7
Ol'.NTING billions of
dollars in all forms
of money and all
kinds of securities is
the herculean task in
propress in an impor
tant branch of our na
tional government.
The necessity for thus
taking stock of I’ncle
Sam’s hoard arose
quite unexpectedly.
Indeed, such an invoice of the gov
ernment. s financial resources has
never been taken at stated inter
' ais, as a merchant takes inven
tory or a banker balances his ac
counts periodically. The summons
for a recounting of the republic’s
treasure invariably comes, as this
one did, at comparatively short no
tice. A special squad of the most
expert money handlers in the world
were organized to enumerate ail the
coin and currency and bonds in the
federal strongbox and this body of
three dozen men and women will
work steadily for weeks and months
in the money caverns that consti
.GS7 tfiamcfTTir
.PHCSIGU COEY’JRIGHT.BY' W. FAV/CETT
sum of $5,000 in gold weighs 18%
pounds; 500 silver dollars are sup
posed to tip the scales at 35% pounds,
and $200 in half-dollars, that is 400
coins, weighs 11 pounds. In weigh
ing coin at the treasury very accu
rate tally has to be kept by tellers
who stand beside the scales and re
cord the outcome of each operation.
For all that the weighing of coin
will be doubtless resorted to for the
major portion of the accounting of
Uncle Sam's cash, there will be tons
of coin which for one reason or an
other will probably have to be gone 1
over by hand. An expert woman
counter can handle about 60,000 sil
ver dollars, half-dollars or quarters
in a working day. fingering them over j
one by one, but (his method of work
is now being displaced in Uncle
Sam's money storehouse by an in
genious new type of electrically op
erated machine, which counts coins
of any denomination at the rate of
1.000 per minute. An automatic reg
istering device keeps count with ab
solute accuracy. Dimes, nickels and
cents are more difficult to count by
hand than the larger coins, but the
handling of these minor coins lias
tute the national fortress against
panic.
The necessity for this lengthy
and costly job arose from the shift
ing of responsibilities in the office
of the treasurer of the United
stales, in tne eyes oi a major portion of the newspaper
reading public the announcement that Chirles H. Treat
liad resigned as treasurer did not seem to carry near the
significance that would be attached to a change in the
personnel of the president's cabinet or mayhap the pass
ing of a leader in the United States senate. However,
with the first hint of Mr. Treat’s intention to leave the
government service, the federal employes most directly
interested—that is, the treasury clerks who have to
carry on the big count—in effect had notice of the big
chore that awaited them, for be it known such a whole
sale census of the government's financial resources is
taken only when one man steps down as treasurer and
another steps in—sometning that is scarcely expected to
happen oftener than once in four years at the most.
The responsibilities of the treasurer of the United
States that make necessary very careful balancing of
accounts at a time such as this arise from the fact that
this official is, by law, charged with the receipt and dis
bursement of all public moneys not only in the treasury
at Washington but also in the subtreasuries at Boston
New York. Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Chicago
St. Louis, New Orleans and San Francisco, and
—ii—_I1X
oite of the gpeft TTormy vjjuito at thf us treasury
been greatly facilitated in recent
years by the introduction of count
ing boards, which fill mechanically
when a stream of coin is poured
n vo i' thorn o nrl oanli nf trh l’r>h
when full, holds a given number of coins. Bags, when
tilled with coins, are duly sealed on the same principle as
the packages of bills are sealed, but the closing of the
opening of a coin sack is not done with a stick of wax,
as in the case of the currency parcels, but with a me
chanical appliance that can be held in one hand and some
what resembles in appearance the punch used by the
average street-car conductor.
UNIQUE BANKING SYSTEM
Very little is known in this country of the Giro system
of banking in Germany. This system has been in use in
the state of Hamburg since the establishment of the Ham
burger bank in 1619.
An account is opened in the usual manner, and when j
payments are to be made the payer instead of preparing
a check merely instructs his banker to debit his account
with the sum involved and to credit Richard Roe’s ac
count with a like amount.
If, however, payer and payee have their accounts in
different banks the payer then requests his hanker to i
in me nauonat-oanK Limea spates deposito
ries. He is also trustee for the bonds held to
secure national-bank circulation and the pub
lic deposits in national banks, so that this
head paymaster of the government has in his
keeping not only all of Uncle Sam’s wealth but
hundreds of millions of dollars of other
people’s money, which he must keep in such
shape as to be able to render an accounting at
any day and hour.
Now when the new treasurer of the United
States took over the office he was obliged to
give the outgoing treasurer a receipt in full
for all of the moneys in bis keeping. Natu
rally he would want to do this only after as
suring himself that all the funds were intact
to the last dollar and penny—hence the big
count. As may be surmised, this appraisal of
what Uncle Sam has laid by for a rainy day
cannot be exactly coincident with the entry
and exit in the treasurer's office. To count
one ,by one all the bills and gold pieces and
silver and copper coins in the governmental
hoard is a time-consuming task and the new
treasurer will probably have been in office
three or four months and perhaps even six
months ere he is in a position to hand to the
outgoing official a formal receipt closing the
transfer. Of course, if the count of the money
and securities should show any shortage from
the total amount called for by the books, the
retiring official will have to make good out of
his own pocket—which is rather hard, since
subordinates handle the funds and do all the
counting—but this has never occurred since
the present" scheme of settling accounts was
adopted.
While this fingering over of all forms of
legal tender is country-wide in scope owing to
Uncle Sam's cordon of branch offices stretch
ing across the-continent, the big end of the
Job and the most spectacular phase of it has
its locale in the treasury building at Washing
ton. where the bulk of Uncle Sam's wealth is
stored. There are upward of a score of differ
ent vaults in the treasury building and every
one of these capacious strong boxes will be
investigated by the money monitors charged
with the task of verifying the government
bookkeeping. U the plan of previous counts
is followed tlM counting of the coin, which is
bulky, will be intrusted almost entirely to men.
whereas the enumeration of tlie bills and
bonds will be largely in the hands of young
"omen, whom experience has demonstrated
are defter at such work than their masculine
co-workers. Indeed, at the previous event of
this kind some of the most expert of the young
women developed an ability to count 110,000
bills in five hours.
The young women who are engaged in this
work give their undivided attention to count
ing bills. Male associates give out the bundles
of money to be counted and take charge of
them as the count of each package is finished.
The fastest work in this whole big undertak
ing is done in counting the reserve fund—that
is. the millions upon millions of dollars in
brand new' currency that is held in reserve
ready to be issued whenever called for. This
wealth is in the form of crisp bills, ranging
in denomination from $1 to $10,000 each. There
are thousands of bundles of this paper money,
each bundle containing 4,000 notes of one de
nomination. Inside a main bundle of the size
indicated are 40 small packages, each contain
ing 100 notes. Thus a bundle containing
$4,000,000 in $10,000 bills is no bulkier to
handle and no more trouble to count than a
package containing $4,000 in $1 bills.
An official of the treasury lias personal
charge of the count and working under him is
a force recruited on the ratio of about five
counters to one bailer and sealer. As the
count progresses each pr.ckage in turn has the
heavy wax seal broken and is unwrapped by
one of the men, who hands it to one of the
women counters, taking her receipt for the
bundle of money. She proceeds to count the
, bills and if tire package is found to contain
• the amount called for turns it back with an
indorsement as to its correctness and the re
ceipt which she has given is destroyed or
returned to her. Each package which is pro
nounced O. K. is taken in hand by the bailers
and sealers, rewrapped, labeled and sealed
with the great daubs of red wax bearing the
official treasury seal, so that at the end of
tills proceeding the package looks just as it
did before work began.
The wo omen employed at the treasury depart
ment are famous as the most expert-currency
counters in the world and the most highly
skilled of the force were drafted for this extra
undertaking. Contrary to the supposition of
many people, the counters at the treasury in
going over a package of currency actually
lift each note by the upper right-hand corner.
To be sure, the women are aided at their
work and have a check on accuracy by the
keeping tab on the progression of the numbers
printed in blue ink on the face of all notes—
the notes in a package being placed in regular
rotation, but aside from this supplementary
scheme for verifying there is actual counting
in the good, old-fashioned way. Records as
high as 6,000 notes an hour have been made
by the most expert of the 400 women counters
in Uncle Sam’s employ, but such high-speed
work cannot be maintained for any great
length of time.
A most important feature of the task is the
counting of the bonds held by the government
as security for the circulation of national
banks and as security for government money
deposited with the banks. These bonds occupy
a special vault in the treasury building and
they total something like three-quarters of a
billion dollars in value. A committee Of seven
officials win count the bonds, and inasmuch
as great care is necessary in going over the
bonds, coupon and registered, it is expected
that at least two months will be necessary for
this task alone. The last time a count of the
bonds was made six weeks was allowed for the
task, but Uncle Sam now has on hand 50 per
cent, more bonds than were in storage at that
time.
The counting of the coin—gold, silver, nick
el and copper—in' the possession of the gov
ernmen constitutes yet another branch of this
unique enterprise. In the case of the coin the
term counting must not be taken too literally,
for as a matter of fact much of the accumu
lation of coin is weighed on the delicate scales
at the treasury instead of counted. Weighing,
in the case of freshly minted and unused coin
gives just as accurate a verdict as to value as
does counting. Certain numbers of coin are
placed in bags and weighed as standards. The
transfer the amount in question to the bank
of the payee, with instructions to credit Rich
ard Roe’s account with the amount of the in
debtedness.
Convenient blank forms are provided for
making these notifications. When the banker
receives an instruction of this character, says
the Bookkeeper, he in turn notifies Richard
Roe of the payment to his credit and the name
of the payer.
In Hamburg the Reichsbank and five im
portant banks use the Giro system. Represen
tatives of these banks meet several times daily
at the Reichsbank, where transactions between
their several customers are cleared. In Ham
burg very little material money is used in
effecting transactions, the habit being to settle
all obligations, even of the most insignificant
character, by Tiber weisungszettel. When pay
ments are to be made from one city to another
this Is done usually through the Reichsbank,
which has 500 branches, more or less, through
out the empire. All transactions are under
taken without cost to either payer or payee,
and on the contrary deposits subject to this
modified form of checking usually draw one
per cent, interest per annum.
The advantages of tj>e Giro system fall
partly under the head of security and partly
of convenience. Danger from forgery is
eliminated, as the notification sent to a banker
by a payer could not by any possibility be
utilized advantageously by criminally dis
posed persons. The only inconvenience ob
servable arises from the fact that receipts for
payments are not acknowledged on bills ren
dered, unless such receipts are specially
sought by messenger after the bank exchange
has been made.
It is customary in small local transactions
for the payer to note at the foot of bills the
date of payment through his banker and in
case of possible dispute the bank is always
prepared to clear up misunderstandings. Con
cerns doing a large volume of business and
obliged to make numerous payments daily are
spared the annoyance of preparing hundreds
of individual checks, as they have merely to
write out a list of names and amounts on a
lone sheet, which they send to their banker.
Thinking Pleasant Things.
Make yourselves nests of pleasant
thoughts. None ot us yet knows, for
none of us has been taught in early
youth, what fairy palaces we may
build of beautiful thoughts, proof
against all adversity—bright fancies,
satisfied memories, noble histories,
faithful sayings, treasure houses of
precious and restful thoughts, which
care cannot disturb, nor pain make
gloomy, nor poverty take away from
us—houses built without hands for
o i- kOuW to live in.- John Ruskin.
NOTED WOMAN OF OLD ROME
Ciodia’s Salon a Center from Which
Emanated Dear Friends and
Deadly Enemies.
The salon of Clodla on the Pala
tine and in her villa on the seashore
at Baiae drew together the foremost
politicians, poets and orators of the
time—men of the older generation,
like Cicero and Matallus, young men
like her brother Clodius. the brilliant
and erratic tribune, or Caellus, whom
| Cicero calls “the best Informed poli
tician in Rome.” ‘The burning; eyes"
of ClodlS, which Cicero celebrates In
his fierce attack upon bar; her bril
liant' wrt, her rersatile character, her
gill as a dancer, her abandon and
hemianfiml, her Ciaudian pride and
contempt tor popular opinion are all
marks of that fiery southern tempera
ment which could find no middle
course between love and hate, which
would hesitate for no scruples and be
thwarted by no obstacle.
She tired of Catullus and he poured
upon her all the vials of his wrath and
scorn. She failed to ensnare Cicero,
and she avenged herself upon him by
driving him Into exile and taking his
property from him. She was jilted
and laughed at by the once-devoted
Caeltus, and consequently brought a
charge of attempted murder against
him and aMfiost compassed his ruin.
Whether she deserves the abuse which
Catullus heaps upon her in his later
poems, whether she merits the epitaph
of the “three-cent Clytemnestra”
which Caelius puts upon her, or Is
"the Palatine Medea” whom Cicero
paints her in his defense of Caelius,
we may never know.—Scribner’s Mag
azine.
It Seems So.
‘ The leading man is always cross
with us.”
“In acting, you know, ability and ir
ritability go together."
Through purchase of control of the Equitable
Life Assurance society, J. P. Morgan is acknowl
edged the insurance king of America, the domi
nating factor in the nation’s finances and the
master and controlling spirit of the traction situ
ation in New York,
.Mr. Morgan has been during the past 25 years
the Atlas of the financial world of the United
States, lie possesses more money power than
any man who ever lived in this country.
Born in Hartford, Conn.. April 17. 182.7, of a
family which for generations had been wealthy
and aristocratic, he front his youth up enjoyed
all the educational advantages that his parents'
money and social position could give him. After
graduating at the English high school in Boston
he went abroad and became a snitiem at c»ui
tingen, Germany. At the age ot 23 he returned to this country and appar
ently because nothing else presented itself for hint to do went into his
father's banking business. As liis experience in the business grew bis father
wisely placed upon his shoulders more and more of tl/e firm’s responsibilities.
He was sent to London as the firm’s representati/e and there obtained a
thorough grounding of the exceedingly complicated subject of foreign ex
change. When he returned to New York he was made a partner in hi*
father’s banking firm.
During the years that followed some of the most luminous of his achieve
ments were:
In 1871 he created a market in Europe for $25,0p0,000 worth of New York
Central stock and sold it there at a profit whiefi amazed old Commodore
Vanderbilt.
In 1S7T he handled an issue of $26,000,000 of government bonds in prepa
ration for putting the national currency on a gold basis.
In 1880 he provided $40,000,000 for the extension of the Northern Pacific
railroad to the Pacific coast.
In 1880 his was the master hand in the reorganization of the Reading
railroad and the reorganization of the Baltimore and Ohio, involving syndi
cate work and the loan of $10,000,000.
In 1893 the Southern railway was created out of the Richmond Terminal
and allied lines.
In 1895 the Erie railway was rehabilitated.
In 189i the Lehigh Valley was put on its feet, the soft coal combination
formed and the Central Railroad of New Jersey leased by the Reading.
EDWARD OUT-OF-DOOR KING
No other European sovereign is so much a
man of the open air as King Edward, who has
just celebrated his sixty-eighth birthday anni
versfirv. He is singularly energetic, though not
active in the sense of one who walks rapidly and
far. When there is nothing better available for
an out-of-door occupation lje does not despise the
gentle game of croquet, though he has never
fallen a victim to golf.
He is not afraid of rain and he actually revels
in the brisk freshness of a heavy shower. He
hardly ever uses an umbrella. For life out of
doors he prefers clothes which will resist the
rain, but he does not like a ir :ckintosh. Clad
in a long, cloth cape, which completely covers
his other clothes, he scorns to take shelter from
He likes the sea. not only in its fairer moods, as when he is yachting in
pleasant weather on the Solent, but also when he can watch it in storm.
On his tour abroad this year the king was perpetually out of doors, in
the royal yacht or ashore in motor-cars or carriages. He picnicked wherever
he could, even at Girgenti and Pompeii. Malta was entirely traversed in the
duke of Connaught's motor car.
His majesty is, indeed, at his best when he is at home in Norfolk. Then
he becomes as one of the Norfolk farmers and the people of King's Lynn
delight to name him "the squire of Sandringham.’’ He is the best of land
lords. but he is also a strict one. No public house is allowed on his majesty’s
property. Instead, he has provided club houses in every village on the estate
Few are more skilled in the management of a sporting estate than his
majesty. His head keeper. Mr. Jackson, constantly consults him and the king
takes no mere surface interest in the intricacies of game preservation, with
due regard to the rights of others. He arranges the beats personally and
with nilicb skill and he enjoins a rather strict observance of all the rules.
He is an excellent marksman.
His favorite shooting kit consists of tweed, often gray in tint—a knicker
bocker suit, with a long, loose shooting cape. Thus clad, he is regard
less of rain, dripping branches and wet undergrowth.
SENATE WATCHES DOLLIVER
Senator Jonathan P. Dolliver of Iowa, a lead
ing member of the “insurgents,” threw some hoi
shot into the enemy in his speech delivered at
the Press club in Chicago just before congress
convened. Mr. Dolliver advanced the theory that
the most hopeful sign about the last congress
was not what congress did, but the fact that it
did not do so unanimously. He also said that he
believed President Tafts attitude toward the
“insurgents” at the present session will be friend
ly and that he thought the president had done
all that it was up to him to do in the tariff mat
ter, as congress made the tariff revision aud not
the president.
“The time when a ‘skin game’ can be worked
on the people with the unanimous consent of
r.nn wroco will nnvAi> n/tn«A n
ver. “When I am asked why I do not vote with the majority 1 say: 'Not un
til I have made a chemical analysis of it.’
“The real insurgents at the extraordinary session of congress were not
the few men who tried to represent the public interest faithfully and carry
out the pledges of the party platform, but the interesting group of private
interests before whose threats to defeat legislation the leaders of the party
bow'ed down for the sake of harmony.
“It will be a queer state of the public mind when representatives of the
people are successfully read out of a party in order to secure a solidarity
organized around merely private interests.”
Soon after he arrived in Washington Senator Dolliver went up to the
White House to see President Taft. He waited for some time in an outer
office and then demanded of Secretary Carpenter the reason for the delay.
He was told that the president was busy and could not be seen until the
next day.
The Iowan slapped his hat on his head and left, telling Mr. Carpenter
that when the president wanted to see him he could send for him. It is said
the Iowa senator gow has a different opinion coneerning the president's feel
ings toward the insurgents.
MONEY IS THE NEW LEADER
me uemocrats in tne United States senate
have a new leader. He Is Hernando de Soto
Money, senator from Mississippi. The senate it
pretty well made up of money these days, having
several multimillionaires on its salary list it
often is called the "Millionaire's clnb.” The new
minority leader, however, has money in name
only. Of course the Mississippian who will lead
the party of Jefferson in the affairs to come be
fore the senate has a few dollars, but as com
pared with Elkins, Guggenheim, Depew and aev
eral others he is a poor man.
Senator Culberson of Texas has been the mi
nority leader in the upper branch of congress for
several years, but soon after the lawmakers con
vened for the sixty-first session he annni,„„—
that he would give up the honor because of hu
health. Many thought Senator Bailey, also of Texas, would get the place
but it went to Senator Money. *•
Mr. Money has had ample experience in congress to make him a mod
leader of his party forces. He was first elected from the fourth Mississini
district in 1875 and served 10 years, fce was out of the house until 1893 and
was again elected, serving until 1897. While a member of the house he w™*1
elected in 1898 to the senate, but did not take his seat until March 4
Senator Money’s present term expires In 1911 and it is believed he win
hold the leadership until that time. He is one of the most popular men
the senate, a good speaker and a wily man in politics. He has taken nart i*
many of the big fights before congress in recent yean and his friends nrldilS
the Republicans will feel his power before he gets through with 1
is not unlikely that he will be re-elected when his present term ends«
that event probably will continue as leader of the minority. autt **
