348 APPENDIX. 



the general truth of the principles on which it is based I have no 

 possible question. I began the trial of it at Frankford Arsenal, 

 where we had a hundred and fifty or two hundred people. I 

 generally had about a hundred orders under way, of different 

 kinds, some little jobs and some quite important ones. There, 

 instead of the unit card proposed, we had a card with ten hori- 

 zontal lines on it, allowing for the reporting of ten jobs, if 

 necessary, one for every hour in the day. The saving of labor 

 there was very great. I was to hire a time clerk. He had two 

 little boys to assist him in posting the cards. This kind of card 

 made a very great change and helped very much. But still I 

 did not get my reports in at the end of the month as quickly as 

 I expected. I went out West. The selfish element entered still 

 more largely into my facilities, for I had to do almost all the 

 work myself. I was allowed a soldier, however, and by the use 

 of these single card tickets he did everything in about an hour a 

 day. We did not have as many men, but I had about sixty or 

 eighty, and this soldier did all of the sorting and all of the com- 

 puting, and I had everything ready at the first day of the month, 

 a full account of everything done the month before, the cost of 

 every order analyzed and balanced with the pay-roll. I made a 

 computation the other day at the Watervliet Arsenal, West 

 Troy, where I am stationed now, but where I have had nothing 

 whatever to do with the management of the system. I found 

 that an average of a hundred and fifty men in a great many 

 various capacities were making cotton duck equipments, har- 

 ness, canteens, straps, steel and wooden gun carriages, and a 

 great many other parts of military furnishing. I found that 

 about I T 2 to I j^ orders per day were worked on per man. Some 

 of the men went up to four, or five, or six jobs a day general 

 utility men. Others work on the same jobs steadily day after 

 day. I am very confident in saying that anybody who tries it 

 will be very well satisfied with the great saving and the great 

 readiness with which any desired result can be immediately 

 attained. I think that answers Mr. Smith's question. 



Mr. Smith. Regarding the relative amount of paper and 

 printing in the two systems I wanted to hear, if you please. 



Captain Metcalfe. Of course, in the independent card system 



