Evening star., 1921-06-19
RECORDS OF MILLIONS IN WAR
FOR RAMERICA NEARLY COMPLETE
Adiutant General 5 Office, Under New Sys-
TEN, Clearing Up Work Still Unfinished
a.-. Score of Years After Civil War.

Score of Years !
i The work of assembling and fling
of those records Of the world war
and it's participants which come un7
der the supervision Of the ad1utant
general Of the Army. is fast approach
ing completion. If 1t were not FOR
the special searches and additional
efforts required by emergencies such
as the preparation Of the draft de-
serters' list, the work Of the aGjutant
! generals offlce-the largest single
! record office in the world-would be
current. Aside from these emergen-
!, cies and despite its constantly de-
creasing clerical forces the once IS
able to clean it's desks from DAY q
day and to handle the vast admins
| trative affairs of the military estab-
lishment expeditiously.
The volume of business handled by
the adjutant generals Office surpasses
that of any other administrative
branch of the government It's cor
| respondence during the war was al
| most 95 times as great as that ham
died in normal times. and although
there has been some diminution in
the work. it still is far in excess OF
any previous peace-time demands. The
total number Of pieces OF mail OF
; all classes received during the hscai
year 1915 was s25,s3O. The total
number during the fiscal year 1919
was s7.s1S.242. From daily aver
age Of approximately $4,000 pieces in
July, 1918, the volume Of correspond
| ence rose until it reached a daily av-
erage for the months in 1919 of 545,-
986. In 1920. besides the receipts of
| 12.140,000 medical cards received
from the surgeon general Of the
Army which were classified, the Of
flee disposed of 35,621.103 pieces Of
| mail
| Requests Compiled With Quickly.
! One of the most gratifying results
of the expeditions handling of the
records has been the possibility of
complying quickly'with requests for
risk insurance. the federal board for
vocational training. the American
| Red Cross and other relief agencies
upon whom veterans of the war de-
| pend. 1t is also far more economical
ITO keep the work current. If it is pos
are not answered promptly the re-
quests are repeated and vast
amount of duplication results.
| The ability of the office to handle
such an enormous amount of work
| was due to the fact that it foresaw
the conditions that would confront it
during the world war and adopted
new systems of record making and
record keeping to meet those condi-
tions.
From the time Of the war of the
| revolution until 1889 the method of
recording and indexing correspond
ence in the War Department under
| went but little change. That method
! consisted In laboriously copying and
indexinG in longhand all incoming
was done in large and uwieldy vol
umes. known as Letters received" and
letters sent" books. There was an
index to each book.
In 1889 the record card system of
recording correspondence was devised
and adopted by the record and pension
office. which was consolidated with
the adjutant generals Office in 1904.
| The system was a long step forward
and enabled the adjutant generals Of
flee to function so expeditiously that
it was not only able to handle with
out delay all current work. but to dis
pose Of large number of accumu-
lated cases. many of which had re-
manned in the office for over a year
after their receipt. AS a result of
these changes the office operated sat
isfactorily through all the years lead
Ing up 10 tne "OFlQ war.
Decimal File system.
But while the record card system
was vast improvement over the sys-
tenn that it succeeded. and provided
an accurate and satisfactory method
Of handling a limited amount of cor
reSpondence. it was foreseen that it
was not sufficiently elastic to meet
the demands that would be made upon
it by any great increase in the vol
|
incident to the world war.
The first change made was in dis
carding the record card system Of re-
cording and filing correspondence anG
adopting the subjective decimal fiat
file system, which is based on the
decimal system Of library classifca.
| tion. This system met every con-
and it is believed by those familiar with
the work that had this change not beer
made at the outbreak Of the war the
adjutant generals office would have
failed to function.
This system as modified and applied
to the military records brings together
in the file the complete correspondence
on any given general subject. SO that or
call everything of record thereon can be
readily obtained. The correspondence
listed men is filed in folders, a folder fol
each individual The folders are ar.
ranged in the files alphabetically, anc
when call is made for the folder Of al
individual all correspondence relating t.
that individual is secured. The grea
advantage Of this system lies In the fac
that no index is required in its opera
ton.
the duty and status Of enlisted mel
the form of muster rolls. prepared bi
monthly. To obtain the complete mill
tary and medical record of a man WHIT
had served an enlistment it was neces
sary to examine eighteen to thirty mus
ter rolls, depending upon whether hi
each roll containing approximately sew
II enty names, and to examine other rec
4 ords in various parts Of the adjutan
generals Office.
Muster Role Abolished.
The plan Of preparation Of such rec
II ords had undergone no material altera
tion since the revolutionary war. though
demonstrated that in order to max,
readily accessible the records of.an in
H dividual whose military and medica
history was to be found on various roll
n and other records, it was necessary t,
card all Of the records; that is. to cop.
and to assemble all those pertaining t.
any particular Individual The Iont
search that was necessary proved to b,
ime-consuming, unsatisfactory and eco
nomically impracticable.
On July !, 1913. the muster roll wa
abolished, and on that date the new
method OF reporting changes in tn,
duty and station Of officers and en-.
listed men was put into effect. These
reports are made daily and are known
as daily reports Of changes. Upon re.
ceipt in the adjutant generals Office
fhev aYe 6lod ujth fhH othar rooord.