Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-24

person, 1t directs the treasurer or assist
ant treasurer at any point to credit to the
account of such and such disburSng Off
Ger so much money. The accountable war
rant Is the form used for placing money to
the credit of disbursing officers 1t is an
ADVANCE upon an appropriation made by
congress, and is called ACCOUNTABLE because
II must be accounted for. The disbursing
onhcer who has placed 70 his credit a war
rant for S1oo,OO0 must account to the book
Keepers for every cent of the money. The
disbursing officer renders his accounts to
the auditor, stating that he has disbursed
SO much money, and the auditors pass these
accounts to the bookkeeping and warrant
division.
All accountable warrants, under the law,
must be signed by the Secretary of the
treasury personally or by the acting secre-
tary. 1t must then be countersigned by the
controller of the currency or his assistant
Passing to the United States treasurer he
also signs 1t. but his signature is merely In
the nature of a direction that the warrant
be paid at such and such place. In the
settlement warrants there Is no requirement
that they shall pass through the hands of
the secretary of the Treasury, and the law
Is satisfied II these are signed by assistant
secretaries and by the chief clerk of the
controller.
X
The signing of warrants is one of the most
monotonous and disagreeable duties of the
assistant secretaries of the treasury There
are times when they accumulate at a most
rapid rate. A few days ago 5000 warrants
were issued in behalf of individual Indians
IN the west for Insignificant sums. Every
one OF these had to be signed in a formal
manner. The law does not permit the au-
thorfty to be delegated to some clerk or the
use of stamp. 1t must be original with
pen and ink. and one of the first things an
assistant secretary of the treasury or a
United States treasurer learns is to select
pens that work most easily and to cut off
all the frills he has ever attached to his
name. When Treasurer Treat came into
once July he asked for number of diff
ierent specimens of fountain pens His
clerks placed before him dozen or So He
gave each a good trial and picked out the
two that would write most easily Ellis H.
Roberts, the outgoing treasurer used a reg
uiar pen and staff and had to dip his, pen in
an ink well every time the ink became ex-
hausted. Treasurer Treat wanted to save
even that much time, and that is why he
took a fountain pen.
There about twenty different classes
OF warrants under the two divisions In the
Interior Department alone there are nine
classes. In the upper left-hand corner, in
green ink, is shown whether the warrant Is
settlement or accountable one, the words
being placed there, with the word "diplo-
matte, indian. customs or something
else printed in the same corner This en-
ables the bookkeepers to keep track of the
fund from which the money is to be paid
1t is the bookkeeping and warrants dIvi-
sion that issues the daily statement of re-
ceipts and expenditures of the government
and that gets out the monthly comparativ
statement at the close of each month The
Secretary of the Treasury is largely de-
pendent upon this division for his knowl-
edge as to what is going on in the depart
ment In the matter of income and oltgo.
and senators and representatives go there
for the same information. The figures OBJ
tanned there are used In speeches in Con-
gress and on the hustings.