Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-07-28


stroyed at 100000. This. of course. is its
| face value. Its actual value depends on
your point of view. To an engraver or a
printer it would have value as a piece of
job work. To counterfeiter it would have
another value a possible means of de-
frauding the public. The most interesting
way to look at 1t is to approximate its face
value and to consider the amount of ros-
| sible fraud which 1t represents. If all of
this bogus money could have been put in
circulation it would have defrauded inro-
cent people of S5.O00,0o. So its possibilities
for evil may be estimated at S5.J0.6sO, and
the treasury committee. and behind it the
| secret service bureau, may be credited with
having done $5,00OO0 worth of good In
this work of destruction.
The Annual Destruction.
The cleanup now in progress is the
| first in eighteen months. Nominally il is
the annual destruction of counterfeit goods
But owing TO the change in the admins
tratiOn of the Office of the chief of the Sc
cret service. the committee did not go to
work at the end of twelve months this
year. Nothing, however, was risk ed by the
delay. The property seized by the secret
service agents was quite safe locked in the
little room adjoining Chief Hazen's office
or in the safe in the ante room where the
most important plates are kept. 1t would
take pretty big vault to hold all that ac-
cumulates in the hands of the secret service
chief in year. The collection includes not
only counterfeit money and the plates used
| TO make il, but advertisements which are
UNCONSCIOUS violations Of the law against
Stimulating the securities of the United
| states. And sometimes the agents of the
secret service seize whole editions of books
which contain pictures prohibited by law
| likenesses Of the coins or the paper curren-
| cy issued by the government. A very short
time ago there were seized Loo pounds of
Coin Guides. issued by a concern in Bos-
| ton. These guides not only quoted the
| prices paid for rare COINS but gave wood
| cuts OF the coin designs. The whole edition
OF the guide" was seized. and at the same
time Two other guides" printed from the
| same plates were captured and the plates
were confiscated.
Innocent Violations of LAW
These unconscis- violations of the coun-
| terfeit law give tiIe secret service bureau
more trouble than the counterfeiters. Since
| the passage of the Edmunds counterfeit
| law the secret service agents have had
their hands full suppressing advertisements
and other devices, which are plain but in
nocent violations of the statute For ex-
ample, some time ago a bicycle COM
pany issued a guarantee IN the form or
semblance OF bond. Any one who read
this guarantee and understood il saw plain
| ly that 1t was simply a promise to pay the
owner OF bicycle OF their make a certain
amount of money il the machine did not
last certain time; but Q foreigner. igno-
rant OF the English language. might have
been persuaded very easily that this was a
United States bond for LEGO. This fraud
was, in fact, practiced on certain foreign
ers with bends issued by a New York news
paper guaranteeing it's circulation.
few weeks ago a newspaper In New
York published cartoons in the form of
notes bearing the faces and names of GER
tain city officials. The cartoons could not
have been used to deceive an intelligent
person; but the law is intended more es-
pecially to protect those who are not intel
hgent. So the agent Of the secret service
| seized the plates from which the cartoons
were printed and threatened the proprietor
| of the paper with prosecution il he repeated
the offense.
The newspaper picture as printed is hard
ly ever dangerous, especially il IL be a pic
| ture of a coin. But what is dangerous lie
| the engraving from which the print is
made. This engraving could be used TO re-
| produce the design in metal IL il should
| fall into the hands of unprincipled people.
That Is why the secret service bureau
seized the plates from which the New York
newspaper was printed. This feature of the
law is so well understood now that many
publishers submit designs for engravings
to the chief of the secret service before
having the engrayings made. weekly
paper published in Boston for the benefit
of the youth OF America submitted such a
drawing to Chief Hazen the other day and
he approved it. The design was shadowy
resented.
Worlds Fair Diplomas.
The most important seizures made recently
were of counterfeits of the worlds fair
diplomas. When the law authorizing these
diplomas was passed a stringent proNis-
ion against counterfeiting was attached to
il. Under this provision, even man who
| received a diploma could not reproduce It
in fac-simile, much less could men who had
not received them counterfeit them. The
designs for these diplomas Were kept a Sc
cret for quite time, but the active news
papers were anxious TO present TO their read
| ers copy Of the design SO by some means,
as yet unknown 10 the secret service peo-
pie, they secured n plank diploma and had
ii photographed by a photographer The
photograph was reproduced in several pa
pers, but the secret service agents swooped
down on the newspaper publishers and con-
fiscated the plates. Then they set about
discovering the original and finally they
captured the negative IN Washington and
slowed il away in Mr.. HaZenis closet. But
more mischief had been done. A New York
photographer had got a copy of the photo
graph and had made arrangements with
several large advertisers 10 reproduce il on
their advertisements. One of these alver-
tisements had been printed before Chief
Hazen knew about It, His agents seized
10000 copies of a checker board issued as
an advertisement for a well-advertisei sum-
mer drink, the design on the back being
| reproduction in colors OF the worlds fair
diploma. Dhese check r boards are among
the properties of that store room of Mr.
Hazen recently committed to the macerator
and the furnace by the treasury committee
business College Currency.
Another recent seizure was a quantity of
college currency" issued by business
college" at Colorado Springs. This college
currency" has distinct classification in the
counterfeit list 1t Is bogus money made
TO initiate the money OF the United States.
but intended merely for the use of scholars
in carrying on fictitious business transac-
tions in the course of technical training
which they are taking. OF course, IL is not
Intended by the people who make this ''col-
loge currency or the people who have IL
n AIDE that ii shall ever fall into the hands of
dishonest people But the Treasury De
partment must consider the fact that il il
did fall into the hands of dishonest people IL
would be put very easily 10 dishonest uses.
The amount of the Colorado Springs seizure
(face value) was s237,3l9.35. The plates for
printing this currency" were made in the
east. They were seized without trouble, and
they, too, have gone the way of all things
counterfeit.
The latest and the most amusing seizure
made by the secret service agents was a set
of dies prepared in Chicago and used for
making soda water checks. These checks