Jackson County sentinel. (Gainesboro, Tenn.) 1914-current, 1921-12-08


Pertaining to Officers and Enlisted
Men In the United States Military
Forcea
Major Gen. Peter G. Harris, the adj
tutant general Of the army, presides
over the largest single record office in
the world at Washington, ID. @. There,
under his direction, an army Of 2,4OO
clerks, most Of them young women,
work day after day at their endless
task Of keeping track of every activity
that pertains to officers and enlisted
men In the United States military for
ces, keeping up complete record
Of each and standing ready to supply
information In reply to inquiries.
Filed away In the huge temporary
buildings, which were constructed at
the time of the World war, is as COM
plete 9 word picture Of the life of
every soldier as the government could
obtain. II is no exaggeration to say
that the records Of the World war
today, thirty months after the signing
Of the armistice, are far more nearly
complete than were those Of the Civil
war thirty years after its close. And
II might be added that the work of
the adjutant generals office at Wash
ington Is practically Brought up to
date, says the New York Times.
The value of this service to the
many hundreds of thousands of
mothers and fathers, wives, sweet
hearts and friends Of soldiers who
were or are still In the fighting forces
q the nation Is obvious. Information
Of the latest movements Of every sol
der is available and upon short notice
information may be obtained concern
Ing oil that the War department may
know. or deem It advisable to let be
known, concerning every man who
enlisted or was drafted for the World
war.
Few Of the soldiers are aware of
the fact, but tucked away in one of
the great buildings at Washington a
young woman clerk watches day by
day each happening In his life. Each
Of these women is the guardian Of the
record Of 8,4O0 men under the present
system. She carefully files away every
letter or War department document
that has to do with him.
With the end Of the fiscal year
the operations Of the department are
20 be cut In half, as congress failed
% grant an appropriation sufficient TO
maintain the present force.
Building Great Organization.
Perhaps the story of the assembling
q this great organization is best told
IN General Harris's own words.
Probably few realize" he said,
shat the adjutant generals office In
Washington Is the largest single rec
ord Office In the world.
"Trom the time of the War of the
Revolution until 1880 the method Of re-
cording and indexing correspondence
IN the War Office here underwent but
little change. That method consisted
IN laboriously copying and indexing
IN longhand all incoming and outgoing
communications. This was done In
large and unwieldly volumes, known
40 letters received and letters sent
books. There was an index to each
beck.
sTn 1889 the record card system of
recording correspondence was devised
and adopted by the record and PEN
sisa Office, which was consolidated
With the adjutant generals office In
1904 The system was a long step
forward and enabled the adjutant
generals Office to function go e0-
psditiously that 1t was not only able
- handle without delay all current
xsek, but to dispose Of large number
e accumulated cases, many Of which
bad remained In the Office for over
ysar after their receipt. As result
e these changes the office operated
satisfactorily through all the years
jsadins up to the World war.
But while the record card system
was Q vast improvement over the sys-
tem that II succeeded, and provided
m accurate and satisfactory method
g handling Q limited amount Of cor
Fsspondence, II was foreseen that 1t
was not sufficiently elastic to meet the
demands that would be made upon It
b. any great increase In the volume
q correspondence such as was Incl
Dent to the World war.
Grows BY Strides.
.Ths total number of pieces of mail
g Ill classes received in the adjutant
generals Office during the fiscal year
1o16 was 925,930. The total number
during the fiscal year 1919 was ST.
e16A2 For the year 1916 the daily
average was S,026 pieces and during
1919 Il was 2S7. 266 pieces. But this
does not tell the whole story. From a
daily average Of approximately $1,000
pieces In July, 1918, the tide rapidly
rese until il reached Its food with a
daily average for the months In 1919
e 646.eS6. In other words the volume
q work handled during the fiscal year
1o1o was nearly nlnety-fve times as
ereat IS that handled during a normal