The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1918-11-09
AUTO LICENSE TAGS.

AUTO LICENSE TAGS.
Licensing of Automobiles Requires
Much Work.
The owner of an automobile who
fills out an application form and sends
it in with a postofice money order or
certified check for q license tag for
his car doubtless thinks he has had
&c go to a great deal Of trouble. And
ne may think that after all his trou-
BILE the State Highway Department
should have nothing to do but mail
out his tag in the next mail after re-
ceiving mis- application and check.
However, there is as much to do to
his application in the offices Of the
Highway Department as he has done
in filing out the application form
and getting his money order or GER
tilted check. The men who buy their
tags at the window appreciate better
than those who send by mail the
amount Of work required to check,
correct, number and file the appli-
cations and issue the tag.
.W1Su d IdS pUiCAdSSO az SAA~
window the following operation must
be gone through with in order to
comply with the law, as we'll as to en-
able the clerks to answer inquiries
about owners and license numbers of
cars later. First, the clerk must Of
ten help the owner fiji out the appEl-
cation, since this was not done before
coming to secure the tag. The stated
horsepower must then be checked to
see that it agrees with the horse
power figured by the formula which
is used by the department. The fee
for that particular horsepower is then
found from a card giving fees for va
rious horsepowers. The. clerk then
gets tag from the box and enters
the number Of the tag on the appll-
cation. To show the actual fee paid
in there is installed special style Of
cash register, which prints on the ap-
plication the fee registered on the
keys. Consequently, the application
card must be inserted in a slot in the
cash register before The amount is
proper change lid delivers the tag.
But the worl is not yet completed,
for the name Of the owner and the
county in which he lives, together with
the amount of fee paid, must be
copied from the application into q
large registration book This must
be done so that the book will show
how much money goes back to each
county to be spent on its roads, rs
! we'll as to enable the auditor to check
the receipts and disbursements of tne
department After the entering of
this information in the registration
book the card is filed in a drawer as
| signed to that particular county.
When applications are reeeivei by
mail a big item of work is the open
ing of two thousand to three thou
sand envelopes per day and clipping
the contents together to be passed on
to the checking clerk. 1t is the duty
of this clerk to see that the necessary
information is on the card, that the
horsepower given is correct for that
particular make and model of car
and that the correct fee is enclosed.
If all is correct the number Of the H.
cense issued to the applicant is writ
ten on the money order Or check and
on the application, the tag addressed
and stamped. The data from the
application is then entered in the big
registration book and the application
filed.
Each night the total cash on hand
must be balanced against the appli-
| cations handled for the day, just as
in bank the business for each day
is balanced at night.
During the last two weeks of De-
cember and the first part of January
applications come in by the mail bag
full. These bags are dated and are
opened in consecutive order. During
the greatest rush the bags pile up
faster than it is possible to handle
the applications: so that some are
obliged to be delayed a few days. In
order to relieve this rush and to get
license tags to the owners in time to
prevent inconvenience to them the
Highway Department will start is
suing license tags the first Of Decer-
Der this year.