The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1879-07-17

second business day after the suspension
the price of trade dollars had risen per
cent. and these banks, having had notice
had bought up the dollars, and compell.
ed traders with China to buy of them at
this higher price, FIX Gov. Low tele,
graphed Linderman soon after, that the
suspension would drive all the silver
bullion in market 10 the Nevada Bank
retineriesi but this had no effect on Lin
derman, ,. grep ssA
o. H. Irish, Chief ofthe Bureau of En-
craving and Printing, published last win
ter a letter to Mr.. Atkins, chairman
the House committee on appropriations,
seeking to dlscredit Mr.. GIover's state
ment about his Bureau. In this letter
he stated that the Bureau had completed
and delivered to the comptroller Of the
currency 2390000 sheets of national
bank notes in the fiscal year 1878; but
the report If the Bureau shows that 1t
delivered 32 900 sheets more. The Bu-
reau book keeper swore that there could
not possibly be mistake in the report;
yet examination showed that the report
represented that 80 600 sheets of GUS
toms cigar stamps were delivered more
than the Bureau claimed to have madel
The distinctive paper for printing the
Government issues has been stored in a
room used exclusively for that purpose,
in bundles of one thousand sheets each.
All the distinctive paper is stored in that
room. The supply for legal tenders has
never been exhausted, that is, it has
been added to and drawn from since
1869, and there has always been large
quantity on hand.
May /, 1877, there was stored in this
room the enormous quantity of Is 7l6, ,266
sheets of distinctive paper, and the chief
of the bureau says there we're stored on
1st July, 5 924, 900 81 eets legal tender pa
per. and there is stored beside large
amount of national bank note, funded
loan bond and old fractional currency
paper; of the latter, parts being used for
national bank notes and legal tenders.
1t was found that the stock of paper had
been counted but once (about five years
ago) in ten years.
The room in which it is stored is in the
sub. basement OF the building; the corrl-
dors leading thereto are poorly lighted
and seldom visited except by workmen
employed in shops on tie same hoor
Six persons bave access to this room at
any time during working hours, and any
one of the SIX can open packages OF this
paper that have been counted and stored,
abstract from so to 100 sheets at time,
and place the bundles 80 tampered with
where they would not be reached for
years.
A man SO disposed may, by the with
drawal of small quantities at time, be-
come in the end a dishonest possessor Of
a large stock of this paper. No surveil-
lance is kept on the movements of these
men, and The theft would remain undis-
covered till count was made or the sup.
ply exhausted. I" A
What has been said of the paper, ap'
plies also, Only with still greater force, to
the custody of the dies, rolls, bed pieces,
and plates from which the securities are
printed in the bureau. The purloining
of these is especially to be guarded
against. The Government has not plac
ed such checks upon them as to render
their abstraction impossible, nor can
they, by the present arrangement for
doing the work. A bed piece is a plate
f steel the size of the note or coupon,
ETC., to be printed, having the entire face
ofsuCh note. ETC., engraved on its surface,
and this being finished, the piece is har'
dened.
A roll in small cylindrical piece of
steel having on its surface, in relief, the
entire engraved work that is on the sur
face of the bed piece; this also, after re-
ceiving the impression, is hardened. II
is made while the steel is soft by being
run over the hardened bed piece, go that
the entire engraved work on the surface
of he bed piece is transferred to its out
side surface by pressure. ,
The plates are large pieces of steel
from which the notes, bonds, stamps,
etc., are printed, and vary in size from
that of four notes each, as legal tenders,
to coupon bond, and are made Sy hav
ing the work from the roll transferred to
their surface by pressure. There are
three (3) bed pieces (also called dyes)
and three (3) rolls, from which the
plates for each denomination of notes
are made, viz: one for the green print
| ing on the back, one for the black print.
ing on the face and one for the red seal.
Heretofore, to insure security, it was
deemed necessary to have theseseparate
dies, ETC., and the several printings on
each note, made by different institu'
tions; but John Sherman saw fit, contra
ry to law, to bring this entire printing
into one bureau, and to have the entire
engraved stock, of dies, bed pieces, rolls
and plates, for printing legal tenders,
bonds, and the backs, faces and seals of
each, held IN one vault The custodian
to this vault and his assistants alone
have access to it; in the course of their
daily duties they go in and out at pleas
ure, and there is no difficulty securing
for unlawful purposes the bed pieces
from which the back the ftce, and the
seal of any denomination of notes. from
one dollar to one thousand dollars, or all
of them, are printed, and make from
them rolls IAN operation of but few
minutes), by which an unlimited num-
ber Of plates can be prepared These
bed pieces are rarely called into use
after the roll has been made, the set of
three could be conveniently carried
in an inside pocket, and as the prepara.
ton of roll requires but short time,
these bed pieces could be taken away at
the close of work, and restored in the
morning, until one of each denomina-
ton had been obtained, and by them
plates prepared for printing millions of
dollars of genuine notes. The vault con.
tanning this material has often been left
open and accessible for hours at time
to any one who could get into the
Bureau. -a' 90 .ifN
FLOODING THE COUNTRY WITH COUNTER.
FEITs TO CARRY BLKcTloNs.
II Is strange that each Of the last three
Presidential elections has been followed
by Treasury announcement that large
amounts of :" counterfeit. notes were
aAoat. In 1869 the whale issue OF legal
tandara waa u ithd IA ~ and Fnnlanad m