The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1915-11-13


become that it requires little labor and its COST
by comparison with the results achieved In as
sisting in intelligent buying, is remarkably low
Other charts, corrected daily, keep the bureau
informed to the amount OF stocks on manu-
in every detail, not only at the storehouses but
on the ships well Since the navy through It's
extensive wireless system is in constant COM
munication with every ship a1oat, the task or
keeping up these charts is not so difficult as IL
seems
Or the bunch of cards making up a ships COM
peny also is producible the instant
Machines have reduced the amount of work in
the accounting section than SO per cent
There are refinements of cost keeping in mill
tary establishment that not known in a
private establishment, for all expenditures must
conform to some specific item of an appropr1a-
ton BILL and appropriations for the naval estab-
hshment found in three different appropria-
ton acts.
Roughly speaking, 100000 separate accounts
must be kept properly to meet the requirements
of the law and to furnish the information to
costs, gross and detailed, needed. Imagine
ledger with 100000 accountsi
Here the cards and mechanism have come In to
the extent that half the number of men needed
Is months ago required to do the work.
In addition a great deal of work has been
taken on.
The use of new card punching machines is re-
sponsible for the larger economies.
The machine is so arranged that it sorts the
punched cards, aTranges them in proper groups,
ascertains the totals of the figures indi sated by
the punched holes and prints a sheet the
results. It is accounting reduced to mechanism.
OF course the usual machines, such as adding
machines and the like part Of the equipment
In fact the whole trend of the reforms in this
section has been to reduce everything to a
mechanical basis.
The result is great economics in operation, in
creased efficiency, increased accuracy and in
creased speed 70 the casual observer the strik-
ing thing is the disappearance OF books Few
indeed are the books in sight, remarkably slim
fhn In Rfb 0T lords SVS
tenn has been reduced to the simplest dimensions.
Ask any man, officer civilian, in the estab-
Eshment how the whole organization has been
made over in such time, and he instantly viii
tell you that Sammy MCGOWAN did it. And then
he will grow confidential and tell you what he
esteems is the secret of the whole accomplish
ment, the spirit that MCGOWAN has put into his
entire force. I'VE don't tolerate grouches, your
informant will say. I'VE all belong to the Don't
Worry club and MCGOWAN is its president"
Another thing this paymaster general has done
is to establish in Washington, with the approval
OF the secretary of the navy, school for navy
pay officers. These officers are appointed from
civil life a competitive examination. They go
into the service equipped with. good academic
education, but with knowledge of the navy
and its needs. Hence the new service school,
which has in this years class Is young officers
who are being trained in their new profession
Admiral MCGOWAN himself is a product Of
civilian training When he secured his appoint
ment in the pay corps in 1894 he a South
Carolina newspaper man who had worked his
way through college and law school by running
a brick yard and serving a ticket agent at a
railway station Maybe there he got the training
which has made him great business executive.
The fact that he has spent most of his naval
career at sea accounts for his insistence that the
feet and not the bureau is the thing to be
kept In mind
When he left the Atlantic feet to go ashore as
paymaster general his commanding officer, Ad-
rniral Badger said OF him, He has made the pay
department OF the feet smoothly working mil
ftaFy machine"
That is the ideal he holds up to his bureau
and corps: Make it a smooth running military
machine"