Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-07-12
GLOvER's EXPOSE.

there has been much in the man
agement of that Bureau which the |
Radical party has been anxious to !
conceal, and, since Mr.. Glover COM
menced his investigations, they
have been manifesting their uneasi-
ness by covering him with ridicule
and abuse. This did not turn him
aside from his purpose, and he has
been silently and labOriously con-
Quoting his scrutiny for many
months, and has at last unravelled
the tangled tissue of fraud suffi-
GENTLY to show that systematic
embezzlement and plumber has
been kept up there for many years,
while the much that has been ex-
posed gives indications of much
more extensive frauds yet I'M
earthed. What Glover has at pres
ent got at seems to be simply "a
lead" as the miners would call it,
pointing to an inexhaustible vein of
fraud for future explorations.
FRAUDULENT COLLECTION OF IN
TEREST.
One of these instances is the fraud
ulent collection of interest by man
named Williams by means of forged
powers of attorney. Completely is
proved in this instance on the part
of C. l.. Jones, interest teller in the
Treasury. \. u. Wyman, the
Treasurer of the United States, is
also proved to have acted most sus-
piciously in endeavoring to shield
Williams in various ways, and is
now defaulter to the extent of one
of Williams robberies, which he
allowed Williams bankers to retain
after returning the forged papers
which would have convicted Will
liams. c. F. Conant, Assistant Sec
rotary of the Treasurer, j. w. POr-
ter, Appointment Clerk of the
Treasury, and d. Barker, Chief of
the Loan Division, are all more or
less implicated in this matter.
When Sherman became Secretary
of the Treasury an investigation of
these matters was commenced, but
soon suppressed by placing it in the
hands of Conant, Bigelow, Baker,
Robinson and others who were
known to be in guilty cOnniVance
with Williams. These men arestill
high in office and trust with the
Treasury, while Moore, the super
vising special agent, who exerted
himself in exposing the frauds, has
been reduced to a lower grade.
We must pass over the cotton
frauds commencing early in the
war and continuing to a very few
years ago and robberies and false
entries i'm the Mint and proceed to
the abuses in the printing and en-
craving department.
THE BUREAU OF ENGRAVING
is proved to have delivered to the
Controller of the Currency distinct
i've paper for national bank notes
and cigar stamps largely in excess
of what he reported, thus leaving in
the Controllers office the means OF
untold fraud; but this is a small
matter compared with abuses in the
department for printing the Gov
eminent issues. The distinctive
paper for this purpose has since 1863
been stored in room in the sub
basement of the Treasury building.
1t has been constantly added to and
drawn from, but never become
empty, larger surplus of the paper
being always kept on hand. 1t has
only been counted once in five years.
Six persons in the Treasury Depart
ment have access to this room at
their pleasure, which is approached
by dark corridors very little fire.
quented. In this room, then, with
such facilities for fraudulent abstrac-
ton, are kept engraved blanks for
various purposes to the amount OF
1S,7I6, 266 sheets, of which there
were on July LIST, last year, 1921, 900
sheets of legal tender paper, besides
engraved paper for national bank
notes, funded loan bonds and old
fractional currency. Not only this,
but the dies, rolls, bed pieces and
plates for the printing of more pa
per are stored here.
Now, it is well known that cOun-
terfeit money is detected in the
present day not by examining the
signature but the engraving, and if
that is right the most accomplished
expert cannot tell the difference. So
that il counterfeiter can get a sup
ply Of engraved paper from the
Treasury itself, or even borrow sur
reptitiously the engraved plates and
print from them himself, detection
is for long while impossible.
Next, it is a recorded fact that
after each of the recent Presidential
elections q large amount of counter
felt money has been found to be in
circulation. Thus in 1855 Hank
Hall, noted counterfeiter in New
York, got two plate printers into
Office in the Treasury, as a result of
which $3.50, 900 worth of $50, $50 and
800 compound interest notes, all
counterfeit, were put in circulation,
whose engraving bore the scrutiny
of the most accomplished experts.
In 1869 the whole issue of legal ten
deFS was withdrawn on the ground
that they had been so largely and
skillfuliy cOunterfeited. In 1878 the
whole issue of $500 greenbacks was
Withdrawn from the same cause. In
1877 a counterfeit note of ST 600 de-
nomination was ahOat which the
oldest expert in the country pro-
nOunceS not n counterfeit at all so
Tar as the engraving is concerned,
but only as regards the signatures.
Now here are "A series of circum-