The Arizona sentinel., 1886-04-24
WOMEN OFFICE-HOLDERS
The Kind of Work They Do For the Government.

Government service at Washington pre-
 sents many interesting features of the
 important question of woman's right
 ful status and worth as worker. It
 has long been a popular but erroneous
 idea that women in the Government de-
 partments owe their positions entirely
 to favor and influence, and that they
 are, as a rule, incapable and unfit to
 perform the duties incumbent upon
 them. It is true that political influence
 and power have in some cases obtained
 places for women which neither their
 natural capacity nor attachments fitted
 them to worthily fill, but are these the
 only incapable office-holders who owe
 their positions to political influence? There are about four thousand women
 employed by the Government, and al- though the work is chiefly clerical they are also valuable assistants Tn variety of other occupations, many of which are comparatively new to women. The greatest number are employed in the Treasury, which was the first depart ment to make use of their services.
 The occasion arose during the late civil war, and was entirely question of ex- pediency and even necessity, in order to fill the large number of vacancies made by the enlistment of the employees.
 Women were first employed as coun- ters of currency and soon afterward
 as clerks, copyists, etc. As counters of money-work requiring chiefly quick ness of sight and deftness of hand women have always excelled and have
 been uniformly preferred to men. Their
 undoubted honesty has also contributed much to their value in this work. It is said by the officials in charge of the
 currency division that a case of dis honesty on the part of a woman has never occurred since their employ ment in the Treasury. There are 1,349 woman employees in the Treasury Department, including the 450 in the
 Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
 They are employed as corresponding
 clerks, accountants, stenographers, copvists, counters, librarians, and in some few instances as chiefs in charge of sections, their duties being super visory. Some of the books kept by women are models of beauty and accuracy In the issue division a
 lady has for several years had entire
 charge of the books containing the exact amount of currency issued, re-
 deemed, destroyed, and outstanding; also the amounts of daily currency re- deemed and destroyed in the several States and Territories This involves a vast amount of detail and an accuracy of accounts which it is difficult for the uninitiated to conceive of The Ma tional bank notes are brought here from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, where they are engraved and printed, to be re-examined and again counted. The examination is for the purpose of noting the slightest defect or
 omission in the mechanical part of the bank note, that the bank and charter number, the seal and coat of arms of both the United States, and the State are not want ing or imperfect. The money is usually examined and counted at the same time, and when the accuracy with which this mu # be done is taken into consideration, and the concentration of mind necessary in the exercise of two mental operations, it can readily be seen that it requires special mental training and expertness. The annual. report of the Comptroller of the Currency, with its bewildering columns of statistics, is almost exclusively the work of women clerks. In some of the auditors offices the women are obliged to have knowl- edge of banking as well as of mathe- maticS.
 The difficult and responsible work of the Redemption Agency is done el tirely by women. This division is devoted ex- clusively to identifying burned and mu- tilated money, which is brought here under all sorts of strange and remark able circumstances, from every part of the country, to be redeemed Some times it is so badly defaced as to seem almost to defy identification. The most successful expert in this work has been here for twenty years, and has in that time saved many millions of dollars. A quick, bright, intelligent woman is she who, upon being asked what appliances were used in the difficult processes of and patience. The difficulty of identi- l flying National bank notes is much great CT than those of legal tender, snot only | the denomination but the title of the | bank must be deciphered. A few years ago package of $110,000 was brought | here by the Adams Express Company which, by the burning of a railway train,
 had been reduced to a charred, coal | black mass. Three days afterward S75,- 900 was identified and redeemed by the