Evening Star Newspaper, October 25, 1936, Page 55

Stage: Part 4—8 Pages 'MILLIONS GIVE T & and Screen Government Pay Day, a Drama Involving 112,000 Persons and $7,500,000 Every Two Weeks, Is Huge Task. The Biggest Pay Roll in the World ' Nearly seven and a half million dollars is handed out in a lump sum, twice a month, to Washington work- ers on Uncle Sam’s pay roll. Three hundred and thirty tons of paper a year are re- quired -for the printing of Federal pay checks. In addition to checks, $1,650000 in cash is dis- bursed in pay envelopes to Government workers bi- monthly. Washington department stores have shown anl in- crease in sales on Federal pay days of as much as 54 per cent. By Lucy Salamanca. HREE HUNDRED AND THIR- TY tons of check paper, cut and printed by the Bureau of Engraving and _Printing, is signed, cashed or deposited by Federal employes in the City of Washington every 365 days. More than $7,000,000 every 15 days, or approximately $15,- 000,000 & month—the largest pay roll issued by any one firm in the world— goes out of the United States Treasury to meet the demand with a precision and regularity that, quite aside from the sums entailed, present a picture of accuracy, speed and efficiency perhaps not equaled in any organization out- side of our own Government. The incalculable detail involved is enough to intimidate the most intrepid. How would you like to be respon- aible for seeing that $1,650,000 in cash 1s slipped into 22,000 envelopes at two- week intervals? Or be held account- able for the distribution to 90,000 other eager individuals of their bi- monthly stipend, not forgetting that payees are scattered from one end of the city to the other, working in dif- ferent departments, under different appropriations? Or, again, how would you like to see your name at the bottom of 90,000 checks every fortnight? That would not be so bad provided one could be sure that not one signature more, nor one signature less, had been turned out than could be accounted’for all down that long and well-ordered line that takes note of every detail of a check’s issuance, from the appearance of a name on a pay roll to the signa- ture of the receiver of that check in ‘l:m Government pay booth on pay Y. Pay day in Washington is like no other pay day anywhere in the world. Every 15 days there comes an acceler- ation in. the life of the Capital City st 15 due directly to the fact thaf John or Mary or George has been paid today. Stores put on extra help, newspapers run extraordinary editions to take care of extra advertising, cock- tail bars are crowded, theaters know a great increase in patronage, accounts are paid up, and on the evening of the fifteenth or thirtieth of every month you can't get a table at & night club without advance reservation. Banks, stores, dance floors are thronged and there is a general air of largesse. The service director in one of Washington's | largest stores reported that on one | occasion it was necessary to get in | more than $100,000 in cash to take care of customers who wanted their | checks cashed. WHAT the Government clerk does with his money is strictly his own affair. And what he does with By John Frazier. NE hundred and twenty-five | thousand Washingtonians will | be eligible to cast their votes for presidential candidates on | November 3. | They will vote, however, not as citi- zens of the National Capital, but rather in the fashion of expatriates maintaining remote contact with the | homeland through the agency of ab- | sentee ballots. 3 Does the number of votes to be so cast seem large? If it does, it never- theless has the official sanction of major party workers here, who have undertaken the tremendous task of getting the Washington vote to its far-distant polls on election day. The business of getting out the Washington vote is handled through what is called absentee voters’ serv- ice. It is performed by Democratic and Republican organizations in the District and knows no rest, night or day. It is a huge business—Ilarger this year than ever before in the history of the city. This is an enormous voting popu- lation—as large as a first-class city. Four years ago this vote was esti- mated to be in the neighborhood of 55,000. This year the Democraiic ladies of the District, in charge of the Democratic absentee vote, expect to send out about 56,000. What States get the most of these votes? Those nearest to the District— normally—you would say. For these States keep up their quota of Federal Pennsylvania, sey do not permit absentee voting. Aoum' ‘words, citizens of these States The Sunday Stae WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 25, TAL SEMI-MONTHLY it becomes a very interesting matter as reflected in the life of Washing- ton. From noon-time on, on the fifteenth and thirtieth of any month you Wwill see the lines of Federal workers be- fore bank windows, at the money- order windows of post offices, and at booths especially stationed to accom- preparations are made in department stores to take care of as many checks siding in the District must go home to vote. ‘This makes it possible, therefore, for States more distant from the District i‘ to outstrip them in the number of absentee votes delivered to the re- spective national candidates for the presidency. This year, according to Mrs. 8. J. Asbury, in charge of Demo- cratic headquarters for absentee votes in the District, the States of New York, Illinois, Iowa, California, Mass- achusetts, North Carolina, Florida, Texas, West - Virginia, Colorado and Indiana will show the largest absentee voting. IN ADDITION to the three States named—Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey—there are six others which prohibit absentee voting. They are Kentucky, Mississippl, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina permits absentee vot- ing in the primary, but not in the general election. At Democratic headquarters indi- vidual State booths have been set up where the citizen of each particu- modate them in the largest depart-| ment stores in Washington. Elaborate | FEAT CAPI < e as are presented for cashing. At one of the larger stores, Mr. J. A. Buete, service director, explained their prep- arations in this way: “On the first floor we have *five booths set up and five girls are busy cashing checks. Everything is syste- matized to such an extent that al- though there are long lines each window for as long as an at a time, they are kept moving with such precision and ‘everything is done 50 methodically that, by actual tim- ) i ih URES e ing, 2 minutes has been found to be the longest period any one individual need stand in line. “In this store every effort is made | to relieve the office where accounts | are paid on the eighth floor, where five other girls are delegated to the duties of cashing checks. Slips are passed before | about among those waiting in line and | crease in hour | if they wish to pay on accounts they | day or immediately following, is most fill in the slip themselves with name, ! address and amount they wish to pay. s0 all that is required of the girl at N\ NN ANNARNN \ N N JNNAARNRARNNNY AN §\\\ \ 1936. l‘ the window is to receive the slip and | deduct the sum from the pay check. The line begins to form at shortly after noon, according to Mr. Buete, | and the high peak is reached between 4:30 and 4:45 pm. It is interesting that in this store, as in others, the majority of the in- the day's business on pay, noticeable on the first floor, among the “accessory” or smaller articles. This is due, executives say, to the fact unteer workers. These workers are authorities on the voting laws of the various States and are familiar with the various minor regulations govern- ing the marking of ballots and the | time limit of their acceptance. | ¥ AppTON to this service, the clubs have committees which look after getting out the vote. Here, as in every State, the principal duty of the State committee is to stir eligibles to action. For this purpose both the Republican and Democratic organiza- tions have information committees and committees that round up the voters. In performing this last task the Federal worker, as such, is not contacted. The person sought is the individual at home. No literature goes to the Federal employe. But to his home comes information, in the form of & circular letter, giving him the requirements and privileges of his State. From years of labor in the field the two organizations have built up quite a voting personnel. This is increased each year by the various local clubs scattered throughout the District. Also many of the newcomers to Washing- ton, wishing to vote back home and knowing that it can be done by bal- Jot, contact either the Republican Na- tional Committee for the District or Bemocratic National Committee. By these the individual is referred to the particular office that is taking care of this work. Thst of the Republicans, as has already been mentioned, is located on Rhode Island avenue. That of the Democrats at 1410 G street northwest. For the Democrats, absentee voting in 1928. This also (1) This remarkable m busily preparing the huge machine stamps th check destined for him, sign reads “Government and the photo shows cashier’s window of a big trance to the vaults of the billions in gold back up U branch is cashing pay checl ton’s shopping centers feel time. that larger articles, such as furniture without deliberation, so there is no jmmediate purchasing in these de- partments on the “spur of the mo- ment,” so to speak. While the actual NATIONAL CAPITAL TO MAIL RECORD PRESIDENTIAL VOTE & lina, Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Florida, according to Miss Alice Cameron of Democratic headquarters, having in- augurated it in 1861, to permit absent soldiers to vote. In a copyrighted pamphlet she has written: “Many States soon followed with similar 1aws. The captains in the army actually opened polls in the fields, or the sol- | diers’ votes were carried to the polls. One Democratic candidate, a chief justice of the Supreme Court of Wis- consin, in 1863, had a majority of home votes of 4.892. But when the soldier vote of 7,693 came in the Re- publican candidate had won by & ma- jority of 2,801." This ability of the absentee vote to carry_sn election has been demon- strated even in more recent times. Mr. A. E. Chaffee, reading clerk of the House of Representatives, who has compiled a digest of the voting laws of the several States of the Union, re- cords that in 1926 the absentee vote of the sixth congressional district of Kansas swung the election in that district; that it performed the same feat in the ninth Massachusetts, the eighth Indiana, the twenty-fourth II- linois and the Kansas gubernatorial election in 1930, respectively; that in 1932 it determined the twentieth Cali- fornla and the Colorado senatorial. of those who come to cast’ their absentee votes are not in the least familiar with the procedure. It is like conducting a school in voting to get them straightened out on the election laws of their home State. Many have been away for years. With the growing absentee vote in the District it is not unlikely that, election, de- Banks do a big business on Federal pay day, workers files through during lunch hour. workers with money to spend or ready-to-wear, are not purchased | mF BOOMS achine “signs,” records and tabulates 9,000 Federal pay checks per hour. _Guy Allen, (whose signature shown in the inse: i watching its operation. _(2) Part of rt) it imprints, is the staff of clerks Federal pay roll. (3) This e name of each employee on the pay and the amount due. Pay Roll Checks Cashed Here” a line of Federal employes at the (4) The department store. (5) En- United States Treasury where ncle Sam’s pay checks. (6) and this ks as a line of Government (7) Washing- the impetus of pay day as rush the stores.at guitting cash business cannot be said to double, it amounts to a one-third increase in this store. The greatest increase i3 noticeable in payments on accounts, especially if the pay day falls on the end of the month, as customers then pay accounts and start running them up again to be billed the next month, THIS particular executive states that it is very difficult sometimes to judge just how much cash will be needed to accommodate as many pae trons as may wish to cash their checks. More is required at the end of the month than on the fifteenth, and this no doubt is due to the fact that & certain number of Federal workers are paid monthly. Only once did this store run out of cash and have to draw upon daily receipts for further paye ments. In this store, the experience of which is typical, the great amounts of cash necessary are brought in at various intervals when no one knows they are coming, and they are made up in relatively small sums—at no time more than an ordinary day’s business would necessitate. With no set time for delivery of the extra currency, morning or afternoon, and no notice« able increase over any day's banking operations; the safety of the funds is assured. Only small amounts are dis- tributed to the various booths through- out the store at a time, and at all times even these sums are carefully guarded by armed men. At another large store, the vice pres- ident, Mr. Dulcan, told practically the same story of the reflection of pay day on the business of his organization. Dealing largely in charge accounts, this store feels its greatest income in account payments, although there is marked acceleration in sales im- mediately before, on pay day and after pay day. The activity pre- ceding pay day Mr. Dulcan explains as “anticipatory” purchasing. Opinions differ among various mer- chants in the city as to the preference for a weekly instead of fortnightly pay day. In some cases executives thought that with a weekly pay day accounts might not be paid with such regularity, as the smaller sum would be spent on other things without as much being left over in a lump sum for payment on accounts. In._other