INTERNAL RELATIONS. 259 



lower grade, and would not embarrass the preparation or com- 

 prehension of more concentrated statements. 



3. On the proposed monthly abstract of purchases would hinge 

 the property and money accountability of the arsenal, without pre- 

 venting the independent treatment of these two accountabilities; 

 the former on abstract C, made up without regard to values, and 

 the latter on the abstract of disbursements, made up without re- 

 gard to quantities. 



The credit taken by the paymaster for money spent in purchases 

 would be balanced by the accountability required of the store- 

 keeper for the articles purchased, and this would be traced down, 

 as elsewhere provided, to the very shop- orders on which the 

 material was expended, just as the analysis of the time book (Chap. 

 XV) makes the credit to the paymaster a charge to the shop- 

 order on which the labor was most probably employed. The 

 .circle would be complete. 



It will appear that the quarterly abstract of purchases C will 

 have lost its character as a combination tool, making the evidence 

 of receipt depend upon that of purchase. We may now treat the 

 two questions independently, since the essential point in one case 

 is to charge the material to the storekeeper as soon as it is received, 

 from whatever source and under whatever circumstances it may 

 have come ; and in the other case to credit the purchase money 

 to the paymaster in consideration of the equivalent value the 

 government has received through its other agent, the storekeeper. 



What the storekeeper needs is evidence that he has charged 

 himself with all that was sent him ; what the paymaster needs is 

 evidence that the storekeeper was charged with the articles with 

 the money value of which he is credited. 



What the government needs is evidence that the articles for 

 which it pays have actually been received and will be accounted 

 for. This it gets by seeing, ist, that what it pays for is accounted 

 for: this comes from annually comparing the monthly abstracts 

 with abstract C ; 2d, that what is accounted for is what was re- 

 ceived: this comes from comparing the bills or invoices from 

 outside consignors with what is taken up on abstract C. Thus 

 its own necessities and those of its two agents are satisfied. 



