Omaha daily bee., 1911-07-16
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board of banking trustees, tells me we should have
establish, in time, great accounting system here
at Washington, with great force of clerks to Keep
track of the in these thousands of Offices scat
tered over more than three million square miles.
Nevertheless, we have begun the business without
a cent of additional expense for clerical hire. And
moreover, the prospect is that 1t will be carried on
without any material change in our government ma
chinery when the deposits are hundreds of millions
and that at which In the light OF its cost
to other nations will be ridcuously small
An Idea Worth Millions.
For the invention which has done away with this
enormous bookkeeping, Uncle Sam is indebted to Mr.
Hitchcock his postmaster general 1t is an in
vention worth millions, for it is estimated that 1t Will
save at least million dollars year to the govern
ment 1t will certainly do away with the possible
employment Of 1000 bookkeepers, which even at as
low a salary as 81, 900 year, would make annual
draft on the treasury of 900, and that in ad
diton to other machinery which would greatly add to
the total Mr. Hitchcock conceived the idea during
his trip to Europe last summer. He there saw the
complicated machinery of other nations the most of
It based ON the system devised by Gladstone, which
has been adopted by forty other countries. This
the use of the passboOk, which in England meant
the posting of the deposit books Of $4,000 Offices and
Of keeping sets of books for them 1t involved the en-
ployment of 1000 clerks in London, and of a great
bookkeeping establishment there. In our own country
the oces would surely be three times many as in
Great Britain and they will probably be $4,000 or
$4,000 To handle them on the European
system evidently very expensive, and Mr.. Hitch
cock, in working the matter, originated plan
whereby the accounts would to great extent keep
themselves, and that without mistakes.
Certificates Bank Books.
This plan the wiping out OF the passbook, and
the issuance drafts certificates of deposit This
has been installed and is the present system. The
depositor hands in his but in place of having
a credit made on a bank book he Is given certih-
cate Of deposit for the amount he puts in.
The certificates in the denominations Of 81, 81,
IS, $40, $40, $50 and 800, and they bear interest
at the rate of cent per annum. They are neither
transferable negotiable, and not worth any
thing except In the hands of the buying them
They are issued in duplicate and the original and
duplicate must each bear the signature Of the de-
positor duplicate is retained by the postmaster
and II the would withdraw his deposit he must
bring back the original and sign his name in the
presence OF the postmaster, who compares 1t with
the signature on the duplicate 1t is after Just the
same method that the travellers checks issued by
banks and express companies cashed all over the
world today and the as that used In letters or
credit One might forge another mans signature,
but II takes great skill to make such forgery onhand
in the presence of the man you are trying to de-
fraud
If certificate of deposit should be lost or de-
stroyed be duplicated by applying to the post
master. the signature made in this way. being evil
dence of the claim The postmaster keeps a record
of these duplicates, not in book, but in a set of
manila jackets envelopes after the card index sys
tenn, each manila jacket bearing the name Of de-
positor and having in 1t that depositors duplicates.
1t is as simple as rolling on a log
IL Ia FOOlprOOf.
Again the need OF bookkeeping is avoided by the
fact that deposits made only in multiples OF one
dollar and that the money has to be left In
to draw interest, the interest beginning only on the
first day OF the month The depositor knows that If
he takes out any money in less than year he loses
his interest II he leaves it in for year he gets
per cent? and he must leave It in two years to get
4 per cent In other words. there are no fractions
to be considered. The system to be fOolproot