Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1904-06-29

partment has for nearly a year pas
been constantly under fire from gun!
of large caliber, loud noise and con
siderable execution. In the old-fash
ioned bombardments of cities. beach
es were made in the walls through
which the enemy might find entrance
and through which at least the oper
ations of the people within could be
observed New-fashioned guns carry
further and hit harder. The modern
dynamite shell fired from distance
of Is miles, striking in the heart of
city, would probably reduce every
thing contained on a square mile of
ground to impalpable atoms.
The effects of the bombardment of
the postoffice department have not
been to annihilate it, But serious
breaches have been made and the
Sentry has obtained a view of things
going on within which carry convic.
tion that there are many faults in
this boasted system.
One of the postal branches not spe.
cifically involved in the Scandals"
but brought under observation indi.
rectly thereby and directly by other
means, is the money order system.
This business, which is no part of the
original postoffice plan, is growing so
vast and developing so many defects
that earnest efforts are being made to
devise an acceptable substitute for at
least the smaller denominations
The postal money order service is
admittedly complicated and cumber
some to the people. The process of
procuring at the postoffice a money
order with all the red tape surround
ing that process, has long been
cause of complaint to patrons. The
following dialogue, said to be the rec
ord of an actual transaction, pointed
ly illustrates some of the inconven.
fences which people suffer:
81 want to get money order she
said
please make out the application,
replied the clerk.
What application? just want to
send $15 dollars to --"
please fill out the blank"
'T-I-will you please fill 1t out
for me?"
Il can't, it's against the rules"
On, dear me, | don't believe l can,
What do you do frst?"
Write the date"
Now let me see, is this the tenth
or the eleventh."
The tenth"
Il thought so, but wasn't sure. What
do | do now?"
Write the amount to be sent"
IT'S SIS"
well, write it on the next blank
line"
How easy it is after all. Now what
10 do?"
And so it goes, until each particu-
lar blank has been laboriously filled
in by the fair one, at the dictation of
the long suffering clerk. This is per
haps an extreme case, but under the
most favorable circumstances there
is veXatious loss of time in securing
these orders at the post office 1t has
been estimated that at least half an
hour is wasted by every purchaser of
a money order, including the time lost
in going to the office waiting for the
order, and returning to the starting
point. This seems to be a low aver
age, but as 46 million money orders
were issued in the United States last
year, even on this basis twenty-three
million hours of time was lost to the
productive industry of the country,
is going through the process of pur-,
chasing them. Allowing ten hours for
a days work, three hundred days in a.
year, this labor of nearly eight thou
sand men for one year was thus lost
w nv NVAh'A > ~ bA9Ah RboNoi ihbhNy
orders. The additional loss of time
accruing to those who collected the
orders at post offices, was another
serious item.
Besides these losses of time and
patience to the people, ii has been
officially demonstrated that the entire
money order service is conducted at
a heavy cost to the government be
yond its returns in revenue. Reports
of the auditor for the post office de.
partment show that the ascertainable
expenditures for money order business
by the department exceed the receipts
therefrom by more than $5OO,0OO per
annum. There are various other items
of expense not accurately ascertain
able, which would largely increase