Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1906-01-27

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tnerefrom. Accounts aggregating.
probably, 100000 900 were passed up
on by this free and easy process. 1t
was the pleasant privilege of the writ
err to abolish this amazing procedure,
hence a statement of its inception and
operation will be specially appropriate
here.
The so-called "Dockery Act" of
1893, which reorganized the depart
mental service, materially changed
the system of checking money orders
in the auditors office. This change
was an incident of the bill, which pro-
vided thar thereafter money orders
should be so printed that by detaching
coupon the amount of the order
should appear automatically on said
coupon, ard though the requireme nt
tc use the coupon for checking pur-
poses followed only by implication, 1t
was plainly intended, and the coupon
could serve no other possible purpose
In fact, the report accompanying the
bill stated that the checking of money
order statements would be enormously
expedited by using the coupon instead
Of voucher for that purpose. The au-
ditor then in Office adopted the sys-
TEN, and in more than one report
claimed great saving of time by its
use. Thus, for more than three years
the money order accounts of the is
suing postinasters were audited on the
stubs" or coupons, and not on the
money orders themselves, as had pre-
viously been done, and has been done
since January 1, 1898. This process
was equivalent to settling a custom
er's account at bank on his own list
of checks used, verified only by the
stubs of his check book, and without
scrutiny of the checks themselves.
The issuing postmasters set in with
his weekly or monthly report of mon
ey orders sold what purported 20 be
the coupon cut from each order, which
coupon was supposed to represent by
the process of cutting the exact
amount of the order from which 1t
had been detached. If the postmaster's
account corresponded with this cou-
pom it was assumed to be correct, ac-
copied and closed. The money order
itself was not checked by the issuing
postmaster's accounts. The coupon
came in with the report and could be
Immediately checked, whereas If the
account must remain open until the
real voucher could be compared with
it much time must elapse. Money or
ders go to all parts of the country,
and weeks or months intervene before
they can be gathered in at the au-
ditor's office, checked with the ac-
counts of the paying postmaster who
sends them, then assorted by states,
towns, and numbers, and compared
with the issuing postmaster's account.
The opportunities for fraud would
seem to be too apparent to escape i'm
mediate attention. A dishonest post
master or employee could issue a mon
ey order for 500, cut the coupon for
81, debit himself with 81 in his state
ment, and pocket the 500 difference
with no risk whatever of detection. In
1897 a new auditor was appointed who
speedily discovered the loopholes in
this fearful and wonderful system of
audit, and realized his responsibility
for the losses that were certain to en-
sue. He figured out theoretically nine
distinct species of fraud which could
be perpetrated through this channel
with absolute impunity, and felt 1t
duty to promptly change the sys-
TEN.
On January 1, 1898, in pursuance of
previous arrangements, but without
notice, the auditors office abandoned
A. oo,,ro, nnt;ralu ond rocurnnd tho