Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-07-07
WHITLEY AND COUNTERPART IN
FLATION

FLATION.
In no statement of the currency out
standing have we seen any estimate OF
the amount of countefeits which pass
from hand to hand, performing all the
functions of money. Two or three
times year we have blast In praise
of the Secret Service Bureau and the
arrests effected through its detectives.
The last haul, made few weeks since
in Cincinnati and other western cities,
has been represented as unusually i'm
portant. 1t Included seventeen opera
tors, among them two women
and some of 1.-THE most skillful
menin the business. 1t is represented
that one hundred and nine belonging
to this gang, have been caught since
last fall. In the last haul thirty-five
plates, lot of imitation fibre paper
and 100000 in counterfeits were cap
tured. Among others was an elegant
copper plate for printing two-cent
check stamps. The Government reve-
nue. from this source is about three
million dollars annually, and as no one
would suspect a counterfeit so small as
two cents, the field for swindhng is
virtually open. The most ingenious
plate captured was one for printing
imitation fibre, believed to be the work
of one Thomas Ballard, for whom there
is a reward of $1,000. A new coun-
terfeit of $500 has been discov-
cred, but the plate is still out. The de-
tectives have found only four impress
sions of it, or $1,000, but there is no
telling how much may be locked up in
the bank reserves, as it is the most per-
feet counterfeit ever detected, and no
bank officer would hesitate to accept it
In the ordinary run of business.
The Washington correspondent of
the Nelc York Tribune says there is a
great deal of dissatisfaction with Col.
Whitley and his detectives concerning
their management. They seldom or
never capture the principal counter
feiters, and it is insinuated that they
could if they would, but prefer
to let them escape, as otherwise
the occupation of the detective as well
as of the counterfeiters would be gone.
When plate is captured, the public
suppose the manufacture of that par
ticular counterfeit is stopped, but the
Treasury officials know better. The
original engraving Is never used to
print currency. A negative, called
dandy roll, ;" is taken from it in soft
steel. This is subsequently hardened,
and multiplied positives are reproduced
from it. The printing is actually done
from these last, and such are the plates
that are generally captured. II will be
seen that scores of them may be still
out, scattered over the country. 1t is
said that Col. Whitley's force has never
captured one dandy ROLL or negative
die. They arrest the printers and dis
tributors of counterfeit money, but |
have never caught the engraver.
This department of the public SER
vice seems to need overhauling as much |
as some others. We hope Secretary
Bristow will turn MS attention to 1t.
He has already given evidences that he
does not propose to be a mere wooden
head of the Treasury, and has begun
the work of reconstructing the depart
ment in a very commendable manner.
We hope he will be permitted to carry
out the line of reform, and not share
the fate of J. d. Cox, who undertook |
the same task in the Interior Depart
ment few years since, only to be sud
denly decapitated by the powers that
rule the Augean stables at Washing