The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-08-03

hundred ladies, but the regret is express
ed because the opportunity was not given
to bring the majority to like conclu-
sion.
THE PRINTING BUREAU-FRACTIoNA
recH CURRENCY. -
These examinations having been pur.
sued as far as permitted. your committee
then directed their attention to the con-
dition of the Printing Bureau, as mint
Secretary of the Treausury, December,
1868, exhibits the silver coinage of the
country to have been from 1868 to the
close of the year ending June 80, 1868,
in all, Sl32,954, S60-of which only 81,
PSI, ,720 was in dollars-the remaining
being in small coins, from so cents to
cents. The copper coinage was So ,24l :
923. The silver coined at the mints of
Philadelphia, New Orleans and San Fran :
cisco under the act of February 21, 1858
from 1853 20 1868 is reported in De-
cember last to have been in these eleven
years $40, ,655,730 The Secretary of the
Treasury. in estimating on his December
report, 1862, what resources he should
have from the fractional currency, then
ordered by Congress, says:
"The issue of fractional currency has
reached the sum of S3.SS4 800. The best
lights lead to the estimate that before spe
Gle payments can be resumed, not less than
$40 100000 will be required by the wants
of the community. The sum of $50, lis,
200, not yet issused, may therefore be
counted on as an additional resource" a
very lew estimate, inasmuch as by the law
OF currency and of circulation, paper when
supplying this vacuum of coin, ever runs
far beyond the displaced coin, in amount
of issue, and oflo-s by circulation. The
small silver coin of our country were pur
posely made by Congress inferior in real
value of gold, to prevent their expectation Z,
and hence were, prior to our suspension
of specie payments, rejected by the banks,
and by merchants generally, who had de-
posits to make in bank, thus limiting their
circulation, and the demand upon the
mint of their coinage. The silver dollar
(few or none of late years COMEDY must
weigh 4l23 grains, whereas the half dol
lar weighs but 1872 grains, and the qurter
but Sc grains. It was then fairly to be
inferred THAT when this coin went cut of
circulation, and with the nominal value
considerably higher than its real value,
and paper circulation of legal tender
took its place, of full value. that the vol
Ume of paper would considerably out run
the volume of displaced silver. Some es-
Inmates ran up as high as sixty millions
of fractional currency, many to fifty mil
liens, and hence the forty millions esti-
mate of the Secretary was far within the
limits of the general expectation.
PERILoUs MODE OF PRINTING MONEY.
Your committee were amazed to find,
upon examination, thatin April last, when
this committee was created, the recognized
issue of the fractional currency was under
twenty millions. They cannot account
for this discrepancy of reality and of esti
mate. Upon the discovery, however, of
the great discrepancy, they directed their
attention to the mode and manner of
printing this fractional currency, which,
to them, is utterly unsatisfactory. The
white paper upon which it is printed has
been very loosely purchased and received
and very loosely handled. 1t came into
.he hands of one lady in the Bureau of
Printing, and instead of being turned out
to the public in far different direction,
returned all of it to her hands, and she
passed it over to Mr.. Clarke. Whatever
system oe checks and balances MIR. Clarke
may have for his own guidance, there is
no check over him. He keeps no ledgers,
balances no books, for an accountant to
see and understand at glance. The eye
is wearied and the mind fatigued by in
Vulnerable figures of his, but no clear,
close ledger, such as every merchant or
corporation has. shows continuously his
days work, or the summary of that work,
to be detected by single glance of his
eye. The whole arrangement of this, the
most important of the Government, is
loose, sloverly, unsatisfactory, and sus
ceptible of considerable amount of fraud
A plate printer of his, James Lamb, Sc
lected at random from the fractional cur
rency workmen, testiies, HThere was no
security 10 prevent the fractional currency
from being taken or distracted" when he
was at work on the hydrostatic presses,
and he adds s'I could have taken off ten
sheets day, from October to December" !"
Mr.. Lamb was very sharply cross ques-
toned, but adhered to this testimony to
the end. Norh has there been shown to
your committee any satisfactory dispesi-
ton that had been made of the numerous
spoilt sheets of the fractional currency,
sheets of the so eentsort, say. upon which
two or three parts may be damaged, while
the remaining parts are good. Indeed
the whole espoilt sheet" management of
Treasury Notes and of Bonds, especially
of the Coupons, seem to US to be in very
unsatisfactory, if not dangerous state.
We arc fortified in these views by Re-
port of January 2, 1864, to the Secretary
of the Treasury, marked D and E, and
signed by Mr. Field. the Assistant Sec
retary, Mr. Taylor, the First Comptroller
of the Treasury, and Mr.. Crittenden, the
Register of the Treasury, and subsequent
ly countersigned February 10, 1861, by
Senator from Rhode Island, the Hon. Mr.
Sprague. These gentlemen in this report
offer many valuable suggestions and rec
omendations to the Secretary of the Treas.
ury, to which little or no attention had