The Pulaskian., 1920-04-01
Period of Congestion and vex- atlous Delays Is Virtually
 at an End.
ANSWER WITH REAL LETTERS
Strides of Great Importance Made in srlnelng insurance Business of Bureau to an Absolutely
 Current Basis.

OoHSo u tue bureau or war risk inSur- ance that the insurance division of the bureau is virtually at the end of US period of congestion and conse- quent dissatisfaction and yexa+ious uelays, resulting from the great vol tune or work suddenly thrown upon it | Dy the demobilization of the armed hofees during the past year.
 Former service men are assured that they will be answered promptly from now on with real letters, instead or With form paragraphs or unsatis- factory form letters, in all cases which require detailed and specific answers. This is the first time that the bureau mas been in position to give this as- surance.
 strides of great importance to the millions of former service men and their relatives and beneficiaries, have been made toward bringing the in- suranee business of the bureau to an absolutely current basis in the prompt answering of mail and acknowledg- ment of premiums paid. The records of accumulated work disposed of show eonclusively such an enormous and distinctive improvement in the expe- diting of the business that it is con tdently believed that within the next month the insurance division will be giving as rapid and accurate service as do any efficiently managed organ1- | cations in commercial life.
 Catch Up on Mail.
 For example, the number of unpost- ed premiums, which last October was approximately S8,000 has just been reduced to an average of 10000 or ess than one days work. With oth- ,sr necessary operations in the hand ling of remittances, a receipt will be sent out in few days from the date of the original receipt of the remit tance.
 Unanswered mail in the insurance division shows a reduction of approxi- mately 60 per cent from the daily balance of five months ago. Probably t will be two or three weeks before 1t will be possible to answer all the letters as quickly as it is now possible % mail out receipts for premiums. It is a matter of only few weeks, how ever, before the answering of all let ters In reference to insurance within four days of their receipt in the bu- reau will be the regular practice.
 In the meantime, it is inevitable that there will be some impatience on the part of those service men who in the past have experienced difficulty in adjusting their insurance matters with the bureau, as a result of delay or un- satisfactory information, but the prog ress now being made indicates con- clusively that these vexatious cases will be cleared up speedily, and that thereafter, although there will always of necessity, as in any large organiza- tion. be occasional errors and delays in the business in the bureau of war risk insurance, these difficulties will be reduced to a relatively insignifi- cant minimum.
 In order to cope with the great flood of mail which came to the bureau CO., incident with demobilization of the armed forces, each of the letters re- quiring searching of the records, which in many cases was done by in- experienced personnel, 1t was neces- sary to resort to form and paragraph letters in answering inquiries. In struggling with the volume of excess mail which piled up in the bureau, there is nc question but that a large percentage of it was answered imprOp- .erly and frequently delayed.
 Many Letters Returned.
 In large proportion of the cases the service men themselves, being un- familiar with the necessity of giving full information about their cases, cer- tificate numbers, full names, dates of discharge, etc, rendered 1t impos- sible to answer properly their inqu- ries. Others failed to give proper ad- dresses with the result that today numbers of letters addressed to for- mar service men by the bureau, are being returned by postmasters rom all narts of the country, accompanied py statements that it is impossible to ma 4ba addressee. Fragmehtary or lnsuf- Scient information also inevitably r@' s,,lted in the miscrediting of premi- ums. due to lack of identification.
 Some idea of the enormity or the ioh may be gained from the fact that the most recent figures show that the total number of applications for in- suronee received by the bureau was 4e1o.3ss, totaling SAC, Al ,233,5oo' the nremillms to March, 1920, totaiing ap- nroxip,ately $325, 100000.
 For q long period, it was necessary far the bureau to typewrlte all or Us addresses. This meant reference 10 mooc-d in each case, multiplying the chances of errors and entailing an anor,nous amount of labor With S,,o,, on unprecedented business as