors Bureau of the
Treasury, Department.
THE posTEHEcK WOULD SAVE ALL THESE
COSTLY AUDITING PROCESSES.
It is to be remembered that since the
issuing Postmaster or his clerks, in the
beginnings received all or more than the
fee charged by the Government under the
law, the entire volume of this subsequent
work of 'phyirg, reporting, auditing, as
sorting, etc, is done without a cent of
compensation, and Mt very heavy aggre-
gate expense. This necessity of report
ing and auditing arises from THE fact that
the money order must always be treated
as a voucher. Under the proposed post
check system there would be no such ne
cessity. The paid and Cancelled post-check
is not a voucher, but is s'mutilated cur
rency." 1t can be counted. forwarded, re-
deemed ard destroyed, as currency unfit
for use is now handled, without any Of the
detailed reports and audits necessary with
all classes of vouchers. Herein lies its
wonderful simplicity, and its manifest in
herent advantages over any money orders,
postal notes or other devices which have
heretofore been issued by the postal author
tiles of this or any other country. 1t is
believed that the Cancelled post-checks can
be so treated without any risk and to tie
great relief of the Auditors Office. The
twO-cent stamp attached, it is further be-
lieved, will pay abundantly for the origi-
well as for all work done by the Post-Of-
fee Department or the Treasury Depart
ment in fedeeming, canceling and ulti-
mately destroying them.
The large revenues thus received from
the sale of postage stamps would permit a
readjustment of the compensation of Post
masters Mt the smaller offices, In case the
work an injustice to them. One PROPOSE
ton is that ut the third and fourth-class
offices POstmasters shall receive 'cancella-
tons" on all post-checks paid, which seems
eminently fair. At any rate, if the plan
prevails, its details will be worked out cor
rectly.
A PROMOTER OF CLEAN CURRENCY.
The sweet boon of cleaner paper cur
rency of the smaller denominations is one
of the incidental advantages which the
people, especially in the West, would have
reason to hope from the post-check plan.
The constant flow of the Cancelled bills
to the Treasury and their redemption with
new, clean currency, would insure a much
better average condition of the circulating
medium, which is now, in too many cases
dirty, ragged and utterly disreputable. At
Representative Gardner, of Michigan, call
ing attention to a very repulsive note,
said '"This is a familiar specimen in our
section of the country. This is the kind
of money We handle very largely; that
is fair sample of the 81 and 81 notes
in current use, and our wives and daugh-
tiers and children must handle this kind
of money, think l am safe in saying in
majority of cases. You gentlemen in
Washington don't know anything about
the paper stpff issued by the Government
which we handle as money. I read an ar
ticle the other day from a medical jour
nal, in which at one of the banks the
sponge they used was analysed and found
to be filled with microbes carrying differ
ent kindsl Of, deadly diseases that had
anything else to commend this PROPOSE
tion hut the sanitary raa son-tbo Drnvio;oy