The Washington times., 1916-10-21
HOW TO AVOID DELAY
IN GETTING LICENSE
Col. Baughman Explains Sys-
tem-SimpIe Matter to OBJ
tain Permit.

In this article want to explain the
Buance of licenses. think that this
is q matter of public interest, because
in many instances where there is a
delay in Issuing licenses the public
holds the office at fault, when as a
matter of fact the office Is in no way
to blame, the trouble being with the
applicant.
Where applications are made in per-
son at the office for licenses there Is
no possibility of delay. because the
application can be filled up at the
office. The money Is then paid to the
cashier, who assigns the number and
returns IL to the applicant.
The blank Is then presented to the
Issuing clerk, who writes up the reg
iistration certificate, or operators
license: as the case may be. and hands
II to the person applying, together
with his registration tags.
Some Delay in Mail Application.
In case OF application by mail, how
ever, delays are much more frequent.
When the mail is received and opened
all those licenses are issued Immediately
that are accompanied by the correct fee
and where the application blank Is filled
up properly.
A mistaken impression is prevalent
among the automobile public in that
they think that when licensing a car
that has been licensed the previous
year 1t Is not necessary to fill out an
application blank. This is not the case
however, as a new blank is required
each year, and II must contain ali the
information, as the blanks of the prev
ious year are in an entirely different
place in the storage vault Of the office
have sometimes complaints about
In many cases this has been found to
be 'the fault OF the applicant rather
than the office. II is very necessary
when applying for licenses that the
name and address be legibiy written, as
there are numerous postoffices in the
state that have similar names, and
errors from this source are frequent.
- The Law. A
The law further, provides shat the
commissioner shall keep a record in
his office OF all licenses issued. With
the increase in the number of cars
these records have become much more
complicated. They are kept in loose
leaf form in large books-one book for
each kind Of license. In our operators
index there are at present over so, 900
names. and as 1t Is necessary to locate
particular name promptly the alpha
bet has to be divided into many sub
divisions for index purposes.
I must emphasize again the fact that
FOR this purpose also II Is necessary
that the name be written legibly, be-
cause even the fourth letter in the sur
name. 4 not properly made. would
cause the license to be indexed in an
entirely separate division from the cor
rect one. and consequently when ap-
plfcatton 10 made for duplicate card 1t
would be impossible to locate the name
on the index without considerable de-
We have at present in the office an
oporator's index with over $1,000 names,
chayffeurs' index with 10000 names. a
moter vehicle registration OF about
5000 names and numerous other in
dexes containing probably $4,000 names
From this Il will be seen that the
record OF licenses is a very important
part Of the office.
New Method Employed.
In addition to these records q new
method OF keeping track OF an indi-
vidual's record as an operator has been
installed.
BY this. when complete. II will be
possible to tell in any particular case
whether the party in question has ever
ever been arrested and tried before a
Justice Of the peace and fined or dis
missed; and. in fact, whether he has
ever been reprimanded by an officer of
the commission. verbally or by letter.
While the reprimand may not in itself
be q black mark on mans record. 1t
often Is taken into account In case the
individual is involved in an accident or
summoned before me for the suspension
Of his license.
We also have a complete check on all
Justices Of the peace throughout the
State in reference to the fines imposed
by them. At the time the fines are i'm
posed the justice is charged with the
amount Of that fine, and as all fines are
required to be RENTED to the office
within i've days after they are imposed
we can tell Immediately what justices
have compiled with this provision OF
the law. or course, as these fines are
RENTED the conviction is put on the
record against the man who has been
convicted.