CHAPTER V. 



PRESENT SYSTEM. 



A. EXTERNAL RELATIONS. 

 (PROPERTY ACCOUNTABILITY.) 



DEFINITIONS. 

 Property Returns. 



A property return is a periodical tabular statement with 

 appended vouchers, of all recorded transactions with public 

 property during the interval of time to which it belongs. 



There are two returns now made, one by the Ordnance Store- 

 keeper, known generally as the Property Return ; and one, usu- 

 ally much more restricted in its scope, made by the Commanding 

 Officer and known as the Current Service Return. The following 

 discussion applies particularly to the Property Return. 



As to the actual steps to be followed in making these returns 

 the Regulations are not explicit, but the same general practice 

 seems to be followed at the different arsenals. To speak as 

 exactly as possible, I shall refer to the method now followed at 

 the Benicia Arsenal, as it is that with which I am most familiar, 

 and as far as my experience goes, a fair type of the rest. 



Vouchers. 



Starting from the base of the pyramid of which the 

 Return is the top, we find a large number of individual vouchers 

 of various kinds, which are the first written evidences of the 

 transactions to be recorded. They can all be divided into two 

 general classes, viz., receipts and issues. 



Abstracts. 



In the extended transactions of an arsenal the individual 

 receipts and issues are so numerous, that, to facilitate their 



