Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1875-04-29
UNCLE SANS MILLIONS.
Mr.. John G. New, who will succeed

Mr.. John G. New, who will succeed
Treasurer Spinner, at the end of the
present fiscal year, has arranged to re-
turn to Washington about the middle of
June to give his personal attention to
counting the money ON hand in the
Treasury preparatoryto assuming respon-
sibility and entering security. The
counting will be thorough and will en-
brace an examination of every form of
money for which the Treasurer of the
United States is held responsible. 1t
will be made under the direction of the
Secretary and the immediate supervision
of officers detailed from the Secretary's
office, the Registers Office, and the Office
of the Treasurer. As this count will be
made to fix the legal responsibility for
the Treasurer, the outgoing and incoming
Treasurers may make such arrangements
touching the count as they may deem
proper. The new Treasurer is the party
most directly interested, and the thor
oughness of the count will depend en-
tirely upon him. If he should make the
demand, every piece of money, from ten
cent notes to notes of the largest denom-
nation, will have to be counted separate
~. Such count would involve an i'm
mense amount of labor and occupy near
ly three months time.
The coin will probably be weighed and
receipted for without special examina-
ton. The reserve, which is about 49,
O0o, 900, will, it is presumed, be counted
and accepted in bundles. The reserve is
under the direct custody of three officers,
detailed respectively from the offices of
the Secretary, Treasurer, and Register. 1t
is kept in safe secured by three locks
of different combinations, each of the
three officers having charge of the fund
being supplied with key to one lock.
Thus the presence of three persons at the
same time Is necessary to open the safe.
These three officers meet daily at /
o'clock p. m, and if the Treasurer wish
es to draw money from the so-called re-
serve the amount is furnished upon his
requisition. The money in reserve is
done up in packages of separate denom-
nations, in amounts convenient to the
requirements of the daily business of the
Treasurer's Office, and those packages are
not broken until they are transferred to
the custody of the Treasurer, and they
are not considered in his custody till re-
moved from the safe. A large amount of
this reserve is in fractional currency, and
should a thorough count of that be de-
manded by Mr.. New, it will involve much
time and labor. 1t is expected that he
will be satisfied with verifying the
amount by packages, and will not require
each piece to be haudled.
In the ordinary course of business the
packages are sent out and receipted for
by the Sub Treasures and bank officers.
and mistake was never known to have
occurred in the Treasury count. A count
was recently made in the Office of the
Sub-Treasurer at Philadelphia, by experts
detailed from the Treasury Department,
and in counting 100000 paper money,
in which were included notes of every
denomination, the difference between the
books of the Office and the experts was
found to be one ten-cent note. With
such emphatic evidences of accuracy it
is not presumed Mr.. New will insist up
on every package being broken and
counted in detail. If he will accept the
packages of the reserve and other pack
ages similarly prepared and marked,
without requiring detailed count, the
balances of Treasurer Spinner can be
verified and transferred in from four to
six weeks. 1t is an open question
whether the Treasurer can be legally held
responsible for the money locked up in
special charge of three officers who have
exclusive control of its deposit and ISSUE
The Treasurer's bond is made to cover
that fund, but many officers of the de-
partment think he would not be held by
the courts for any deficiency that might
he discovered in that fund as it is at
present guarded. 1t may also be said
that it is very doubtful whether it would
be possible for any money to be abstract
ed from that fund.
The last count of the money in the
Treasury was madeabout three years ago,
when the defalcation of an employee was
suspected, and was made at the request !
of Treasurer Spinner. 1t was a very
thorough count, and was conducted un-
der the supervision of officers of the
Treasury, George w. Riggs, and two or
three other bankers of Washington. 1t |
revealed the amount of the johnson
Marden defaleation, which will be suffi-
cientlv recalled without further mention