Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1905-09-30
MONEY FOR SOLDIERS AND
THOSE WHO DISBURSE 1T,

/ piles of sheets covered with names, let
ters other data and figures Figures for
breakfast, figures for lunch, figures for
dinner, figures and more figures. Papers
cover their desks and are piled on chairs
and tables. and they tell of millions OF
| dollars received and expended. Once in
| a while one OF these workers. in sheer
desperation, gets up and walks about the
room to steady his nerves, clear his head
and give expression to feelings 50 long
pent up that when they are expressed it
seems as if the roof might well lift.
! Then he goes back to the desk and begins
! to run up long rows Of figures again.
! There is a balance this time and a glad
shout rends the air; the other three look
/ up. panied at the outburst OF levity.
| They haven't yet struck a balance. One
| has been trying for hours to find out
where that Internal 3 cents went to-!
! Another has found discrepancy Of $l.06
| in the payment OF NEARLY a quarter of a
million of dollars. He must work and
struggle, 90 over, mayhap. again and
again the great mass of figures, names,
! letters and places, for that balance must
/ be struck. For Il week, two weeks YES,
! frequently three weeks. this same hard,
! pqplcNing, nerve destroying, patience
| testing. constitution breaking struggle
goes on and yet the days are not long
enough for these men OF figures and hard
work When ii is all completed the
desks cleared and they have had an OPP
portunity to take q few long, free
| meaths. an order comes down from de-
partment headquarters directing another
payment.
! These men Of labor-and there are none
| in all Of the lists of laboring men who
work greater number of hours per
month or do harder work. than these
obligin4. well-informed, patient, persist
ent, tireless strugglers-are paymasters
and Their clerks.
! | ara going to write something about
army paymasters' clerks. There are, in
| the Philippine Islands, at present, about
| twenty of these workers, men whose ca
| pacty is tested and retested to the very
! quick, every month of the year, for when
| they are not applying their eyes, minds,
hearts and their very souls to the per-
| Torrance of duties as intricate and diff
| ficult to solve as any connected with the
most complex banking institutions, they
/ are out on the high seas or wandering
over rough roads on islands, visiting
! posts as the yeritable strong right arms
of their chiefs. the paymasters. And
| have yet to see a word descriptive of the
duties. trials ard tribulations of this
class of successful, painstaking, loyal
public servants.
Each paymaster is entitled to clerk.
He is given the pay of Il second lieuten-
ant of the army, Sll6.67 per month, and
draws travel pay at the rate of cents
a mile in addition to transportation. The
position in the states, though q very try
ing one, is by no means as difficult to
fulfil as in the Philippine Islands,
Go with me on pay tour and watch
the clerk. In nine cases out of ten he
sleeps on the deck of small transport;
in the rainy season he seldom fails to
get a drenching Reaching a station the
clerk must figure out one of the company
| rolls and then compare it with the one
| figured out by the paymaster. That be-
| ING over, he must name the amount OPP
| positc each soldier as his name is called
! by the company commander. He must
apply his mind absolutely to this work,
! for a failure to name the exact sum
means loss to the soldier or loss to the
Epaymaster. When the payment is done
he must 90 over the roll and note oppo-
site each man who makes a deposit, en-
ter the amount count the money ami
pass IT 10 the paymastcr, who gives it
a second counting. Then comes the call
niob ~ fft. ma oInril , o.;t' '0 1,a
checks and the paymaster receives the
laoo .t,tio, 49,, f an,of,,i ,,.,,i
l,yru s,,IawiataJ nfto,. an - 80 ,o,,t ~
hi. .lrnrts ~ -, W.
several ,,ooos ,,asnI 81. ~,
,.,,ta ~, ,,.,1Ij,. ~ ,,,.'o n.y. ~.
Eoirors and men, oooI sIn 1''' f ',.I ~
mn.t of ,Go linn ~, t,1l.;n,, W. , "'G,,'
Iaun.fil,,s ,,bia}, thn ,,.,,.,,nt i ,'I.
wv, ,,,ootoJ a., l,' ','''' r''' y
thnso 5,tios M, Iana = ~" %'' ~
n,rt f., 80, ,I,.,+ an ~ ~. ."e 0',' =,
IL,yo hne,, ,,,.',.rl,. ,,.;t,,o5 t'"''5
INV ~ ~" F'NfS'N MttlFNN'd, gathered