Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-07-09

cheering and printing, published last win
ter letter to Mr.. Atkins, chairman of the |
House committee on appropriations, seeking
to discredit MIR. Glover's statement about
his bureau. In this letter hs stated that tn
bureau had completed and delivered to the
comptroller of the currency 1880 900 sheets
OF national bank notes in the fiscal year
1873 but the report of the bureau shows that
it delivered $4,000 sheets more. The bureau
bookkeeper swore that there could not posi-
bly be mistake in the report yet examina
ton showed that the report represented that
$4,000 sheets of customs cigar stamps were
delivered more than the bureau claimed to
have made!
STARTLING COINCIDENCE.
1t is strange that each of the last three
Presidential elections has been followed by
treasury announcement that large amounts
of Counterfeit" notes were ahoat. In 1869
the whole issue Of legal tenders was with
drawn and replaced, on the ground that they
had been largely and skillfully counterfeited.
In 1873 the whole issue of $500 greenbacks-
about 1886, OOO-was Withdrawn AMI replaced
in the same way. In 1877 counterfeit
vi 900 note was announced. One of the
Oldest engravers in the country testifes that
when note is so like the original that it
cannot easily be detected-as these and other
"counterfeits'' are said by treasury officials
to bet really cannot be counterfeit, but
must be genuine note surreptitiously print
ed from genuine plates, or from secret re-
productions of these plates. Other experts
testified that genuine plate, after being
secretly made, can be altered with graner
IN small details enough to make it seem
counterfeit to any non-expert.
In 1865 Hank Hall, noted counterfeiter
in New York, hired two plate printers
named Lankton, to 60 to Washington, get
employment in the printing bureau, and
there steal copies of every note plate the
government was using. They did steal
copies (by printing on lead sheets instead of
paper and could have stolen all had not
quarrel sprung up. Among t-ese copies
were the backs of the 500, $50 and 800
compound interest notes, whose elaborate
geometrical lathe-work engraving was
thought perfect protection against fraud,
and was the test among banks of genuine
ness. They also got the faces of some of
these notes. large amount Of them, esti
mated by some at $3.50, 200, was put ahoat.
The government has redeemed $4,000 80
notes which were afterward held to be
counterfeits, and Jay Cooke g. Co. were made
to refund the money but the committee
that destroyed the plates we're by no means
sure that they were counterfeit. The su-
perintendent of plate printing in the bureau
testified some years since, that the plates of
the 5-2Os which the secret service had cap
tured were from the genuine bed pieces,
| which Tor the rolls) must have been borrowed
from the bureau to make them.
The $500 "counterfeit'' greenback of 1873
| was inspected by experts and compared with
| a genuine note for the Glover committee.
and these expert engravers swore beyond all
| doubtthat the note came from a genuine
plate or from surreptitious reproduction of
| one. The bureau workmen who transferred
the plate from the bed-piece agreed with this.
SECRET ISSUE OF NINETEEN MILLIONS.
A brief inspection of tho treasarer's books
revealed the fact that $4,000, 900 of notes
were at one time secretly adoat for several
| months. the treasury statements being false
during that time to that extent; and the
fact of that secret issue remained unknown
till lighted on by the Glover committee. The
books were falsifed, and balance forced to
conceal this secret issae, by untruly stating
that $4,000, 900 had been deposited as a
temporary loan, when no such deposit took
place.
From 1867 to 1873, while the amount of
greenbacks authorized by law was $356, OOO,-
600, the treasurer's books revealed the fact
that repeatedly the amount aaoat was
$2,OOO,OOO above the authorized amount in
the middle of the month, enough being
turned over for destruction on the last day
to bring the amount down to $3.50, 200, 900,
and in other months the circulation was
cut down as much as ST., 100000 below the
published figures in the middle of the
month, enough being taken from the unis-
sued notes on hand on the last day to make
| up the sum to the lawful figure on state
ment day.
Gen. Spinner swore that the public debt
statements did not agree with his books;
that he did not approve of them; that his
| name was put to them without his authority;
that he was not allowed to publish truthful
| statements; that balances were forced in
these statements, and that he finally got the
law changed so as to relieve him of the duty
he was not allowed to perform.
In nearly the whole of the fiscal year 1866
the treasurer's books show that the amount
of compound interest notes outstanding was
from $5,O0O,OOO to $44,0OO,O 900 moro than
the published debt statements showed. One
month it was $26, OOO,O 900 less. Three diff
ferent statements of the sum outstanding
June 30, 1865, were published, differing by
millions, and none of three was true.
Secretary McCulloch politically acknow-
lodged some years since that on one occasion
he caused $4 100000 withdrawn greenbacks,
that had been paid off and were to be
destroyed, to be counted and published in
the debt statement as 'cash on hand!'
The first man who was entrusted with the
n 1E III TT
Cornwell, chief of the redemption division
of the treasurer's Office, was caught stealing
the notes and re-issuing them. The amount
thus re-issued is not known, but it is esti-
mated by good judges at over 500, 900.
The second chief, Frank Jones, was detected
| in making false certificate of destruction
of $780, 900 worth, and Gen. Spinner, Secre-
taries Boutwell, and Bristow, and others, per-
| sistently refused to investigate the matter,
though about $500, 900 900 of notes had pass
ed through Jones' hands IN perfect shape,
much of it never even having been issued.
The checks and precautions against theft IN
destruction are found to have been grossly
neglected and disregarded in many res poets.
Gen. Spinner swore that 'they have rule
that nothing must be divulged that takes
place in the treasury"
SWEEPING CHANGES DEMANDED.
The report concludes by stating that many
of these and other matters need much more
investigation; that by no other method can
the people learn the truth about the govern
ment, or Congress get the information neces-
sary to legislation; that the treasury is full
of opportunities for wrong that have doubt
less been largely used; that that as we'll as
other departments is run by ring; that the
government has far too much to do to do it
honestly or we'll, and that only by wholesale
cutting down of government power and q
wide abolition of government functions and
offices can despotism and nation ruin be es-
:.