286 PROPOSED SYSTEM. 



These credits having been collated on the credit sheet for the 

 day, are consolidated monthly on the Recovery Record, and an 

 equivalent value of labor which would be normally charged to the 

 appropriation receiving the credit is charged to the appropriation 

 under which the special work is done. We thus repay, say 

 Ordnance Service, for the material which it has contributed to the 

 special job by transferring to the special job a portion of the 

 charges for labor normally payable out of Ordnance Service. The 

 account is squared by a counter-charge for labor rather than for 

 material, because a more exact distribution of the amounts may 

 thus be made. 



The result of this course will be that the same work will, when- 

 ever repeated, be consistent in its cost, whether all of its material 

 has to be bought for it, or whether it so happens that it may be 

 supplied in whole or in part out of material on hand ; and this 

 cost, truly reported, will be that by which the appropriation 

 authorizing the expenditure is diminished. The following ex- 

 ample illustrates the idea: 



We make an estimate for 100,000 friction primers based upon 

 our knowledge of the true cost of previous work of the same kind. 

 In setting about the work we find sufficient metal on hand of the 

 proper thickness which has become obsolete from a change in the 

 model of the cartridge for which it was originally bought. If we 

 use this without charging it to the primers they become absurdly 

 cheap and their reported cost becomes misleading. If we do 

 charge it and do nothing more, the saving is not apparent ; but 

 if we apply the saving to relieve the cartridge appropriation, we 

 shall have more money for making cartridges, which will be fair. 



It must be remembered that the credit need not diminish the 

 reported cost of the cartridges, since questions of cost are inde- 

 pendent of appropriations and disbursements. See page 289. 

 But we shall be able to make more cartridges at the same price 

 for the same appropriation. 



The only alternatives to the course recommended are: ist, to 

 buy specially for every job the material required for it, regardless 

 of whether it is already on hand and can be spared for it or not ; 



