The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-07-17

| I..0 cSei AeucIitS anu OtlcF IQdbtefB III
Alaska; the registration, enrolment
docnmenting and mortgagipg of 25,O0t
American vessels, the entry and clear
ance of 81 600 vessels yearly from anC
ior foreign countries, and the admeas
urement and tonnage of all these twenty
special agents" engaged in detection O
smuggling and frauds; Secret Service
employing many persons professedly in
detection of .connterfeiting. The treasu
ry is charged with the custody of funds
held in trust by the government for In
dian tribes; with the organization, su.
pervision and winding up of 1000 ma.
tional banks; the publication of charts
of the "Coast Pilot" the custody and
manufacture Of standard weights and
measures; the engraving, printing, ISSUE
redemption, destruction and entire man
algeement of over S2,000,000,000 of public
debt and $7OO. 900 of paper currency;
the coinage of 80,000,000 gold and sil-
yer dollars yearly the construction and
custody of nearly all public buildings
the preparation Of the statistics of com.
Imerce and navigation; the collection of
hundreds of millions of customs and in
ternal revenue yearly from the people
the final scrutiny and settlement Of all
the expenditures of Federal government,
and the keeping Of the governments ac-
counts. Since 1861 over $4,000, 100000
have passed through the treasury's hands.
In 1877 the "Graves Committee" ap-
pointed by Secretary Sherman to exam
Inc the Bureau of Engraving and Print
ing, reported that 'in the Treasury De-
partment especially the efficiency Of the
supervision of its chief authorities is
prQQt tlU rotrod hxr 4.
field which its administration covers"
In 1874, the Committee of Ways and
Means reported to the House, in come,
ton with the Sanborn case, that the res.
possibility for official acts is very loose
and easily evaded, subordinates being able
TO control matters supposed to be decided
by superiors. Secretary Boutwell, re.
ported in 1869, regarding single branch
of the department, that 1it is impossible
Tor the Secretary of the Treasury to give
to the various questions that arise in the
management of the system the attention
which is essential to the service"
sINECUREs BY THE HUNDRED. q
In the Bureau of Engraving and Print
ing IT was found that shortly before last
years elections nearly 300 needless en-
ployees were put on the pay rolls. In
stead of the bureau costing about $780,
600 in the fiscal year 1878, as has been
publicly represented, it really cost the
government in various ways $800,0OO.
About million and quarter of pub
lie money is permanently invested in the
bureau.
The cost of the bureau for the sixteen
yeara Of ita existence is so mixed in the
treasury accounts with other matters that
it could not be precisely ascertained
without the labor of number of compe-
tent clerks for many months. Accord
ing to the best attainable information ct
.aaet @zl ,000, 900 have been spent on it,
much of which has been wasted or stol-
en-. The report gives list of expendi-
lures which are officially shown or ad-
mitted to be needless or fraudulent.
This, the report states, is by no means
the whole loss, but simply what could be
ascertained in the time at command.
The amount overdrawn and wasted in 1878
is ascertained from the figures furnished
by the chief of the bureau to the COM
mittee, and from the bills rendered by
and paid to the bureau for work for 9TH
er bureaus, reaches the enormous sum of
5000, 1869
THE "DRY PRINTING" FRAUD.
Thus nearly half appears to be waste
in reform" administration of the bu-
reau. If previous management was no
worse-and it is known that it was no
better-about $12,OO0000 have been
wasted or stolen. The "dry printing"
fraud was an effort to print fractional
currency on dry paper by hydrostatic
pressure. In this attempt $300, GOO we're
wasted by professed inventor named
Stuart Gwyn, and it now turns out on in
spection of the secret archives of the Pat
ent Office that the then Chief of the Bu-
reau, Spencer Nj. Clark, was part owner
with Gwyn in the worthless patent, for
developing which he paid Gwyn much
of this money. The "waterproofing"
fraud was pretense to make greenbacks
and fractional currency waterproof by
dipping the paper into mixture of wa
ter, CASTLE soap and some other ingredi-
ents. This bath had no good effect, and
the mixture cost about five cents gallon,
while from fifty to ninety-ive cents gall
lon was paid for it. For the red ink used
for printing the seals OH notes from two to.
twelve prices were paid.
The Internal Revenue Bureau, the Bu-
reau Of Statistics, the officers of the Ma
rine Hospital Service, the Lighthouse
Beard, and other parts Of the department,
have at times been crowded out of the
treasury building by the wholly unnec-
essary enlargement of this unnecessary
bureau, which has no authority of law
beyond yearly appropriations) for its
existence. This crowding out has made
the government pay large sums in rent
for outside accommodations, which were
superfuous, because the Currency Print
ing Bureau was not needed at ell, res
ponsible parties having always stood
ready to do in way, safer, cheaper and
finer, all that the bureau has done. For
the same reason no new building for the
bureau was needed, and the appropria-
ton of 1897 ,539 which was forced through
the House under the previous question
without debate, e .his Soiiidsion attend
ing the close of the aession in June, 1873,
is clear waste and loss, as is also the
$4,000 obtained by the Same means last
February for moving the bureau from
the treasury into the new building. For
the first half of the fiscal year 1879, end
Ing December 81, 1873, the expenditures
OF the bureau were nearly $500, 600, or
about double those of the previous year
aud the bureau, BY misYepresentations.
obtain appropriations of about million
for the present year. This presents J,
strong contrast to McPherson's claim to
have spent b;s:s sex, $2.GGG ,G33G G33G q year and to
have made large savings. Large sums
have been yearly asked and obtained for
new machinery and some of this ma
chinefy is stored as useless, yet the de-
mand for fresh appropriations goes on