Memphis Daily Appeal

ORDERS.

Efforts of the Postoffice Department to Facilitate the Transmission of Small Amounts at Cheap Rates.

The New Money Order Which it is Proposed to Introduce It Seems Just What is Needed.

A special dispatch to the Cincinnati Commercial from Washington, gives the annexed details of the proposed new money orders: "The question of providing some system for reducing the rate and facilitating the transmission of remittances through the mails is one over which I have long pondered," said Mr. C. F. McDonald, Superintendent of the Money Order System, to a Commercial correspondent to-day. "In my annual report for 1880," he continued, "I expressed the opinion that the transfer of small sums by mail at comparatively cheap rates could be effected with less risk of loss to the public and to the Department by the money order and advice now in use than by any postal note device that has yet been proposed. I went so far as to recommend the reduction of the fee for orders not exceeding $5 from ten to five cents, and for orders over $5 and not exceeding $10 from ten to eight cents, and the extension of the maximum limit of orders from $50 to $100, is that the increased commissions received for large orders might offset the loss resulting reduced fees for small orders."

"Was there any action taken in the matter by Congress?"

"I prepared a bill calculated to further this object, and Congressman Money, of Mississippi, introduced it in the House, but the Committee on Postoffices and Post-roads did not get an opportunity to report it. It will be introduced next session. But there was another cause of complaint in the present system which is far more widespread than this, and that is the question of TRANSMITTING SMALL AMOUNTS through the mails. You see, since the retirement of the fractional currency from circulation, and the substitution therefor of silver coin, which cannot be conveniently, or with moderate safety, transmitted by mail in ordinary letters, there has been a general demand for some substitute with which to make small remittances through the mails. The demand was greater in the West, where silver is almost entirely used, and Mr. Halstead, of the Commercial, was the first, I believe, to suggest the matter to the Postmaster-General. Newspaper publishers have suffered so much by the loss of small sums in its transmission, that to them the matter has become a subject of very serious consideration. There have been a great many suggestions from all parts of the country, and most of them were in favor of something like a postal card. These are so easily counterfeited that the temptation would be more than the average ingenious American could stand, and that had to be abandoned. It was impossible to reissue fractional currency, for we would have had the silver men down on our heads like a thousand of "bricks" silver bricks, of course. It happened, too, that about the time this trouble began the English postal authorities had the same subject under consideration. A committee of inquiry was appointed by the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, and their report is a very interesting one. The committee decided in favor of THE SCHEME OF POSTAL NOTES for certain fixed sums, as proposed by Mr. Chetwynd, Receiver and Accountant-General of the British postoffice. This system, as you well know, consisted of the transmission of postal notes, redeemable at any office which the holder might select, at a discount of two and one-half per cent. Hitherto there had been a system of transmission of postage stamps, provided, however, that there must be at least two stamps joined together. This was done in order to prevent the stealing of stamps from letters for the purpose of redemption. "The disadvantages of the postal-note system are, however, numerous. First-A duplicate could not be issued of a postal note lost in the mail, because payment of the original note could not be stopped. Second -Inconvenience to the remitter from his inability to pay any required amount by postal note without the use of postage stamps. Third-Exposure of the public to loss from counterfeits, and a dozen other causes. I knew this would not do in America, and I determined to try something of my own. We have always had it charged to us that we borrow everything in our postal service from England, and I thought it was time we were teaching John Bull a little, "Inspector Harrison, of the Money Order Service, and myself, set to work one day and drew up a plan of a postal order which, in my mind, is the best scheme of the kind yet devised. The peculiar feature of this plan is the effectual prevention of alteration of the written amount of the order, by a series of numbers printed on its face in three rows, the first representing units, the second tens, and the third hundreds. The order will look like this: When one of these cards is purchased the postmaster, in receiving the money, will punch out the numerals representing the sum. For instance, if $3 21 is asked for the postmaster will punch out the 3 in the first column, the 2 in the second, and the 1 in the third. Punching out the three ciphers represents $5, the card being good for no greater sum. "The cards will be printed on bank-note paper, handsomely engraved with lathe work and vignettes, so as to make them difficult to counterfeit. They will become invalid if not paid within three months after the time of issue, but duplicates, for which an additional fee will be charged, can be obtained upon application to the department and the surrender of the original; or, if it be lost, upon proof of ownership and the filling of a certificate from the paying postmaster that the original has not been paid, and one from the issuing postmaster that it has not been repaid. A notice to this effect will be printed on the card. You see then any sum whatever can be designated. The punching is very simple, and the child or daughter in charge of many of the Western offices, while their parents are selling goods at the other end of the store, can make out the order as easy as any one. Of course legislation is necessary before any plan can be put in operation, but I think the advantages of this scheme are self-evident."