The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-05


lard's Hotel. But at night, by his campfire
ON Pennsylvania avenue, he will scan with
| sentimental eye the great scrap-book OF our
paper currency. Remembering the gorgeous
notes of the one hundred and fifteenth Ma
tional Bank at Auckland that line his pocket
| book, he will wonder at the rude art which
| stamped the heads of Chase and Fessenden,
McCulloch and Spinner, on these plain, tat
| tered, antique bills and bonds of the year of
| grace 1867. And on getting home from his eX-
plorations he will rush to the library of the
] New Zealand Antiquarian Society, and hunt
I the well-thumbed files of the Tribune for the
only authentic record of their history. 1t runs
in this wise:-
In 1861 our first greenbacks were printed by
the New York Bank Note Companies, and
Treasurer and Register signed them here with
their own proper hands. But the infant army,
that financial "Oliver Twist" was always
clamoring for 'More." Spinner was no Bria-
| r@us the hundred handed, and Chittenden
could not devote more than twenty-four hours
a day to his own autographs. So Congress
authorized them to sign by proxy. Then the
issue grew till seventy clerks, at $1,000 year,
| were kept busy in writing their own in lieu of
these officers names. But so many different
hands destroyed all the value of signatures.
| They were no more protection against fraud
than the type (make it large and loaded, o
| Autocrat of the Sanctum y in which this dis
knitted his broad brow in sore perplexity.
There was a keen-eyed Superintendent of
Constructing the Public Buildings, named
| S. M. Clark. A Vermont Yankee, and true to
his nativity, he had done a little of every
thing and could make anything. Just now
| he was at leisure; the nation needed no new
| edifices till arms should decide whether it was
nation. He proposed fdc-sinlileS of the sig
natures, and also of the Treasury seal, to be
engraved and printed on the notes in peculiar
| ink, and by peculiar process Chase, under
sanction of Congress, adopted the suggestion.
| Then Spinner sOaS the hundred-handed. He
could sign with rapidity limited only by the
capacity of lightning presses.
| Notes came to the Department in sheets of
four each. Seventy-fve girls, every one armed
with her shears, trimmed and separated them
! by hand. Clark, the revolutionist, declared
this ought to be done by machinery, and, more
| to the point, that he could make the machines
himself. Fogies pooh-poohed. Cut bank
notes apart, and trim their edges by steaml
| Utterly impossible Besides it would be too
expensive, and would take bread from these
worthy women. But the Secretary said ''Go
| ahead" so the Yankee coaXed his brain, and
burned the midnight oil. In two months he
brought in two trial machines, worked by a
crank. The clerk to whom they were referred
| inspected and reported them failures. So
| Chase ordered them removed from the build
the slaughter of his own progeny? This one
implored the Secretary, "Come and examine
| for yourself!'
Chase did examine, and found that these
marvellous automata, with cunning fingers of
steel, not only did the work perfectly but
reduced its cost more than four-ffths. He in
stantly rescinded the order, placed Clark in
charge of the cutting and trimming, and
assigned him rooms for the purpose. That
was the origin of the Printing and Engraving
Bureau of the Treasury Department. On the
10Th of August, 1862, Mr.. Clark began, as
sisted by one man and four women. Now his
Bureau has q subordinate superintendents,
nearly 600 employees, occupies IA rooms, and
has turned out sixty millions of dollars in
single day.
But it has fought for every step. 1t would
have perished long ago, had it not adopted
| the principles of the Prize Ring, and struck
out vigorously from the shoulder. Its very
existence is vindication of the noble art of
self-defense. 1t had to encounter the prejudice
against Governments engaging in any sort of
manufactures - usually just, for the more
employees, jobs, patronage, the more corrup-
| ton. This case was exceptional. The Treasurer
could not go into open market for his engraving
and printing. The Bank Note Companies
then bnt two, now three were gigantic
monOpolies. They made the paper money of
| North and South America. They offered no
competition. There was work for both; they
charged their own prices and would not
underbid each other.
GTeenbacks proved a Golconda to them.
Shares, below par, rose to high premiums.
One made dividends of 80 per cent. year, on
its immense nominal capital of 81, 250000. In
all, Government has paid these three COM
panies over SO, 100000. But every piece of
work done in Washington was so much taken
from their receipts. Hence, arrayed against
the Bureau was this gigantic money-power,
working in hundred ways-on the floor of
Congress, in the Departments, on Wall street,
and through the printing press. In its favor
was only the less jealous aid springing from
the belief that it served the public interest.
The currency required the very choicest
execution. Tolerable bank-note engravers
abound; but of first-class workmen there are
| less than 20 in the United States. The com
panies employed them ALL binding them by
long contracts, and the moment a new one
arrived from abroad pouncing on him like
hawk. Once Clark posted over to New York,
to see a skilful designer from England by
special appointment. He found that officers
of the leading bank-note company had pre-
ceded him by few minutes at the place OF
meeting, and with an unusual salary had Sc
cured his man.
The President of another corporation brought
written charges against Clark's character
Congressional committee investigated and de-
clared them wholly unsupported by proof;
The companies refused to give up the dies and
plates for printing here. Once this contro-
versy waXed so warm that they packed them
for sending abroad, lest the Secretary should
IgI,kn l. = L.