The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-03-05
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM A TON
BURE AU
FREDERIC J. HASKIN. Director.
Washington. D. c.
A TANGLE IN ALLoTMENTs.
Washington. D. G.

A TANGLE IN ALLoTMENTS.
Washington, d. c., March EVERY
day, u large number of returned SOL
diers, bearing scars of war and inc
sigma of overseas regiments. visit the
headquarters of the finance division
of the war department here, in search
of missing allotments. Most or these
men have been allotting a certain por-
ton of their monthly pay to relatives
or to business concerns ever since they
were sent across, and it is rather dis
appointing upon reaching home to find
that the money has been held up
somewhere by mass of government
red tape.
MY mother tells me that she hasn't
received cent from the government
since early last summer" said a young,
onearmed soldier the other morning,
and ye< the company commander has
been deducting ten dollars from my
pay every month to be sent to my
mother He was very courteous and
cheerful about it-much more so, COM
mented the lady who looked up his
case, than she would be under similar
circumstances
After diligent searching, no record
could be found of>this particular SOL
diers allotment, so he was taken be-
fore a notary public and asked to
make an affidavit concerning his al
lotment. A check for the amount
which he had paid and which his
mother had not received was then pre-
SeEted him by the director of finance.
This is what the government is do
ing in every case where a mans serv-
ice record cannot be found-accepting
a mans affidavit and refunding him
his money, trusting that it will be able
to trace the unpaid allotment and
change its bookkeeping later. This is
Cot
tunate misunderstanding, and it is
safer than 1t looks. BY psychological
test, the criminal element was elimi-
mated from the army in the early part
of the American mobilization, and the
average man does not make a false
affidavit.
1t is only too true that, while hun
dreds of thousands of allotments have
smoothly reached their destination
without misunderstanding or mishap,
several hundred have not In numer-
Gus cases it is because in filling out
the applications for allotments the
men have made mistakes. They gave
the wrong address. or they give such
unsatisfactory addresses as King
Georges County" or New York City"
Som etimes, moreover. the person to
whom the allotment is to be paid
moves to new address without let
| ting the war department know. But
in 80 per cent of the cases the blame
can be placed upon the tangle of red
tape which stretches from the war
risk insurance bureau of the treasury
department to the finance division of
! the war department.
1t is an extremely complicated af-
fair. SO we will begin at the beginning.
| Since the year 1899 the finance di-
| vision has been handling the allot-
ments made to their families and for
other purposes by officers and enlist
! ed men outside the continental limits
/ of the United States. When the
| United States entered the European
war, however, the war risk bureau was
/ established, which took over all fam
| lily allotments. compulsory or volun-
| tary. This left the finance division
with little to do but to take care of
| the mans business interests-the nu-
| merous miscellaneous allotments made
| to cover such things as the interest
| on loans and mortgages. real estate in
| vestments. bills. lodge dues, bonds and
| club and church subscriptions.
| Last summer, when an amendment
| to the war risk insurance act was
passed by congress. providing a spe-
/ cific government allowance to meet a
specific allotment from every soldier,
attention was called to the fact that
! the war risk bureau was handling a
| large number of voluntary allotments
of the old army type for which it did
not necessarily have any authority
under the law.
At a conference held between the
| secretary of war, the secretary of the
navy and the secretary of the treasury,
it was decided that, since the war risk
/ bureau was 50 overworked anyway, it
would be wise to transfer the ,volun-
| tary family allotments 1t had been
| paying back to the finance division
| of the war department. (By voluntary
| allotment, be it understood is meant
| that part of a mans pay which is con-
| tributed by him without request for
| allowance from the government.) Ac-
cordingly, instructions were framed to
| be sent to the commanding officers of
every regiment, explaining the nature
| of the transfer and requesting that the
men be informed.
Unfortunately, these instructions
were sent out long after the transfer
! was made. The men did not know
their voluntary allotments on what is
| known as quartermaster's form No
! 3S of the war department instead of
the blank formerly used by the war
risk bureau. In other cases the blanks
| were lost before they reached the
| finance division. The deductions for
| allotments from the mems pay were
entered on the books of the depot
| Quartermasters, but there the record
F., ended.
Without the applications for allot-
ments, the finance division had no au-
thority to pay out any money. The
authority had been taken away from
the war risk bureau. which did have
the applications, and as a result the
allotments were not paid. At the
time it was suggested that the records
of the war risk bureau be turned over
to the finance division. but the war
risk bureau refused to do this because
their records were all they had to
show as authority for making past
payments. Thus in attempting to cor
rect an error made in the early part OF
the American engagement. a greater
problem was created than if it had