In reference to the extra baggage business of agents, returns therefor may be forwarded to headquarters by the first train after the close of the month. As soon as the accounts can be audited (say not later than the nineteenth) balances are certified to the accounting officer for entry on the general books.*

The amount of extra baggage collections for property destined to points on other roads (interline baggage) or to stations at which there are no agents, is compared with the way bills and otherwise surrounded with safeguards necessary to secure to each company interested accurate returns.

event the aggregate amount charged to conductors (as shown by the journal) does not agree with the amount of cash remitted, the account may be examined in detail. The agents' ticket journal and conductors' journal can be arranged in one book, a part of the book being apportioned to the former and a part to the latter. Or if a separate journal is used for the collections of conductors, the total thereof may, if desired, be merged on the agents' ticket journal, with the totals of same, for entry on the general books, thus making only one entry on the latter for the totals of the two journals.

*The returns made to the ticket auditor or officer who audits the excess baggage accounts, exhibit in detail the revenue on baggage forwarded and received. Each return should be accompanied by the stubs of the excess baggage cards used in forwarding, and the strap checks (or way bills) for baggage received. The former are used in checking the amounts collected by the receiving agent, the latter in checking the forwarding agent. A return from train baggagemen of the destination, number and amount of excess baggage way bills in transit constitutes a valuable safeguard. Indeed, it may be said to be indispensable in auditing excess baggage received from or delivered to other lines; in such cases, an intermediate company has no evidence of its through traffic except that embraced in the returns of its baggagemen, unless, indeed, coupon way bills are used for such traffic.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CONCERNING THE REMITTANCES OF AGENTS AND OTHERS.

Great diversity exists in the rules and regulations governing the remittances of agents and conductors. Upon some lines daily remittances are required of the total amount collected; upon others, remittances are made every other day, or semi-weekly or weekly. Many companies, however, have no definite rule as to time of remittance or amounts, agents and conductors being expected to exercise their judgment in the matter.

Funds passing through the hands of agents and others should be governed by clearly defined rules.

The availability of the revenue of a railroad as well as its safety will be best secured by hurrying it forward into the treasury with the least possible delay.

It was the universal custom at one time for agents and conductors to remit to the treasurer. This practice has, however, been changed by many companies, remittances being sent to the bank where the company keeps its account. Under this system the number of hands through

which the money passes is lessened and the cost of handling is borne by the bank. This expense is an important item, and as many banks will not pay interest upon accounts likely to fluctuate so widely as those of railway companies, the least return they can make for the use of the money is to perform the clerical work of handling it.

Under the plan of sending remittances directly to the bank, the treasurer makes a check from day to day for such cash as he needs in payment of wages or the settlement of other accounts. The money thus comes to him counted and assorted in packages of such size and denomination as he wishes, and he is saved all trouble and expense in connection therewith.

Packages containing remittances should be opened and counted by a teller of approved honesty. If the teller is not entirely trustworthy, the fact that he can appropriate a part of the contents of packages without detection will be a constant temptation to him. On the other hand, he has no protection against the misrepresentations of dishonest or careless persons among those making remittances; thus he may at any time be accused, unjustly, of tampering with the remittances.

In the disputes that will arise between agents and conductors and the bank officials in reference to the amount packages contain, the treasurer will find it difficult to judge who is in the wrong. But as the bank will insist upon its count, it will sometimes be necessary to require

the work of counting the money to be assigned to a new man, or that measures be adopted by the bank to ascertain definitely in reference to the reliability of its teller.

The same disputes and suspicions will occur if remittances are made to the treasurer, so that nothing is gained by having them sent to him.

The duty of receiving and counting the money remitted from day to day is an exceedingly disagreeable one at best, a duty that the most upright and courageous official will esteem himself happy in not having to perform.

When money is sent to the bank, it should render the railroad company at the close of each day's business an abstract of the amount received from each agent and conductor. This statement should be footed. Along with it the bank should send the statements or letters of advice which it received with the remittances. These should be entered by the treasurer upon the cash book, and if found to agree (when added together) with the amount reported by the bank, the statements may be stamped with the date they are credited and returned to the agents and conductors as receipts; this plan obviates the necessity of the treasurer's writing a formal receipt, and thus much time and cost are saved.

Formerly the cash book in use required that the name of the agent or conductor should be inserted every time a remittance was received. Where there was a large number of persons remitting at short intervals, the duty of entering

the names and amounts thus required considerable time. It was also necessary that the remittances made by an agent or conductor should ultimately be grouped together, so as to form a connected record; this required a ledger account a very laborious method, occupying much time and exceedingly expensive. Moreover, unless the utmost care was exercised at ever step, the extent of the work invited errors in retranscribing, thus throwing the accounts and books out of balance.

The necessity of finding a simple and inexpensive substitute for this cumbersome and expensive system suggested to me the introduction of the "agents' and conductors' cash book."*

It is exceedingly comprehensive, and the information it contains is crowded into the least possible space, a single leaf of the book being enough to accommodate the remittances of forty agents for a month. The name of the agent or conductor is inserted in the first column of the book; opposite the name, and upon the same line, the amount remitted is entered in the proper column-columns being provided for each working day in the month. The remittances of an agent for a month thus occupy one line. At the close of the month the amounts remitted by him are added across and the total inserted. By adding this last column the aggregate footings of agents and conductors are given for the month; if the total footings for the different days in the

*See Form No. 17, Appendix B.