El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1918-10-19
BY
Frank G. Carpenter
Copyright. 1918. by
Frank c. Carpenter

] brains and experience OF the COUNTY,
How 1t Works.
"Can you give me some idea OF the
I work." I asked
sicner of insurance, that the bureau
might be looked upon as a great fac
] tory. The raw material is the apprO-
I priation Of congress and the blanks
which have been Afilled out by the
/ soldiers and sailors and sent in to US
l The finished product goes out in the
| shape OF the checks delivered to the
/ families of the soldiers and sailors and
/ the machinery comes between
Take, for instance. the story Of one
application 1t is written on blank
I at one Of the environments and II
! comes to US in a lot of few hundred
/ or it may be 1900. for we have often
/ that many in one day. The blanks are
I first read and sorted. The one we
I have chosen may 90 into any one OF
! eight classes. 1t may need no allot-
ment or it may demand allowances and
20 into a certain class, according to
I the amount and number of dependents
! to be paid After that it has to be
numbered. We do everything here by
number and not by name. Each ap-
plication that comes IA has its num-
Der and from that time this number
and not the name Is referred to- The
next operation is figuring out the
amount that the family of the appli-
cant should receive and this IS fol-
! lowed BY writing a card which con-
tains the mans name, the branch Of
the service and the parties TO whom
his pay is to 60
Eighteen Operations.
This card has TO be verified and
checked up by two different clerks to
see that II is correct After that the
information upon it is transferred to
| the card index system and duplicate
cards are sent to the disbursing Of
ficer where the checks are to be made
and sent out. One card must go to the
checks are to be signed and the last
operation is placing the checks in the
letter OF transmittal to 90 out in the
nails In all. there are is different
operations performed on each applica-
ton for allotment or allowance and
it takes at least IS different people to
handle each one This means that the
millions Of application blanks we have
already handled have required at least
IS times that number Of handling
operations and that such work must
continue on as long as the war lasts.
100000 Smiths.
This work has to be done as to
every application" Mr.. Nesbit con-
tinued, and when you consider the
vast number Of men in the service.
and that we must keep track Of every
one and his family, you can realize
something as TO the work Take. for
instance, the Smiths. We have more
than 1000 OF them on our files We
have more than 1000 John Smiths and
over 200 each Of John A. Smiths and
William II. Smiths There are more
than 1000 John Browns and about &C.,
geo soldiers named Miller or Wilson.
We had recently some trouble regard
ing the allotment OF John J. O'Brien.
whose wife was named Mary. We
looked up the index cards and found
that there were 262 John ]. O'BrienI
and so Of them had wives Of that
name. Moreover there are many
changes and additions. We have to
have the names and ages OF the
children, and that even TO the ba-
bies born after the soldiers have left
for France We received one commun-
ication the other biy which stated
Child born-named Elizabeth, wants
allowance
Where They Work.
In company with Mr.. Nesbit went
from building to building looking in
to the processes above described. The
first visit was to the new national
museum, which covers more than two
acres It is situated in the Mall back
Of the city market and north Of the
Smithsonian Institution. Many OF the
EXHIBITS have been removed TO make
way for the clerks. The great hall
back Of the vestibuie has been cleared
and there are hundreds OF women
and men working within it. The room
covers perhaps half an acre, and the
only museum curiosity remaining is
the original flying machine with
which Dr.. Langley experimental from
an island down the Potomac, thus
making the first demonstration OF
successful machine flight
The little -Aerdrome." as he called
It, hangs from the ceiling above so or
50 typewriters and tabulating and ad-
ding machines which are clicking
away Not far TO the right of il they
are opening the mail, which comes in
at the rate Of over 1000 per hour.
and at the left they are checking and
filing the claims OF the soldiers. IT
takes more than 100 women to sort
and distribute the mail. There are
clerical machines Of all kinds clipping
away and the red tape so common to
government departments has, as far
as possible. been eliminated. In or
ganizing the machine, the best Of the
United States bureau OF efficiency ex-
perts were called in
Leaving this room, I went on TO
others on the first and second floors
Of the museum, finding clerks att
work everywhere; and thence was
taken down into the basement to seel
the great audience hall with its be-
ginning Of files and other record
equipment
Another Great Room.
Coming out Of the national museum,
we crossed the street to the city mar
ket, making our way among the
butchers and provision dealers TO an
iron stairway which took us to the
attic. We entered what seemed to be
a great factory. The room covers
ore third of an acre. The roof is high
overhead, and il looks like a barn. 1t
was formerly used as a drillroom for
soldiers. and was once noted as being
the largest dance hall south Of New
York 1t is now filled with hundreds
of clerks working away at flat desks !
The air is loaded with the noise OF
typewriters and other clerical ma
chimes, and one is reminded OF a
great cotton mill It is here that the
checks are sent out to the families
Of our soldiers and sailors. The work
goes on day and night and the rush Is I
such that at times they are working
on Sundays At the close Of one Sun
day night, it was found that more
than 100000 checks had gone out.
lishment Is 10000 checks daily. The !
money goes out in a continuous
stream, or I might say in thousands Of
streams. for the checks move forth I
by every mail train and to every (
part Of the union.
I found the same activity in the
Elk's hall, where they are daily
handling more than 1000 applica- (
lions for life insurance, and also in I
the old emergency hospital which has
been taken over for another branch /
Of the bureau Of war risk insurance
There is a necessity that all of these
forces be gathered together under one /
roof and the fireproof building on the /
site OF the Arlington hotel will be