The Pulaskian., 1919-08-29
PROBLEMS IN NOMENCLATURE WHICH
WAR RISK BUREAU HAS TO TACKLE

III the hles and was turned over to one
OIL the cleverest searchers. Since the
h'i'il' S address was given as North Da-
kota' she assumed, in view of the fact
that there were many Indians listed
from mat state, that his must be an
Ihuian name. She Immediately added
thunder to his name and found the
record card as Andrew Good 'Thun-
DER in less than three minutes after
she had been asked to lend her aid.
Cafeiessness or unavoidable haste in
writing up insurance applications on
the Form LIB, by which man enter
ing the service requests or disclaims
government allowance to dependents,
ana failure to include complete identi-
lying information in a letter of in
qulryy, constitute the largest single
cause in the bureaus delay in answer
Ing mail.
ANY letter addressed to the bureau
on any matter pertaining to a service
man should contain his name in full
first, last, and middle; it should state
his rank and organization at the time
Form LIB" was filed, or at the time
insurance application was made; his
present home address and former adj
dress If the address has been changed !;
the first, middle and last name of his
beneficiary, and present and former
address, If the address has been
changed.
The names of the nearly five mill
lion men who were indicted under the
selective draft, and those who have
Joined up since the armistice, are on
cards in filing cabinets, which, placed
one after the other, would make line
more than five miles long.
Just what complications may arise
when there is failure to include this
identifying data, may be imagined
from the fact that a comparison shows
that the repetition of names in the
files of the bureau is far greater than
the repetition of names carried in
card indexes of commercial companies.
Many Bear Same Name.
F1fty-three thousand two hundred
Johnsons We're called into active mill
tary service. The Smiths were not
far behind numerically, coming up to
the considerable figure of 1850. The
Brown family with $4,000 Is next.
More than half the letters inquiring
about insurance come from men who
either fail to give their identifying
number, or their address. In thou
sands of cases they give their address,
but due to the fact that there are 9TH
ers with similar names who live in the
same city, and have moved this infor-
nation is of little value to the girl
searchers.
Actual figures show that more than
half the soldiers, sailors and marines
have moved since leaving the service
Few forwarded a notice of change Of
address. This left the bureau with
only the name of the man for record,
but through its system of tracing men,
large numbers have been located by
the girl sleuths and their correct ad-
dresses have been listed
Many amazing discoveries have been
made in names, and the number of
ways they can be spelled. One young
woman has tabulated 40 ways, so far
discovered to spell Aloysias.
another has specialized in the spell
ing of Ignatz She has found IS ways
TO spell this name.
Still another has found that John
can be spelled "a ways.
To Barthodt Otto Aabel. (policy
number 3,263S3S) of Minden, Neb., be-
longs the distinction of having his
name the first in all the card index
files. The last card in the file bears
the name of Wladyslaus Charles Zyzes,
policy number 1902. $500 of 421 Maury
street, Rome, n. Y.
Constant combing is necessary to
keep the files up to date.