Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1865-03-23
N(istellaneons.
How Greenbacks are Mauufac-
tured.

wv iIStt1uiy' tOn nlTlhlHU u lulI statement OF
the entire receipts and expenditured of the
United States government for the currant
year, could be printed in one or two col
umns OF newspaper. In this, as in all
other matters pertaining to the administra-
ton Of affairs, we have progressed slightly.
and 1t now requires portly pamphlet of one
hundred and eighty closely printed octave
pages to simply tell Us how, and how much
it costs to print different kinds Of currency
and treasury issues. Such pamphlet has
Just been issued, which is inodestly called
a letter from the Secretary of the Treas
ury in answer to resolution of the House
OF January "a in regard to the Printing
Bureau Of the Treasury Department.
THE PRINTING BUREAU.
This printing bureau is one Of the new
and numerous bureaus created by the ext
gencies Of the times and a republican Con
grcss, and, like all the bureaus, affords an
opportunity for the screwing on of numer
Gus handles in the shape Of officers and
employees. The bureau must have been bu-
~ last year, for Secretary Fessenden says
that he did not allude to this bureau in his
annual report, because the bureau report
was not ready in time for such mention "
lie therefore includes it in the present pam
phet, and it is supposed to comprise all the
matter Of interest in this branch Of the
treasury Department, excepting the very
interesting and entertaining matter relative
to some Of the female employees As this
matter was thoroughly ventilated before
committee, aud was extensively printed in
the papers last summer, the omission in the
report is not material
THE BUREAU HANDLES.
The first division Of the Currency bureau
is divided into thirty-one subdivisions, and
employs five hundred and twenty-seven op-
eratives, two hundred and twenty-five of
whom are males and three hundred and
five are females. They are all said to be en-
craving, printing and preparing for issue
the various securities and currency author
lied by Congress which are too familiar to
the public to need more minute descrip-
ton. Besides fhis labor, they print the
circulars, blank forms, envelopes, and other
letter-press printing required by the depart
ment. 1t is. in fact, pet printing and en-
craving office for the Treasury Depart
ment.
IT'S ORIGIN.
1t grew up in an attempt, two years ago
to trim and seperate treasury notes by ma
chinery. Up to that time the greenbacks
] were clSluNSu anu plIulcu III lnlS CLly
most, if not all of them, by the American
Bank note Company, in the then Merchants
| Exchange, now Custom House in Wall
street, and were sent in sheets Of four notes
! to Washington, where they were signed by
! the Treasurer and Register Of the Treasury,
and then trimmed and cut apart with
| shears. The idea of manipulating these
notes as fast as they were ground out was
soon apparent The first relief came in the
congressional authority to employ seventy
signers at 81 200 each per annum to sign
the notes. These seventy were not sufficient
and the next Improvement was sealing the
notes and printing the fac sint2e signatures.
Next two machines for trimming and cut
ting the notes were made ''tor trial" and
were reported to Mr. Chase failure.
AT WORK
The first work Of the Bureau was the pre-
paration for the issue Of one and two dol
lar Treasury notes. the work being author
lied by Mr.. Chase Agust -, 1862. Mr..
Clark at once went to work, aud in six days
has set up steam engine and the necessary
machinery. He began with one male as
sistant and four females. Mr.. Clark says
that if he had supposed that the business
had grown under his charge ''to its present
enormous magnitude-the current ISSUES
hdying sometimes eccee,7ed Sicteen millions
Of doiiars in q single dag, handled by more
than five hundred operatives, he should
have been impelled to shrink from the task,
and abandon the attempt As early aS
January 5, 1868, he could turn out thirty
sic thousand impressions IN ciqht hours
,cork. The figures on the impression,
might carry the daily issue to.an enormou.
amount, but, with constant Improvement,
and increased facilities, with hydraulic pres
ses at work night and day, the department
could only issue enough representative mon
ey to pay the contractors (iron-clad and 9th
ers, while the gallant armies in the tielC
waited months and months for their paltry
pay-small to individuals, but in the aggre
gate, Of course, enormous.
DETAILS.
Mr.. Clark's report is filed with minute
details altogether too voluminous to give il
our columns, but nevertheless extremely
interesting He minutely details all the
expenditures on experiments, which, il
many cases, cost more than even the eSti.
mated value Of the matter printed, and
gives his difficulties with the bank-note en-
gravers in this city. Losses-that is, stolen
sheet of twenty-dollar five per cent. two
years notes was missing, and suspicion at
tached to a scrubbing woman. -Four
sheets of fractional currently, amounting to
! forty dollars, went next. No trace was
found then ten sheets; then one sheet of
four dollar compound-interest notes went;
and so on But the loss of one hundred
one thousand dollar coupon bonds (Sl00,.
0OO) did not occur in this division; but the
losses are supposed to be offset by certain
savings, which come next in the report.
FACILITIES.
The department has been at war with the
private banknote compenies ever since the es-
tablshment of its own engraving and print
ing bureau. 1t isclaimed, however, that
the work is now done at less cost, and with
greater celebrity and security, We trust
that the department has at least this merit,
and that in its proposed system of checks
some check may be suggested and enforced
to the fiightful enormous issues ofall sorts
of greenbacks, down to the latest and least
three-cent shinplaster, which now fairly
flood the whole country.-N L. World.
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