Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1915-11-12

WNEAY tailor and the grocer of the navy IL
NGS pays out some s145,00O00O year. 1t
g. d saves Jacks money for him and the
- savings bank 1t operates has deposits
aggregating $25SOOO 1t operates two great clothing
factories one at Brooklyn and the other at Charles
ton 5. G. In another aspect it is one of the biggest
purchasing agencies in the country.
SO remarkable have been its achievements in the
tweivemonth that many requests have come to ii
recently from business establishments public and
private for information to its new methods
The spirit behind the change is that of boyish-
looking. wideeyed, eversmiiing officer who Just
torty-five years od--and he does not look it-holds
the rank and draws the pay of a admiral. he
being paymaster general of the navy and chief of
the bureau. Rear Admiral Samuel MCGOWAN he is
to outsiders. Mr.. McGowan is the form of address
ne insists upon within the bureau. But in the navy
generally, by all ranks and all grades he is dubbed
behind his back of course Sammy MCGOWAN.
In the Ia months he has been paymaster general
ne has made over his bureau What is more he has
secured the hearty and enthusiastic support of the
entire force. That. to anyone who knows how any
government organization is welded to precedent is
amazing
Somewhat given 70 the making of epigrams in his
snstruetions. oral and written Admiral MCGOWAN
has uttered two tAae give hint Of the predominant
'ssg<sdc. hir6 kaa rAsrrnss Make it bureau with
anlaA and navy with big NJ" is one, and
fRepsnber that the stores exist for the feet not
the dfet for the stores
The paymaster general and his bureau of supplies
and accounts have their Offices in the great pile
known the state, and navy building on
Pennsylvania avenue, thanking the White House on
the west. When the building was erected some
forty years ago 1t the largest Office building
in the world Each corridor In it has the appear
ance of battalion of barrooms, for each of the
many corridor doors has its middle two-thirds
masked by shutter door. The rooms all inter-
communicating
The paymaster generals office is the end one in
suite of five rooms. Across the hall are seven
more rooms In the navy annex building, in street
by, some Offices of the bureau
When Paymaster General MCGOWAN took over the
job he naugurated at once a cleanup campaign,
Down from the walls came the dusty old pictures.
Bookcases and file cases went out Current and
absolutely necessary bureau files went into one
in set of steel vertical containers, for
general purposes, and in the purchasing end,
across the hall, they likewise reduced.
Private libraries also went out Upstairs the
navy department maintains splendid naval IL
brary. and this is available for all purposes
Abolish rotop desks" was the word Where
hat-top desks not available the department
carpenters took off the roll tops. Since then
standard office furniture has been adopted for
the entire bureau
wire taken off the hinges. Walls painted
in light coors. Then the chief of each
division chief required to put his desk in
the middle of the with his force grouped
about him. Now the paymaster general can
stand in his room and look down the line and
see exactly what is going
But that isn't exactly the point The object
is not to keep eye on the people much
1t is to convey the idea of unity The division
chief who. sequestered in his little nest,
might be tempted to write letter to the chief
next door, doesn't do 1t under these conditions
He says, Say Bill. how about and so?"
goes and discusses 1t at close range.
Stationery in reduced to the fewest
possible simple kinds.
On shelf handy to the paymaster generals
bonds is book some ii inches long by Is inches
wide. In it is all the information that once
cupied big ileroom. This information pertains
to the present duty and availability for
shore duty, as the case may be. of all of the 230
officers making up the pay CORPS
The pages of the book are faced with trans
parent ceuloid.. When pay officer is sent
cruise his name and the essential date are in
scribed typewriter slip and inserted at the
bottomx3f the section devoted to pay officers
91y. Place by place the slip moves up au-
tcD.atisally, and in this way may observe
at flance who is due for shore duty and who
Nor SEA duty as, under he law. for every two
years of shore duty paw officer must take three
years of duty.
And thus with all records. No effort has been
most graphic form. The messenger force was
reorganized and a squad told of to act as express
messengers. This insures speed in the move
ment OF papers from desk to desk and to the
secretary's Office. No paper remains more than
15 minutes awaiting transmission
One OF the very first things Paymaster General