404. By "original messages" is meant the record actually used at the key by the operator and on which it is customary to make transmission notes, such as initials of sender, receiver, and time of dispatch. For example, a telegram is prepared and telephoned from a Government office to a telegraph station, the original message in this case being the record taken from the telephone by the representative of the telegraph company on company stationery and used at the telegraph instrument. This should be submitted with the telegraph company's bill and forwarded by the disbursing officer with the voucher making payment. Again, a telegram may be written in a Government office in duplicate, one copy being retained for record purposes and the other handed to the telegraph office, this last mentioned being the original, which should be surrendered by the company with its bill. 405. Titles of signing officers should be omitted in the preparation of telegrams to the department and office at Washington, as well as to field units of the service and all others who are familiar with the official capacity of the senders. In other cases the titles, or so much thereof as necessary for identification should be included. 406. Official messages sent by one field office to another, the tolls on which are properly payable by receivers, will be marked "Official business, Government day (or night) rate, collect." Tolls on these and any other messages received and properly marked "collect" will be paid by receiving officers to local telegraph agents, and impression copies will be accepted with vouchers in support of charges. 407. Messages sent to any individual, association, company, or corporation, on business in which the Government has no interest, must be marked "Collect, commercial rate." 408. Official messages (except to the Indian Office) sent by officers and employees in a travel status and pertaining to their duties, shall be paid for by senders and marked "Official business, Government day (or night) rate, paid in cash." In such cases copies of messages showing tolls paid and receipted by the telegraph agents, must be furnished by the senders in support of their vouchers for reimbursement. 409. Under regulations of the Postmaster General, Government messages are subject in all respects to prevailing commercial count of chargeable words, no charge being made for address and signature, and the tolls on such messages are 40 per cent of commercial rates; provided that minimum charges shall be 25 cents for day messages, 20 cents for night messages, 45 cents for day letters, and 30 cents for night letters. 410. Should disallowances be made by the General Accounting Office for excess payment of telegraph tolls, and adjustments can not be effected with local te'egraph agents, the disbursing officers who made the payments should call upon the Washington office of the telegraph company for refund of the differences. LIBERTY LOAN BONDS 411. Liberty loan bonds held in trust for Indians must be placed in the custody of local banks for safekeeping, either by using safe-deposit boxes or taking receipts from the banks as custodians. The renting of safe-deposit boxes for this purpose is hereby specifically authorized. Keeping of bonds in any other manner than that described herein must be at the personal risk of superintendents. 412. When Indians have been granted patents in fee to their lands or formally declared to be competent, superintendents are authorized and directed to turn over to them any bonds registered: in their names, without indorsement of any kind, but no other bonds shall be delivered, sold, transferred, or assigned without express authority of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. 413. When bonds registered in the names of Indians are delivered without restriction to the registered owners, either under authority of the preceding paragraph or by specific authority of the Indian Office, receipts must be taken for the agency files. Should the Indians subsequently dispose of their bonds they will execute assignments thereof, in accordance with the rules prescribed by the Treasury Department for the general public. 414. All such deliveries should be reported to the Indian Office with issues, numbers, and denominations of bonds and post-office addresses of owners, so that the Treasury Department may be requested to forward interest checks to registered owners direct. 415. The sale of bonds of minor and other incompetent Indians is discouraged as far as possible, but it is realized that there are and will be instances in which conversion of bonds into cash can not be avoided. In such cases the bonds must be forwarded to the Indian Office, without indorsement of any kind but with a full statement of what it is desired to do and the reasons therefor. 416. If the sale is to be made on the market, the Indian Office, to facilitate the transaction, will have coupon bonds issued in lieu of the registered bonds and sent to the superintendent for sale through the nearest Federal reserve bank or branch thereof. 417. Should it be desirable to sell the bonds of one Indian to another, authority for such sale and purchase will be granted upon a proper showing, and new bonds, registered in the name of the purchaser, will be sent to the superintendent for his custody. When sales of this kind are made the procedure will be to transfer the amount involved by journal voucher from the individual Indian money account of the purchaser to the individual Indian money account of the seller. 418. When desirable, bonds registered in the names of Indians may be transferred to superintendents as trustees for individual Indians without naming them. The purpose and effect of this will be to transfer the investment from individuals to the Indians in general, just as if the moneys were on deposit to the superintendent's credit in a bonded bank, and to make the funds of the original bond owners available for expenditure for their benefit. 419. If the heirs of deceased bond owners have been determined by the Secretary of the Interior under section 2 of the act of June 25, 1910 (36 Stat. L., 855), as amended by the act of February 14, 1913 (37 Stat. L., 678), and the bonds are of such denominations that they are susceptible of division among the heirs in accordance with departmental findings, request will be made for transfer to the heirs, naming them, giving the amount to be transferred to each and referring by date and file number to notification of Secretary's finding. Such of the bonds as are not susceptible of proper division should be forwarded to the Indian Office for exchange for coupon bonds, the latter to be sold by the superintendent and the proceeds credited to account of the estate and subsequently paid to the heirs or transferred to their accounts as their respective interests appear. 420. Names of proposed assignees must be furnished in all cases and it must be stated whether new bonds are to be retained in the custody of superintendents or delivered to assignees. If the latter, post-office addresses of assignees must be furnished so that the Treasury may be requested to mail interest checks directly to them. 412. When it is desired that the new bonds be in different denominations from those submitted for transfer, it should be so stated in the letter of transmittal. 422. When Liberty loan bonds of Indians are transmitted to the Indian Office for transfer, exchange, conversion, or any other purpose, they must be sent by REGISTERED MAIL. Registry fees may be paid from appropriations or funds allotted for general agency expenses. 423. All bonds and other securities belonging to Indians and held in trust for them, either in the field or in Washington, must be carried in accounts of disbursing agents at par value as long as they are so held. (I. O. Order 323.) 424. With respect to securities the purchase price of which is not charged to the account of any particular person, but which belong to the Indians generally and represent a part of the acknowledged balance of individual money, it will be sufficient to show the total amount repre sented by such securities as a separate item in the analysis of balance on the account current. (I. O. Order 323.) 425. Coupon securities belonging to individuals and securities registered in the names of their individual owners, the cost of which is charged to accounts of purchasers, must be shown on a separate line on the face of the account current as a subdivision of individual moneys, entitled "Invested in securities." The amount thereof will be included in the total balance for which the disbursing agent is responsible and shown separately in the analysis of balance but excluded from the total funds on hand reported in requests for advances of funds from the Treasury. (I. O. Order 323.) 426. In addition to the foregoing requirements there must be attached to each account current a statement of the securities held, analyzed so as to show (1) the total face amount of each kind or issue, (2) whether coupon or registered, (3) if registered how inscribed, and (4) whether held locally or in Washington. Names of individual owners and amounts held for each need not be reported. (I. O. Order 323.) 427. When coupon bonds are sold by authority of the Indian Office, official receipts for the proceeds must be issued to the purchasers. If the price realized is in excess of par value of securities the official receipt will be prepared so as to show the par value and the premium separately and only the latter should be extended to the "amount" column and taken into acIn the event that less than par value is realized from the sale nothing should appear in the "amount" column on official receipt and the loss should be written off on a journal voucher. 428. Checks for interest on bonds registered in the names of Indians will be drawn to the order of bond owners and mailed to them through superintendents. count. 429. Checks of adult Indians may, if desirable, be delivered to them without restrictions. Likewise interest checks payable to minor bond owners may be delivered to their parents or recognized guardians. Adults will indorse their own checks but parents and guardians should be instructed to indorse in the following form: John Doe Father and natural guardian of William Doe The last name must be identical with that of the payee as it appears on the face of the check. 430. As all interest checks are drawn to the registered owners of the bonds, whether adults or minors, they are not negotiable by superintendents without indorsement and no accounting is, therefore, required for those delivered to payees or to their parents or guardians. 431. Checks which for any reason it is not deemed expedient to turn over directly to restricted Indians, will be indorsed by superintendents in the following form: John Doe by Chas. Thomas Supt. and S. D. A. Ex officio Guardian The first name must be identical with that of the payce as it appears on the face of the check. When checks are indorsed as herein provided official receipts must be issued to the Indians and the proceeds taken into account as individual Indian money to the credit of the owners. 432. Checks for interest on bonds registered in the name of the Secretary of the Interior as trustee will, of course, be drawn to the order of the Secretary. Any such checks may be indorsed in the following form: The Secretary of the Interior, Trustee by Chas. Thomas Supt. and S. D. A. 433. Official receipts for such checks must be issued to the Treasury Department (Division of Loans and Currency) and the proceeds taken into account as individual Indian money to the credit of owners. 434. Interest on bonds registered in the names of superintendents in trust for individual Indians will be paid to superintendents by checks drawn to their order. Such interest must be receipted for as required in the preceding paragraph, taken into account and distributed in the same manner as interest derived from bank deposits. GENERAL ACCOUNTING 435. "General accounting" as the term is here used, means the systematic recording of transactions that result in the acquisition, disposition, or change in form or ownership of Government property, as distinguished from cash which does not enter into the general accounts except as its movements liquidate assets or liabilities. When appropriations are used for the purchase of property, a change occurs only in the form of the assets and it is equally important for disbursing agents to account for the property in their custody as for the money from which it was purchased (I. O. Order 346). 436. General accounts will be kept for each agency, school, irrigation project, etc., regardless of appropriations. They will record the movements of six classes of assets (recapitulation accounts 1 to 6, inclusive) and accounts payable (recapitulation account 7). Such movements will be explained by 10 nominal accounts (recapitulation accounts 8 to 17, inclusive). The excess of the assets over the liabilities of a unit will be shown at the end of each fiscal year by a surplus account (recapitulation account 18). There are 18 general ledger or recapitulation accounts, classified as follows: (a) Fixed assets— 1. Land and improvements. 2. Buildings and plant. 3. Equipment. 4. Livestock. (b) Current assets 5. Stores. 6. Accounts receivable, installment sales. (c) Current liabilities 7. Accounts payable. (d) Voucher accounts 8. Collection vouchers. 9. Disbursement vouchers. 10. Transfer vouchers issued. 11. Transfer vouchers received. (e) Expense and income accounts12. Operating expense. 13. Operating income. 14. Other income. Extraordinary charges 15. Contingencies and losses. 16. Statutory and treaty benefits to Indians. (g) Closing account 18. Surplus. 437. "Land and improvements" is a property, asset, or real account, which represents the purchase price, or if that is not known, at least the estimated purchase price of all tracts of land acquired by purchase and permanent improvements thereon (except buildings), including in addition to the first cost of the land all permanent improvements made after purchase, such as grading, filling in, sodding, terracing, planting trees and shrubs, ditching, digging canals, laying riprap, fencing, surveying and monumenting. A fixed property card will be prepared for each of these tracts, showing its location, cost, and character in sufficient detail to identify it. As improvements are made on land their cost will appear first in a cost account. When the project is completed, or at the end of each fiscal year in any event, "Land and improvements" will be debited and the cost account credited with the cost of improvements. This amount should be entered on the fixed property cards for "Land and improvements." If the tract on which the improvements have been made is not included in the card inventory a new card should be prepared; otherwise the cost of the construction or improvement work may be added to the card prepared for the tract of land improved. 438. "Buildings and plant" is a property, asset, or real account which indicates the cost, or the estimated cost, of all buildings and inclosed permanent or stationary machinery in the possession of the unit. Equipment should not be included as part of the plant. Plant should consist only of heavy and stationary machinery that may properly be considered a part of the inclosing buildings, such as elevators, electric wirings, dumb-waiters, furnaces, chandeliers, or fireplaces. From time to time, as permanent improvements are completed, or at the end of each fiscal year in any event, this account will be debited and the construction cost accounts credited. 439. "Equipment" is a property, asset, or real account which indicates the cost, or the estimated cost, of all fixed or lasting property not included in "Land and improvements" or in "Buildings and plant." Equipment and other real or fixed assets may be distinguished from expendable property, such as supplies and materials, by the fact that fixed assets do not materially change form in the course of their use, whereas supplies and materials disappear, as such, when used. "Equipment" includes furniture, tools, implements, wagons, automobiles, motor cycles, and other movable articles that are not materially changed by use. This account will receive debits by reason of purchase, manufacture, and transfers and credits through losses, breakages, transfers, and sales. It will also be charged with the estimated railroad freight, the actual wagon freight, and the 5 per cent handling charge on equipment acquired for sale under reimbursable agreement contract. 440. "Livestock" is a property, asset, or real account which indicates the cost, or estimated value, of all livestock at the unit, whether to be used as work animals, for breeding, or for subsistence. This classification will include horses, mules, sheep, goats, cattle, pigs, and other animals. Debits to this account will be made as a result of purchase, natural increases, and transfers. The account will also be charged with estimated railroad freight, the actual wagon freight, and the 5 per cent handling charge on livestock acquired for sale under reimbursable |