Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1920-04-01
Period of Congestion and vex-
atious Delays Is Virtually
at an End.
ANSWER With REAL LETTERS
Strides of Great Importance Made in
Bringing Insurance Business of
Bureau to an Absolutely
Current Basis.

Bringing Insurance Business of
Bureau to an Absolutely
Current Basis.
Washington. Announcement Is
made by Director R. G. Cholmeley-
Jones of the bureau of war risk insur-
ance that the insurance division of
the bureau is virtually at the end of
its period of congestion and conse-
quent dissatisfaction and vexatious
delays, resulting from the great vol
ume of work suddenly thrown upon it
by the rehabilitation of the armed
forces during the past year.
Former service men are assured
that they will be answered promptly
from now on with real letters, instead
of 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
has been in a position to give this as
surance.
Strides of great Importance to the
millions Of former service men and
their relatives and benefciaries, have
been made toward bringing the in
srrance business of the bureau to an
absolutely current basis in the prompt
answering of mail and acknowledge
ment of premiums paid. The records
Of accumulated work disposed of show
conclusively such an enormous and
distinctive improvement in the expe-
,liting Of the business that it is con-
fidently believed that within the next
month the Insurance division will be
giving as rapid and accurate service
as do any efficiently managed organi-
cations in commercial life.
Catch Up on Mail.
For example, the number Of unpost-
ed premiums, which last October was
approximately $4,000 has just been
reduced to an average Of 10000 or
less than one days work. With 9TH
er necessary operations in the hand
ling of remittances, receipt will be
Of the original receipt Of the remit
lance.
Unanswered mail in the insurance
division shows reduction Of approx
mately 60 per cent from the daily
balance Of five months ago. Probably
it will be two or three weeks before
it will be possible to answer all the
letters as quickly as it is now possible
to mail out receipts for premiums. 1t
is matter of only few weeks, how
ever, before the answering of all let
tiers 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 Impotence on
the part of those service men who i'm
the past have experienced difficulty in
adjusting their insurance matters with
the bureau, as result of delay or I'M
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
ton, be occasional errors and delays
in the business in the bureau of wal
risk insurance, these difficulties will
be reduced to a relatively insignifi
cant minimum.
In order to cope with the great floot
Of mail which came to the bureau co
incident with rehabilitation of tn
armed forces, each of the letters re
quiring searching of the records
which in many cases was done by in
experienced personnel, it was neces
sary to resort to form and paragraph
letters in answering Inquiries. Il
struggling with the volume Of exces
mail which piled up in the bureau
there is no question but that a larg
percentage of it was answered improl
erly and frequently delayed.
Many Letters Returned.
In large proportion of the case:
the service men themselves, being I'll
familiar with the necessity of givin
full information about their cases, cel
tificate numbers, full names, dates {
discharge, etc, rendered it impo
sible to answer properly their inqu
ries. Others failed to give proper az
dresses, with the result that toda
numbers of letters addressed to TO
mer service men by the bureau, al
being returned by postmasters from
parts of the country, accompanied b
statements that it is impossible to I'm
the addressee. Fragmentary or insu
ficient information also inevitably L
suited in the miscrediting of prem
ums, due to lack of Identification.
Some idea of the enormity of I'll
Job may be gained from the fact TIN
the most recent figures show that t.
total number Of applications for +
surance received by the bureau wf
4,G1O,38S, totaling $40, 141 ,233,5Oe. tt
premiums to March, 1920, totalirlg a
proximately 1925, 100000.
For a long PERIOD it was necessal
for the bureau to typewrite all of i
oddroccac This meant reference to