Evening Star Newspaper, October 25, 1936, Page 62

F—8 CAPITAL (Continued From Seccnd Page.) and clear-headedness of one official in particular. He is Guy Allen, chief disbursing officer of"the United States, whose name has appeared at the bot- tom of every check issued by the Federal Government since 1933, when he was appointed to consolidate 500 different dishursing accounts, manned by 500 disbursing agents, under his own very capable and experienced wing. Mr. Allen pays everybody except emergency employes, the national defense, District of Columbia em- ployes and employes of certain cor- porations, such as the Reconstruction Finance Corp. and the Home Owners’ Loan Corp. That means he pays the departmental forces of the Army and Navy, all executive departments and independent establishments, which means, in turn, that approximately 112,000 people sign above his signature every 15 days. Civil Service reports 115,500 employes, and this slight dis- crepancy is due to the fact that their records contain the names of some not continuously on the United States pay roll, while Mr. Allen’s list pays only permanent employes. MR. ALLEN, naturally enough, must receive his authorization for so doing. This comes in the form of a pay roll, certified by the respective heads of the various departments. This certified pay roll is made up, checked and certified in the office of | the administrative departmental head who then sends it over to Mr. Allen’s | office in the Treasury Annex. These | lists are checked against lists in the | office of the chief disbursing officer. Every permanent employe of the United States Government is repre- sented in the disbursing office by an addressograph plate and when he is shown to be entitled to compensation these plates are run through ma- chines, stamping the name of the recipient of the check and its amount on check forms previously suppiied by the Bureau of Printing and Engrav- | The vast amount of 330 tons of | check paper is the regular supply necessitated yearly for payment pur- poses, and from this great bulk of | especially prepared paper 25,000,000 | sheets of checks are printed. From | these, too, are printed certain minor miscellaneous sheets, such as travel | requests, but by far the great bulk | of paper is used for check purposes. | Fach of these blank checks has its own number and sealed bundles of | them are sent to the disbursing offi- cer's headquarters from time to time as occasion demands, to be accounted for to the very last slip. Mistakes—which are uncommonly | rare—may necessitate the destroying of a check already made out. The | destroyed check and the new one is- sued are carefully recorded and ac- counted for later to the Bureau of | Engraving and Printing. There arrives in the office of the | disbursing chief the pay rolis from | ll departments a few days before the | 15th and 30th of each month. They represent tentative lists, for scme- times corrections or deductions at the | last minute must be made in them. A clerk may be absent without leave a day or two after the pay roll has | been made up. The memo of this deduction is sent to Mr. Allen's office | and is duly made there before the | addressograph of that clerk is run | through the machine. Sometimes minor corrections in the pay roll are necessary, such as in amount, or the spelling of the clerk’s name, and these changes are duly noted. But, with these exceptions, pay rolls and addressographs can be checked and much work gone through with before actual pay day | is upon them. Pay rolls begin to arrive as early as four or five days before the 15th and 30th of the month, but some do not put in an appearance until the day before these dates. 1In the offices of the chief disbursing i officer 500 clerks are kept continu- ously busy working upon those mat- ters that constitute the daily routine of disbursement functions, but for three days before pay day this staff devotes its energies to getting the pay checks out on time. AS MR. ALLEN points out, earth- quakes may come Or g0, storms break about our heads, but nothing must interfere with the orderly and timely distribution of a man's or woman's earnings. Delays are not frequent, but, as Wwith all human mgencies, they sometimes occur. Such | delays usually are occasioned by ex- | traordinary events quite withour the | jurisdiction of the disbursement office. | For example, an emergency &appro- priation may be delayed by much discussion on the part of Congress. Until that appropriation comes | through Mr. Allen cannot, obviously, | draw checks against it. Such a delay occurred in the Park | Bervice appropriation last year and employes of that branch of the Gov- ernment had to wait beyond pay day for their checks. To cite another instance, the Supreme Court decision with respect to the A. A. A. caused doubt as to what funds would be available to make payment and there was delay in getting the rolls over to the disbursing office. Before the checks can be run through the addressograph, and even after each has been checked for ac- curacy in name and amount, there are further records to be made. Each individual check must be charged against a suitable appropriation. While each department head designates the appropriation, it is the Division of Disbursement that must see to it that appropriation and has been correctly recorded. Some idea of the tre- mendous amount of work involved in this function alone can be gained from the fact that there are literally thousands of appropriations that take care of paying Government workers and they are as involved at times as they are diversified. All this book- keeping is done in Mr. Allen’s office and accounts are rendered monthly to the General Accounting Office. Provided, then, that a clerk has been properly placed and everything has been duly authenticated and entered, the addressograph bearing that clerk’s name is run through an especially constructed machine. This machine runs the checks through very rapidly and it is from here the check goes to the signing machine. Time was, not so long ago, when all Government checks were signed by & “signograph,” an instrument constructed on the principle of a pantograph, by means of which 15 signatures were made by writing one signature. Six deputies were kept busy all day long for several days operating these signographs, but this method has been replaced by the sign- ing machine. INTHEopinlnno!Mr.Allen,the present system is safer by far, and complete check can be kept upon its aperation. By tiw§old method there each sum is charged against m“L ! of every employe tg whom a check is | rooms within the vault itself they PAY DAY was no way of knowing if a bonded deputy had not signed an extra 15 signatures, for no tabulation was pos- sible. Today, by means of the sign- ing machine, not one signature more nor less than the number of checks sent through the addressograph can be secured. The signing device, which bears Mr. Allen’s signature, is kept under lock and key within the safe when not actually in use. Only certain em- ployes have keys to the machine, so no one can tamper with it. There are two counters on the machine and they count every signature made and check against each other. A record is kept of every signature made on the machine. This device was made to specifications provided by the Di- vision of Disbursement and is used in Washington and in regional offices throughout the country. It was neces- sary to obtain special consent of the Secretary of the Treasury for its op- eration when the volume of signing became so great that the old signo- graph system became inadequate to meet the situation. When the checks come from the signing machine each one is proof- read before it leaves the Disburse- ment Division. In case of typo- graphical errors, within the division, substitute checks are issued and the old ones accounted for. If a check once gets out and is returned be- cause some department head made a mistake in name or amount, that check has to be canceled. A “stop order” is sent out on it and the voucher must be recertified by the | administrative head in whose depart- ment it originates, and the entire process of sending it to the Disburse- ment Division, checking and record- ing must be gone through with again. The function of the actual distribu- tion of the checks is delegated by Mr. Allen to representatives of the various departments selected for that pur- pose. The evening before pay day checks are sent to these various agents and they make the distribution in| the departments, securing the receipt given. But these 90,000 checks do not con- stitute all of Mr. Allen's paying activ- ities the 15th and 30th of each month. There are 22,000 employes who are paid 1n cash for their services. For the most part these represent em- ployes who earn $2,000 or less, and cash payment is usually by request of the department head. Actual recorded figures show that each fortnight period these cash pay- ments amount to $1,650,000. The cor= rect amounts for each pay envelope are put up in the Treasury vaults. Two or three days before pay day a force from Mr. Allen’s staff goes over to the Treasury Building and there in two especially constructed | set to work to make proper division of this enormous amount of money. The rooms are air-conditioned and | everything is made as comfortable | as possible for the men while they work. It is their job to divide the money and place the proper amount | in each pay envelope as provided by | the department head. ANOTHER carefully picked crew attends to distribution of these envelopes throughout the departments. They are sent under armed guard and in armored cars to different points in the departments, where booths are set up. Two agents from the Dis- bursement Division attend to distribu- tion from each booth, one locating the pay envelope and the other seeing to it that each recipient signs for his money. 80 remarkably well has every func- tion been co-ordinated in connection with this matter of paying Uncle Sam’s 115000 or so employes that one is scarcely conscious of the vari- ous phases of the machinery. This | is a fine tribute, certainly, to the man | who is responsible for all this mech- | anism having to do with the disburse- ment of money. Long experience in the financial | world and Government background and responsibility have fitted Mr. Allen for the job. When he was appointed chief disbursing officer in December, 1933, there were 500 dif- ferent officers, managing 500 sepa- rate accounts, and disbursing funds throughout the United States. He was brought in to consolidate these forces within his own office, and this he has done, to the end that large sums have been saved by reducing appropriations required theretofore to carry on the scattered activities of a corps of disbursers. Likewise, Mr. Allen’s department has absorbed a big increase in divisional functions without asking for an increase in ap- | propriations. | It was back in 1901 that Mr. Allen first worked with figures. At that time he entered the Treasury office as a book- keeper. He was chief of the Account- ing Division from 1913 to 1920 and for two years was Assistant Treasurer of the United States. He was Treas- urer for four months, when John Burke resigned on January 5, 1921. Mr. Allen was Treasurer until May, 1921. Prior to this time, and while he was chief of the Accounting Di- vision, the Secretary of the Treasury sent him to Europe during the war to do consolidation work in France and England. After his brief period as Treasurer, Mr. Allen became execu- tive assistant to the director of the budget, a post he held for 12 years, u;m his appointment to his present office. | P. E. 0. SISTERHOOD I Chapter F met at the McLean, Va., home of Mrs. Adolphus McKenzie. Dinner was served. A business and social meeting followed. ‘The next meeting will be held at Gadsby’s Tavern in Alexandria, when the Misses Laura Hanson, Margery Williams and Jean Handy will be hostesses. The first meeting of the season for Chapter 1 was held at the home of Mrs. Albert Strong, 1430 N. Wayne, Clarendon, Va. Following the luncheon, Mrs. B. H. Peck, president, presided at the busi- ness meeting. The program was “Va- cation Experiences” by the chapter. United Council held memorial serv- ices for Donald E. Whitman, who had been recording secretary for 12 years. Senator Arthur 8. Brown, John B. Dickman, Everett M. Pershing and Senstor Michael J. Kindsfather of Potomac Council spoke. The glee club and audience, under the direc- tion of Walter T. Wilkinson, tenor, .ulil‘emn D. Newland was appointed acting recording secretary by Presi- dent Stanley Schum until the Deceme ber election. pplications for membership jved. THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, OCTOBER 25, 1936—PART FOUR: Phone POtomac 5678 ‘A FORMER 50c VALUE WIND LIGHTERS Lighting cigarettes in the wind is no problem at all if you have one of these handy lighters. A shield slides up and protects the flame from the wind. Youll get a light every time . . . in rumble seat . . . riding with the top down ... 0D windy street corders, —the better to serve you! NOW ONLY 10¢ QUALITY MERCHANDISE AT LOW PRICES Quart Squibb Milk of 60c 35¢ Phillips Cutex Magnesia Polish Creams Remover Magnesia 53¢ 31c 59¢ Introducing The Brand New IMPERIAL GIFT PACKAGE ITALIAN BALM $1.10 Value! 9-ounce Bottle! 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