156 PROPOSED SYSTEM. 



out their cards ; but if they should be employed in large numbers, 

 the services of a time keeper will be necessary. He should get 

 their cards at stated intervals and make them out, but the books 

 should be in tlie men's own keeping. I have never known trouble 

 of any kind to result in our workshops from the illiteracy of em- 

 ployees, although it is no new thing that they are required to write. 



Cards for soldier workmen, whose wages are only nominally 

 computed, should be on paper of a different color from that reserved 

 for men whose names go on the pay roll. This helps to tell the 

 story of the pigeon holes, and prevents mistakes elsewhere. 



It would be well, especially in private jobbing shops, to turn in 

 service cards for the principal machines employed. The 

 " wages per unit " might be based upon their daily interest and 

 depreciation, besides cost of taxes and insurance. 



2. OUTSIDE SERVICES. 



Services rendered within the arsenal, and paid for on the pay 

 roll, can be easily reckoned and distributed as before described ; 

 but for those performed without supervision, outside, and paid by 

 separate voucher, no special provision was made until attention 

 was called to them by Captain Michaelis. 



Such services are express, messenger and telegraph service; 

 freighting and the traveling expenses of workmen and others. 

 For these he used a special service card, stating the service per- 

 formed, and the shop-order to which it should be charged ; and 

 it was further ordered that no voucher would be approved for 

 payment unless accompanied by the corresponding cards. This 

 wise provision served to catch many charges which had previously 

 escaped analysis, and made the resulting cost more accurate and 

 consistent. 



I have adapted to the reckoning of outside services this new 

 form of the old " Time Card " (which name was only partly 

 significant), and have thus made the new " Service Card " answer 

 for both inside and outside services, as it well might, since they 

 are, in their nature, precisely similar. The new card is also 

 adapted to piece work, which was but little practiced at Frank- 

 ford Arsenal. 



