3 o PRESENT SYSTEM. 



may be handled, how much more true is it of bulky stores like 

 lumber and coal? No pretense can be made of drawing these 

 from the storehouse as required : they are the big fish breaking 

 through a net, which only serves to entangle the fishermen. 



Then, the question of properly charging material so expended 

 in bulk is an embarrassing one, for if duly charged to those other 

 jobs on which it is actually expended, it will be twice " expended," 

 and the papers would show that more was used than was received. 

 On the other hand, if it were charged but once when first ex- 

 pended, it would appear that some fabrications were made 

 without material, which would not only be inaccurate, but would 

 be misleading to those who would in future have to depend upon 

 such acts of record. The effect on foremen and others is also 

 bad. They often say, " That material should not be charged, for 

 it has already been paid out of another job," and are thus led to 

 extravagance. 



The only alternative seems to be in the nature of a compro- 

 mise, by the Commanding Officer ordering from store in bulk, 

 such supplies as may be needed for such necessities as he may 

 be able to anticipate. But this, like the requirement that foremen 

 shall make requisition for all that they need in season to be acted 

 on during certain office hours, is an inconvenient provision, and 

 one tending to defeat the very purposes of organization. Not 

 every want can be anticipated ; so that when out of office hours 

 a want arises, how is it to be met ? We do not wish to make the 

 Commanding Officer, or as has been sometimes done, one of his 

 subalterns, a prisoner in the office, so as to have him ready to 

 act upon such irregular demands ; we do not wish to incur the 

 loss and delay caused by making the foreman wait until the next 

 office hour ; we do not wish by emptying the storehouse into the 

 shop to do away with its important function. So an' irregular 

 measure is resorted to : the material is taken from store, subject 

 to the future approval of the Commanding Officer. As a matter 

 of course this is always given. He has might as well as reason 

 on his side, and the Storekeeper has very properly to submit to 

 necessities of which he may not judge. 



