Arizona silver belt., 1900-12-20
UNCLE SAM'S SILVER.
Handling and Care of It Costs Him
 Large Sum.
The Transfer, Counting and Storing of the Vast Amount Costs Aeav- lily - Cost of Coinage
 h Small.

Carting to the United States mint vaults at Spring Garden and Sixteenth streets the vast masses of silver bullion and silver dollars that have been stored in the oid mlnt and the post office build ing has attracted attention 10 the fact that the successive transferring, count ing and storing of the white metal since it's purchase as bullion about ten years ago, to say nothing of the depreciation of about third in the market price since thai time, has cost the govern meut many thousands of dollars in ex- cess of it's actual money value. In fact, the government would have saved great deal oi money if il had thrown away the silver dollars as soon as they were.coined. he keeping and handling of them has proved to be the most eX- pensive luxury in which the govern ment has ever indulged.
 The Philadelphia mint holds $200,- 00O,U ,UUO in. silver, over S60,000,000 of which has been coined into the cart wheel dollars. Each successive superin- tendenL since that time has had the sil- yer counted or transferred from one place to another, the operation usually requiring year or more and costing over S3O,U0J in the single item of count ing. As the superintendents are under saJ0,000 bonds, their bondsmen natural ly insist upon knowing just what they are responsible for, and so the counting process is undergone with each sue ceeding administration, Uncle Sam paying the bill.
 When Daniel M. Fox was superintend- ent of the mint about ten years ago the silver dollars were transferred from the mint to the post office building. The cost of carting the load from the mint 10 the post otdce was2 25 cents per Fl 900, exclusive oi the pay of the !aborers em- ployed in handling it.
 In imitation of the celebrated strat- sgy of the French general, whose cam paign consisted of marching up hill and then down again, the succeeding superintendent. Col. Bosbyshell, carted the silver dollars from the post office back to the mint, duplicating the cost.
 Then Eugene Townsend became su- perintcudent. and the process of trans terring .hc silver from his predecessor to himself, the hand-counting of the whole mass being involved, again cost the government over S30,0O0.
 When Herman Kretz succeeded Dr. Townsend the transfer was made with out extra cost 10 the government, the usual force at the mint being employed in the task of counting on this econom. ical occasion, but a system of packing the silver dollars in boxes was intro. duced at cost of five cents per box, and this cost the government about s7.5OO.
 The transfer of the silver from Mir, Kretz to Harry K. Boyer, the present superintendent, cost the government, as before. over s3O, GOO. Silver dollars to the amount of S2l,O0O,O00 were taken again to the post office building for storage. This labor was completed only about three weeks ago, and now the whole bulk of silver is being re- carted to the new mint at the regula- tion price demanded by the express company of g cents per s1 GOO. with the additional cost of five cents per box containing Sl. l.000 and the laborers' pay.
 The details involved in all this nov ing and counting are intricate in the extreme. Superintendent Boyer's count. recently completed. was rem dered as eYpeditiously as possible, yet it took year or more to complete it. The transfer required the service of l5 extra men daily at three dollars day each. or s4a . day for year. In addi ton to all this some 12 or l5 men have to he e'nulovcd day and night to watch the boarded mass
 Thus each transfer from one superin- tendent to another has cost the govern ment about S30.000. the handling over s15.000 and the boxing over S7.500. to say nothing of the other heavy incident al expenses. such as the watching. To coin the silver bullion costs the govern ment orlv one cent for each dollar. but to guard it nnh protect it are treuen- dously expensive For instance. among the details of transferring the silver from ore superintendent to another are the employment of two counters for each ba" weighing GO pounds, the weighing ana the registering of the bags and the compilation of each bags .,,l l.,.sI m