Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-08-12
WALL STREET MONEY,
MORE PAPER THAN CASH is USED
IN REGULAR BUSINESS.

AAnU NkOuoy VI
the Chief Factor in the Worlds Finan-
cial Transactions-Where Strictly Cash
Payments Prevail.
Senator Sherman is credited with SAYING
that one-third of the worlds business is
done with cash and two-thirds with con-
fidence,
There is no need to look further than
Wall street to find abundant proof of the
wisdom of this statement. Strange as it
may seem, the daily business of the great
est of all money marts is done without the
use of money. Checks only are used, and
the scratch of the pen is q far more potent
sound than the chink of gold.
The acceptance of this form of transfer
in values and the RELOCATION of currency
from the counting rooms of today are but
the ARCHAEOLOGICAL Of the Development Of
modern finance. Money in large amounts
is bulky, and its handling is attended with
care and risk; checks and drafts or ''paper''
Is safe, easily handled and insures unques-
tionable accuracy in accounts.
A check for a million dollars can be
written in a moment. and many such are
transfer of 81 900, 900 in currency from one
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or less risk and a vast amount Of labor, for
that amount of money could not be counted
in less than q business day by one man, as
the bills of the national currency rum.
If money were used in Wall street the
force of clerks employed in the offices
would have to be doubled. The total
amount of currency in circulation through
out the country would hardly be sufficient
to meet the wants of this one short street
of business, numbering less than 200 build
ings. All the money in the country would
soon pile up in Wall street, and the entire
industrial machinery of the land would be
demoralized. The street would become
the prey of thieves, and roguery would run
rampant.
But how different is the actual condition
of affairs under the present system of ex-
change. The money of the street-bills,
coin and bullion-rests In the vaults of the
safe deposit companies and the subtreas-
ury, while vast sums change hands
through the medium of check and draft
without q dollar being disturbed. Wall
street is the clearing house of the country,
and the subtreasury does more business
than the national treasury at Washington.
Considering the enormous business done
in Wall street, the ratio of dishonesty
there dishonesty that comes to light
through exposures of bold and vulgar theft
is less than in any other part of the
world. This may not be as much due to
the Unborn honesty of the persons who are
in places of trust perhaps as the safe
guards that are established by the system
in vogue. All checks are payable ito
ORDER" and can be cashed only by the per-
son in whose name they are made out.
Many banks and private bankers make
their checks payable to the order of their
cashiers, and they in turn make them pay
able to the order of the payee, so that every
check thus drawn must bear three names
before it is good. The payment of such a
check to any but the right person is there
fore almost an impossibility, and if the
check is lost it is only worth the paper it is
written upon.
At the close of each day the brokers of
the street bundle up the bonds and securi-
ties on hand and the collateral for loans or
stocks carried ION margins for customers
and send them to the safe deposit vaults
for safe keeping.
The clerks that carry these valuable pa
pers to q place of safety may be seen any
day in numbers at the close of the business
hours in the street. The papers are in a
stout leather bag. This is carried between
two clerks, while a man walks behind, in
step with them and at their very heels, his
eyes on the bag and his hand in the right
pocket of his coat, where ~reclines a loaded
revolver.
The amounts carried in this manner run
into the millions. But only coupon bonds
would be of value if stolen. The stocks
and registered bonds stand in the names of
the persons to whom they belong and are
valueless to others.
The regular banks do not pay over money
in their transactions between each other,
and paper is king with them too. All their
balances are struck by the Clearing House
association, to which eighty-nine banks
belong, and all amounts are paid by cash
iers' checks. The banks settle between
themselves daily.
In all the transactions Of Wall street
and its great banking tributaries, the
actual money used is but 1 per cent. Of the
total amount of values exchanged This
statement is based on careful calculations
and may be accepted as authentic.
But the question arises, How does the
money in circulation ever reach the peck
cts Of the peoples The use Of checks and
drafts ceases when the wage Garner is
reached. He wants hard cash. .
Step into any up town bank-that is, any
bank not in the immediate vicinity of Wall
street-on any Saturday morning, and you
will see the coin of the realm on the second
stage of its journey from the vaults of the
s"ubtreasury Of the government to the peck
cts of the people. The first stage was
when the shining dollars and crisp bills
were hauled in a strong box to the bank.
The paying teller and his assistants,
1anked by stacks Of bills and bags of coin,
begin to deal out money in exchange for
checksfrom the moment the wicket of their
cagelike compartments behind the counter
are opened in the morning, and keep at it
until they are closed at noon. AL the bust
ness Of Saturday is compressed into the
two hours between 10 and 70 o'clock.
The customers come in dozens and scores,
each with his bank book and checks for de-
posit, or on which to draw cash. On Satur-
day 80 per cent. come to draw money out.
They are the big storekeepers with long
pay rolls, wholesale merchants, factory
owners, contractors, in fact the employing
class. They come in cabs and afoot, each
with a stout satchel in which to take away
the money that is to go to their employees.
Thousands Of dollars are handled in this
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