[Internal memorandum on Cadenza & Sons letterhead. One page, typed.]
CADENZA & SONS Machine Tools and Munitions Parts Ironside, Port Hume
INTERNAL MEMORANDUM
TO: Mr. O. Brecht, Chief Engineer FROM: E. Cadenza, Proprietor DATE: 18 December, 1919 SUBJECT: New account category — "Munitions-Parts Test Vehicle, Non-Production Use"
Brecht —
Beginning the first of January next, 1920, the firm will maintain within the books a new account category under the above heading. Under this category will be maintained:
(a) Such light trucks, of one-and-a-half-ton capacity or thereabouts, as the firm shall from time to time acquire ostensibly for the transport and road-testing of our munitions-parts product, and which are not in fact committed to the said transport and road-testing on a regular schedule.
(b) The associated costs of such vehicles — registration, fuel, maintenance, and operator's wages when applicable — as routed through the category.
(c) Such operator's wages — always in cash, and always in sums below those which require Federal form — as may from time to time be drawn upon by any of our customary subcontracting partners, including in particular Blackwell Iron Works and their designees, for the lawful transport of any article for which the said partners require a commercial vehicle that is not attached to the partner's own inventory.
The category is to be kept on your own ledger — not on the firm's principal accounts — and is to be audited only by me in person, annually, in the last week of December. Invoices under this category, if rendered, should be addressed from Cadenza & Sons to the receiving firm and should indicate the service supplied as "munitions-parts test vehicle, non-production use — per day." The daily rate shall be set by you in consultation with me; I suggest $4.50 as adequate cover.
You need not raise questions about the commercial substance of individual uses of these vehicles. The commercial substance is that Cadenza & Sons owns the vehicles, employs the operators, and receives payment for the time the vehicles are in the field. What the vehicles are carrying, on any given night, is the vehicles' business and the business of the firm to whom they are rented. Our books shall reflect the rental; our books need not reflect the cargo.
You may expect this category to be in active use beginning approximately the 17th of January, 1920, at which date the new constitutional provisions take effect.
I rely upon your discretion in the matter. You have been with me since 1903. You will remember that I have, in other matters and over the course of many years, relied upon it well.
Emil Cadenza
[marginal pencil annotation in Brecht's hand: "Acknowledged 19/12/19. OB."]