Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1875 — The Postoffice as a Collection Agency. [ARTICLE]

The Postoffice as a Collection Agency.

A new experiment which is being tried between Germany and Switzerland may be worthy of the attention of our own Postoffice Department at Washington. The project appears at first4o have been a purely Swiss conception, but has been adopted thus far internationally, and came into working order from the Ist of April. Its aim is to facilitate the smaller transactions of commerce by saving travelers’ or commission agents’ charges for the collection of small amounts at a distance. The postoffice concerned undertakes this service for all debts not exceeding thirty-five dollars, secured by any kind of promissory note or bill of exchange. An order on a regulated printed form is filled up by the creditor, and duly presented by the corresponding postoffice to his Creditor for acceptance. If accepted, it of course lies over the fixed number of days, and then is again presented for payment, and the proceeds remitted to the creditor through the usual money-order agency. It must be understood that the postoffice does not undertake to enforce payment itself, but only to receive debts voluntarily discharged. In case of default, however, it hands the dishonored order to any local agent named for that purpose in a proper place on the original form. The only charge made for its trouble is a trifle —about ten cents —for the purchase of each form of order, with the regular money-order payment on such remittances as are sent back in return. For the interior of Switzerland, where the system works independently* the maximum amount allowed to be collected is

raised to SIOO, and it is evident that when once introduced into any country it will be readily made available, not only for the commercial dealings it was specially designed to assist, but for such purposes as the regular settlement of small accounts and other similarly-recur-ring payments.— Chicago Inter-Ocean.