National Republican., 1877-06-29
BUREAU ENGRAVING AND PRINTING.
Results OF Our First Days Investigations
Preliminary Notes

A policy which tends to encourage the formation
OF private bank note companies would, we think
continued permanent division Of the work
| should be made between II and private companies
lie, 0sf and Il, p. II.
We do not hesitate to declare that II would be
wise measure TO reegatc into private hands the en-.
tire business OF printing the public sccurties.-Bt
Ordnd CS p. ~.
The meaning of the above in few words is
that the Government shall sell for u mere song
all its large accumulation of valuable ma
chinery and engraved stock to the companies
that il shall discountcnance all efforts to rc-
ducc the cost of preparing its securities, and
bestOw this work oil but one or two close cor
porations. Had this policy, which meets with
the hearty and cordial concurrence" of I'VE.
Our and U.s." been concurrcd in by Congress
and the Treasury Department, these two cor
poations-in reality one-could have kent
the Treasury Department in its grasp and die
tatcd to 1t whatever terms they saw fit, and
enabled their stockholders to continue to re-
ccive an annual dividend of thirty per cent.
on capital noninally of million and u half,
but really not exceeding one tenth that
amount
To this happy condition of afiairs.happy
for the comprehensive, Our and Us" would
have us return, and they say tho doing SO
would be a wise measure"
That the readers of THE REPUBLICAN NAV
better realize the position that Eve, Our and
Us" would again have them in statement is
added of the cost of the earliest issues of M
per money at the beginning of the war, when
the companies were alone capable Of doing the
work, and before the bureau was organized :
As will be remembered the first issue of small
notes by the Treasury Department was called
postal currency-printed entire by one of
the companies. The expense Of engraving was
very small, as the postage-stamps then used
were rolled in on the plate, five of the five
cent being on the twenty-fvc-ccnt note and
five Of the ten-cent being on the fifty.cent
note. BY the process of "transfcrring" so
familiar to all engrayers and printers, these
plates were produced at an exceedingly small
expense, aud the two plate-printings, inferior
in execution, made the cost of the work TO the
companies less than anything OF the kind ever
done by them.
The charges for this work, so cxorbitant that
Secretary Chase once said that although bear
ing no interest ii was the dearest loan ever
made" was for each Treasurers assortment of
$4,000, sl,l2s.51. The execution of this
postal currency being so inferior was counter
icited at once, and the Department compelled
to issue n new series. 1t was at this time l1s62)
that the effort TO add by manual labor the
signatures in writing of the Register and
Treasurer Of the United States proved a fail.
ure, and in lieu thereof II was decided that
these signatures should be imprinted on all the
notes and securities under the immediate
supervision of the Secretary of the Treasury.
in the Department building, by steam or by
plate process. The then Secretary, Mr.. Chase,
SO heartily disgusted with the Outrageously
eXOrbitant demands of the bank note cOmpa-
nics for printing the postal currency and the
carly issues of the so-called grccnbacks, aud
appreciating his inability to otherwise reduce
the cost of the work, rs well as the insecurity
of the then existing mode of printing these
securities, determined on doing, il possible the
ThOIc Of this work in the Treasury Depart-
mcnt. To this end he asked Congress, and il
readily gave (XII Statutes at Large pp. 3i9,
j32) permission to do tho entire work OF pre-.
pairing the securities in the Treasury Depart
mcnt, and thus originated the Bureau of Eli
craving and Printing.
II wns Secretary Chnsc's intention to have
every part of this work, even to the manufac.
turc of the special watcr.markcd PAPER per
formed in the Treasury Department building,
initiating in that respect the Bank of England
which in its own building makes the paper
and does all the work Of preparing its notes
and the public stock, as the bonds of Eng.
land are called.
The urgent dOmand for new issues, and the
inability of the persons employed by Secretary
Chase to produce distinctive paper in the
Department, together with the violent hostility
Of the bank note companies, compelled SecrG-