Mr. JACOBS. Ten regular clerks.

Mr. BYRNS. Ten regulars and those two on detail?

Mr. JACOBS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BYRNS. Have you received any increase in your force in recent years?

Mr. JACOBS. No, sir; the force was decreased. I had 11 clerks in 1911, the first year, but the number was decreased in 1915 to 10 clerks. Mr. BYRNS. Does it require any overtime on the part of the clerks to do the work?

Mr. JACOBS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BYRNS. About what amount?

Mr. JACOBS. From half an hour to an hour. Of course, the current work must be done each day.

Mr. BYRNS. Does that apply to all the clerks?

Mr. JACOBS. To practically all of them.

Mr. BYRNS. Is it regular overtime?

Mr. JACOBS. Not every day. Some days we get out on time, but on other days we do not. For example, night before last it was about 6 o'clock when we got through.

Mr. BYRNS. In your present organization you have 10 clerks, as you state; 3 of them are of class 4, 2 of class 3, 3 of class 2, and 2 of class 1. If this estimate is allowed it will give you 4 clerks of class 4 and 3 clerks of class 3. In other words, there would be 7 out of the 12, if this estimate was allowed, that would be in the two higher grades.

Mr. JACOBS. I have requested clerks of the higher grades for two reasons: First, the work is of high grade and requires clerks of exceptional ability and industry. The services of such clerks are worth more than $1,200 or $1,400 per annum; second, it is exceedingly difficult to secure a competent clerk at $1,200 per annum or to retain his services if secured.

By improving office methods and eliminating useless work it has been possible for us to dispatch a greatly increased volume of business without an increase in force. In this process practically all lowgrade work, such as addressing envelopes, copying, etc., has been eliminated. The clerks must work together as one unit, and each should be competent to handle any portion of the work interchangeably. Each clerk should possess a comprehensive knowledge of the laws, regulations, and decisions governing the disbursing of public funds. He should also be a bookkeeper and an expert typewriter. The highest degree of accuracy is indispensable, for each is part of a machine and all must work together. A mistake on the part of one clerk may tie up the office and keep the entire force several hours overtime to discover the error.

A few days ago I lost one of my best clerks at a salary of $1,200 per annum by reason of his being transferred to another office with a promotion. Another man at a salary of $1,400 per annum is seeking a transfer, and will probably secure the transfer with a promotion. These men had served several years in the office, were capable and industrious, and were rapidly approaching that stage of efficiency which can only come by long service and close study of this most difficult work. I can not hope to replace them at once at the salaries they were receiving.

4400-17-41

Mr. BYRNS. That is a complaint, of course, which is made by many of the bureaus in the various departments, and it is one that it seems to be impossible to avoid so long as the chiefs of bureaus in the departments bid against each other. Now, I presume if these two clerks were allowed, that you would expect to promote efficient clerks in your bureau and would take in the new clerks at the lower grades?

Mr, JACOBS. Yes, sir. I have some very efficient men and women there who are worth a great deal more money than they are getting. and they are discouraged. They work very hard, and I do not blame them for seeking transfers where the opportunities are better.

MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 1917.

OFFICE OF TREASURER OF THE UNITED STATES.

STATEMENTS OF MR. WILLARD F. WARNER, CHIEF CLERK; MB. G. F. ALLEN, CHIEF DIVISION OF ACCOUNTING; MR. W. S. ELLIOTT, CHIEF DIVISION OF BANKS, LOANS, AND POSTAL SAVINGS; AND MR. C. J. GATES, CHIEF DIVISION OF REDEMPTIONS.

DIVISION OF ACCOUNTING, ADDITIONAL EMPLOYEES.

Mr. BYRNS. Your item is on page 11, as follows: "For additional employees during the fiscal year 1918 at annual rates of compensation as follows: Clerks-1 of class 4, 6 of class 3, 5 of class 2, 20 of class 1, 16 at $1,000 each, 2 at $900 each; expert counters-5 at $1,200 each, 5 at $1,000 each, 5 at $900 each; in all, $75,700." Will you explain why these additional employees are needed?

Mr. ALLEN. Mr. Chairman, the Accounting Division of the Treasurer's office, of which I am the chief, handles the accounts of every disbursing officer of the United States, and every check drawn on those accounts must be paid by this division. They are received from the Subtreasuries, the national bank depositories, and Federal reserve banks. We are handling now 51 per cent more checks than we were handling a year ago. That was for the month of July. This increase is due almost entirely, or I might say entirely, to the war, the heavy increase being in the accounts of the Navy and War Departments' disbursing officers. We have opened up something like 1,000 new accounts for disbursing officers of the Navy and War Departments. The increase that we are asking for is about 35 per cent of the present force. We have 84 employees in the accounting division and we are asking for 30 more to handle this increase of work. In this estimate we have not anticipated any further increases that we know are bound to come, but this is to handle the work that is actually before us at the present time.

Mr. BYRNS. What is the status or condition of this particular work at this time?

Mr. ALLEN. The current work we keep up to date; that is, as the checks are received from the Subtreasuries and banks they must be cleared in order for us to know whether the balances in the accounts are sufficient to pay the checks that are being presented. We receive telegrams every day from the Federal reserve banks and Subtreas

uries asking whether a particular disbursing officer has balance enough in his account to pay certain checks. That is work that we must keep up to date, and we are allowing the other work to run behind that in order to keep it

up.

Mr. BYRNS. What is the other work that is allowed to run behind? Mr. ALLEN. The statements of disbursing officers' accounts. We have to make statements of the checks paid, and we let that work accumulate rather than let the current work fall behind. Every disbursing officer receives a statement at the end of each month of his account, showing the numbers and amounts of checks paid, and a copy of that statement is given to the auditor with the checks. The auditors of the different departments can not do their work until we furnish them the checks. They audit from vouchers to checks, or from checks to vouchers, so that any delay in rendering statements means delay in auditing the accounts in the auditors' offices. I might cite one or two instances showing what may happen as a result of not keeping the work current. The troops on the border have to have money, and the cash has to be shipped to them from New Orleans. The quartermaster in New Orleans will draw his check for $80,000 on the Assistant Treasurer. Now, when that was done, and the Assistant Treasurer telegraphed to know whether the balance in the account was sufficient to pay that check-that is, the balance on the Treasurer's books, our work then had fallen behind, it was about a day behind. I ascertained that there was not sufficient balance in the account to pay the check. We searched through the unopened mail looking for a credit. We searched for a credit or a transfer to this account, but it could not be found, and I had just had a telegram prepared to send them, dishonoring the check, when we discovered a credit in the regular course of work. This particular deposit was made in a bank that did not usually receive deposits for the credit of this account. You can see what an embarrassment that would have been to the Army if the quartermaster in New Orleans had failed to get his check cashed so that the money could be shipped to the quartermaster on the border. Instances like that are constantly occurring, and unless we can keep that work up to date and know exactly what is in the morning's mail it is apt to cause serious embarrassment. It is work that can not be delayed.

Mr. BYRNS. What work is being allowed to get behind in order to keep that work current?

Mr. ALLEN. The work we have let accumulate when it is necessary to keep the other work current is the statements of the disbursing officers' accounts.

Mr. BYRNS. To go to the auditors?

Mr. ALLEN. Yes, sir. At the end of each month we go to work and arrange the paid checks in their numerical sequence, and we send the statement of the account to the disbursing officer himself, so he can check up his own account and ascertain whether the checks have been paid for the correct amount, and also the amount of his checks outstanding. He has to check this up with his account current which he renders to the auditor. The auditor must get the checks from us after we get the acknowledgment of the disbursing officer that we have paid the right amounts. Then the auditor goes through the account and makes a comparison between the checks and the vouchers to see that the proper expenditures have been made.

Mr. BYRNS. How far behind are you in that work?

Mr. ALLEN. At the end of July, with borrowed help, we managed to get the statements out for the month of June. We managed to finish them up about the 2d day of August.

Mr. BYRNS. You have not rendered the statements for July?
Mr. ALLEN. We are rendering them now as fast as we can.

Mr. BYRNS. Ordinarily, before the work increased, as you have stated, when was it possible for you to make statements for the preceding month?

Mr. ALLEN. We had them all made by the 26th of the month, as a rule.

Mr. BYRNS. Of the following month?

Mr. ALLEN. Yes, sir.

Mr. BYRNS. Then, as a matter of fact, you are not very far behind in rendering statements if you render them by August 26?

Mr. ALLEN. The reason we can do that is because we have 10 borrowed people, because all leave has been canceled, and because the people on leave have been called back. No one is on leave now, and we are working every Saturday afternoon. We did not close last Saturday until 5 o'clock, and during this last month we have frequently worked until 7 o'clock at night. Those women who are engaged on that work are exceeding by far the eight-hour law. Mr. BYRNS. Does that include all of your force?

Mr. ALLEN. Not the whole force, but all of them were called back from leave. The whole force is working overtime and Saturday afternoons when we have to have them, and a part of the force, or half of the force, is working every Saturday afternoon. Every afternoon the overtime is from one hour to an hour and a half, and some clerks frequently work until 8 o'clock at night.

Mr. BYRNS. I understand that this increase of the work has been 51 per cent. I believe that is what you stated.

Mr. ALLEN. That is the increase in July over July a year ago. Mr. BYRNS. Is that due directly to the increased expenditures made by the Government on account of the present emergency or the war? Mr. ALLEN. Yes, sir. There probably would have been an increase anyway. We figure on an increase of 5 per cent in normal times. There is an increase of from 3 to 5 per cent in normal times, but the rest of it is due entirely to the war. The most of that increase is in the checks of the Navy paymasters and of the quartermasters of the War Department.

Mr. WARNER. The increase in the work has been three times that of 1900, under normal conditions.

Mr. BYRNS. But you have a much larger force for that work now than you had then.

Mr. WARNER. Yes, sir; but the force has been reduced greatly in the last few years.

Mr. BYRNS. I recall that a year or two ago the work in the Treasurer's Office was greatly in arrears. In fact, there was an estimate submitted up here for quite a number of clerks. On complaint about the matter, the Treasurer called on Mr. Brown, of the Efficiency Commission, to come in there and assist him, as you gentlemen know, to see whether or not some arrangement could be made to do the work with a less number of clerks, and after a short period of time you were able to entirely withdraw the request.

Mr. WARNER. Yes, sir; and not only that, but in the last few years our force has been decreased by the return of between 30 and 40 detailed employees.

Mr. BYRNS. In view of that experience, which was very beneficial to the Government, I wanted to ask whether you had conferred with the Efficiency Commission in regard to this increase of clerks, in order to see whether or not you could so arrange the work as to avoid it.

Mr. ALLEN. We have done so informally. In the two divisions of accounting, for which 38 of these clerks are asked, there were on the 1st day of January, 71 less clerks than there were on the 1st day of January, 1914. That was brought about by the introduction of a different system and efficient methods of handling the work. We had 113 employees in the two accounting divisions on the 1st of January last, and on the 1st of January, 1914, there were 184 employees, making a decrease of 71. That decrease has been made by the introduction of efficient methods and a change in the system brought about by the help of the Efficiency Commission. The work has been brought clear up to date, and the normal increase in work has been taken care of.

Mr. BYRNS. I understood you to say a moment ago that you had conferred informally with the Efficiency Commission?

Mr. ALLEN. Yes, sir. I was, as chief of the division, closely in touch with the Efficiency Commission while they were installing the new methods, and they have kept in touch with our office, being interested in the system that they put in there. I can not state officially that they have not any better methods or more improvements, but I am certain in my own mind that everything of that kind that can be done has been done. We have improved on the system that they put in there.

Mr. BYRNS. This estimate represents quite a considerable increase in the force. As I understand it, the present force in the Treasurer's Office is 326 persons, and this estimate calls for an addition of 65 clerks, which is an increase of 20 per cent.

Mr. ALLEN. Of course, I am only speaking for the accounting division where an increase of 51 per cent in the work has already occurred.

Mr. BYRNS. Of course, in addition to the clerks I have mentioned, there are 200 clerks in the National Bank Redemption Section and 10 employed in the Postal Savings System, making a total of 536 persons employed in the Treasurer's Office.

Mr. WARNER. In 1900 we had 308 employees and in 1915 we had 615; but, with the work three times as great, that force has been reduced to 536 clerks. In addition to that, we have 19 employees engaged on the liberty-loan work.

Mr. BYRNS. Did I understand you to say that all leave has been cut off this year?

Mr. WARNER. Yes, sir; only four people are away; and two of them are 80 years of age, another is 75 years of age, and the other is in the sixties. Those who were away on leave were called back. Mr. BYRNS. You stated awhile ago, I believe, that it had been necessary to borrow 10 clerks?

Mr. ALLEN. Yes, sir.

Mr. BÝRNS. Where did you get those clerks?