264 PROPOSED SYSTEM. 



the voucher is paid before knowing what number to give it on the property papers ; 

 and even when the proper number is known, nothing can be done toward preparing the 

 abstract until all the vouchers, giving the names upon the serial arrangement of which 

 the abstract depends, have been completed. 



5. Compiling Abstract 5 (of Expenditures). 



This, which is the only double abstract unsupported by num- 

 bered vouchers, requires special, treatment depending on the 

 form in which it may be rendered in future. 



It will be remembered, page 53, that its present arrangement 

 is faulty in that it is indeterminate and groups together several 

 inconsistent agencies. 



Three courses seem open : 



First, to dispense with its double form and make it a simple 

 -classified list of stores expended, i. e., material, the name of which 

 has been changed. 



NOTE. According to the system proposed, stores issued to current service are no 

 longer considered as necessarily expended. 



Second, instead of the present arbitrary subdivision of the 

 objects of expenditure, to make one depending on the standing 

 shop-orders of the post as indicated on the material cards report- 

 ing the expenditure. These would suffice for a classification of 

 all expenditures not chargeable to special fabrications, which last 

 would be reported in bulk on this abstract beneath the standing 

 shop-order list as " fabrications." 



Third, if it should be thought worth while to keep the present 

 system, to designate the line on abstract 5, to which the entry 

 belongs, in the voucher column of the ledger slip ; thus, miscel- 

 laneous expenditures for the manufacture of small arm ammunition 

 would be designated in the voucher column of the ledger by the 

 number 2. See page 46. But this course would depend for its 

 exactness, as does the present one, upon the judgment of the 

 stock clerk, who would then, no more than now, be able to judge 

 of the correctness of the entry. The second course appears the 

 most homogeneous and the best. 



6. Compiling the Abstracts from the Ledger. 



The ledger slips being already arranged in the order of the 

 'nomenclature, we seek among them in succession for the desig- 



