The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-31
UNCLE SANS COIN VAULTS.
WHAT MILLION DOLLARS N Sill
YER PIECES REALLY MEANS.
An Enormous Quantity Of Bullion
and Coins stored Under the Treas
ury BaIIding-FisuFes nS 10 the
Bulk Of the Metal.

I department. These vast repositories OF
1 gold ana silver are among the curiositles
/ OF the town. They rank in interest with
the Washington monument. the dead let
/ ter Office and the echo stones Of the capt
toll Every day. between the hours OF 10
and y. swarms OF strangers descend the
damp, dark staircase IN the big treasury
building 10 the realms OF the precious
metals. A guide accompanies them. and
as the visitors peer through the iron graf
ing al the steel safes holding gold. or the
wooden boxes containing silver. the guide
delivers for their benefit most entertain
Ing lecture. Te tells them how much Of
each kind of money in each vault. the ma
ture OF the precautions adopted against
sneak thievery, tunneling and other forms
Of burglary.
The most interesting part Of the show
is the big silver vault. There are in all
seven vaults in the treasury, and the total
amount Of gold. silver. notes and bonds in
them is nearly sS00.OO.oOO. But it is "the
big silver vault' that all the visitors want
to see. They have heard of it and it's d.
It with their own eyes.
Great Jehosophat" exclaimed stran-
ger with bulging eyes, as he stood at the
door to this vault; cant be possible all
that stuff in there is silver? Why, it is as
big as a Westinghouse"
Yes. it's all silver" replied the accom-
modating and intelligent guide. "This big
vault occupies all the space under the
herr r,rIs
ing. Its exact measurement is 50 feet
long, 81 feet wide. and u feet high. BE
hind the iron grating you see wooden
boxes. They are all fun of silver-S2 40
In each box. The boxes are piled all
around the edges, and in the middle are
bags of silver piled in great heap. We
have lots of trouble with this silver.
The boxes burst and the bags
get rotten, and then when a
new administration comes in we
have 10 weigh fl all. II takes us about
three months to do the job, and it's dread
ful hard work"
Does this vault contain all of Uncle
Sans silver" asked the stranger.
"Oh, no, bless you, no." responded the
guide. Here we have only s103. 240 600 in
coined dollars. That is less than a fifth Of
all the silver the government owns. In
vault No. 2-you passed that on your way
in-we have 100000 In smaller vaults
VIC nave n lew uliiliOuS more. w q never
could find space for all Uncle Sans silver
here. We are frightfully crowded as it Is.
In all, we have here 16O,0O0,O0O or 10, 900 200
of silver dollars. The remainder of the
100000 of coined dollars owned by the
government is in the subtreasuries at New
York, Chicago and other Cities
You say Uncle Sam has more than
5OO,O 600 of silver dollars on hand?"
Yes. sir. Standard dollars, $40. 900,
and silver bullion enough to make 49,,
10000 more; grand total, $54S0O0,0O0."
But there must be a lot of silver dol
lars in circulation" asked the stranger.
Not as many as you would think" re-
piled the guide. We have coined 422, 900 COG
of these dollars, and the number IN circula-
tion is now only 100000. The people don't
seem to want 'em. We've done eVeryt hing
we could to induce the people to take the
standard dollar. Congress has appropriat-
ed money nearly every year to enable the
secretary of the treasury to send out silver
dollars in exchange for other money with
out expense to the people, but 1t doesn't
seem TO make any difference. They don
go. why the number of standard dollars
| in circulation now is much smaller than IT.
| was few years ago. Instead of inducing
the people TO take more of the dollars, they
have actually been sending them back to
| us"
do you know how much the government
has paid out for silver?" asked the strang-
er.
10 a cent" replied the guide, consult
ing little note book which he drew from
his pocket. I'VE have bought 5O3,OO3,sll fine
! ounces, for which we have paid $5l6, 623 oil.
! That is an awful lot of money"
And how much is that silver actually
worth today" persisted the stranger.
The guide used his lead pencil for a mo-
| ment, and then replied:
Just 1891, 925, 6SS The net loss to the gov
eminent on its silver purchases has been
! $751;, 697 923.'
through the iron grating at the boxes of
/ silver, and turned their faces toward the
guide.
you find 1t pretty difficult to understand
such big figures, don't your" continued the
official; everyone does. We can't conceive
| a million very well. It's too big for us. I've
thought a good deal about this while TAX
ing visitors to see the vaults, and / believe
] can help you TO appreciate what a mil
| lion is"
BY this time every man and woman in
1 the crowd was listening intently to what
| the guide had to say.
Now, if you have seventeen of these
silver dollars" he went on, you can cas-
lily hold them in your hand. They weigh
just about a pound. But if you have a
thousand dollars you will have about all
you could carry, or sixty pounds weight.
! Now, suppose instead of a thousand sill
yer dollars, you have million. That
! means thirty tons of silver. To haul il
through the smooth streets of Washing
ton in our big treasury wagons would take
twelve or fifteen wagons. Now, do YOU
grasp what a million means? And then
remember that Uncle Sam has 54s,OOO 00G
! of silver.
Let us look at 1t in another way. Taks
eight silver dollars and place them in a
row on the table, fiat, rim to rim. They
will reach just foot. If you have thou
sand dollars placed in the same way they
win reach 125 feet But suppose you have
million Then they win make a white
streak more than twenty-three and one
/ half miles long.
Having now secured a better appreci-
alton of the magnitude of a Million" the
1 guide continued 'let me give you some
figures | have made at odd moments about
the $4,000 600 silver dollars Uncle Sam has
in these and his other vaults-the silver
that he has paid out his good money for,
/ and which the people do not want.
! IF all of these dollars were placed rim
to rim, fiat, they would reach nearly Il, 900
miles.
!