The Washington times., 1901-08-04
VAULTS FILLED WITH GOLD
Half Billion Dollars Now in the
United States Treasury.
The system of Checking and Counter
Checking Sums in the National De-
positOries - SHch a Thing as n
Shortage Has Never Occurred

/ gold in the vaults OF the Treasury o
the United States. This is a greater
amount of gold than was ever befor,
accumulated by any nation or individ
ual. 1t is distributed among the nins
Sub Treasures of the country. The
largest amount of gold in the United
States is at the New York Sub Treas
ury, at the corner of Nassau and Wal
Streets. comparatively small amount
is held at the United States Treasury
in this city General business is ia
cilitated by keeping gold at the com
mercial centres. Still, 1t is all Govern
ment treasure, and is theoretically in
the Washington vaults, for the Treas
ury Department comprises all the Sub
| Treasures.
Money is an abstract quantity at the
! Treasury Department. Millions in bills
and coin are handled there every day
| by clerks, with no thought as to its
value. 1t is simply SO much money
with the buying power eliminated, sc
| far as the handler is concerned. There
is no carelessness. An elaborate sys-
tenn of checks, cross checks, and
| from the time the gold comes
into the Assay Office and the paper for
the bills leaves the rolls in the Massa-
! chusetts mill, where II is manufactur-
ed. Great vaults yawn for it at night
and hold it safe during the day when
| II is not needed for current business.
The gold vault in the Treasury is sit
| ha rI,l i,, ha
| Treasury building, which, until the
| Congressional Library was built, was
| the Governments most expensive room.
1t cost 100000. In this room there are
half dozen cashiers, who make change
and pay Government warrants and
check:. 1t is the cash room of the
Treasury. At the farther end of the
room is a vault. perhaps ten feet
square. In this vault there are a table
and half dozen electric lights.
The cashier stays in the vault while
the cash room is open. He carries on
his shelves a few millions in paper
money, perhaps a million in gold coin,
some in silver.
special pass is required to get into
that vault. once there the cashier
shows the visitor a $4,000 greenback,
of which there is none now in circula-
tion and but few in the Treasury;
$4,000 gold certificate, and 5000
gold certificate. They are encased in a
frame, between glass. The cashier car
ries them as cash. but he keeps then
in the frame so that visitors may hold
q bttG ha will
let the visitor hold n package of s1O,-
600 bills, done up in grey manila paper,
than contains s4.000,O0O.
There is a little bag of double eagles
on the table. When one lifts that the
cashier announces that it weighs nine
teen pounds and contains $1,000. There
are other bags of gold, mostly of the
$4,000 size AT one side is a bag of
silver dollars, 1000 of them. They weigh
sixty pounds.
The main gold vault is seventy five
feet long, twenty feet wide, and twelve
feet high. 1t is located under the centre
of the building. 1t is big enough to
hold all the gold in the United States
several times over. The walls are of
=
with steel lining and sheathing. In
the middle of the wall is a layer of
steel balls. one on the other. If a thief
should penetrate the outside walls, es-
cape the watchman, and try to bore
through the vault, these steel balls,
harder than any tool made, would not
give his drills purchase; they would
continually shift and present new sur
faces. The vault doors are of steel. |
There are two of them. Each is provid-
ed with time lock In the silver vault |
are three doors. The third one weighs |
six tons and is swung with a windlass. |
The silver vault contains about 1O5, 5,0O0,- |
600 silver dollars.
Watchmen constantly patrol the cor |
ridors leading to these vaults. They |
are members of the Treasury watch, |
and have beats, like the policemen on
the city streets. The captain of the |
watch has his office near the Fifteenth |
Street entrance, which contains sever |
al cases filled with guns, revolvers, and |
a large alarm gong His office is di-
rectly connected with the vaults.
The watch and the heavy doors and
massive walls were the only protectors
of the money until four years ago. Then
a system of electric protection was in
stalled that adds to the security of the
vaults. When the vault doors are
this applies to every vault
In the building-a thin oak door, that
is folded back in two parts against the
wall while the vault Is in use, is closed
over the vault door. 1t is fragile affair.
It's panels are not more than quar-
ter of an inch thick 1t is fastened by
a small brass draw-bolt. that child
could slip with one finger. But if a
child or anyone else should slip the bolt
or touch the door a big electric gong
would jingle where the captain of the
watch sits and in every police station
in the city. Before the person who
the door could do much more
than turn around he would be covered
with Winchesters.
The doors shut against a row of cleo
ric connections that surround the vault
ioors. When ii is shut the connections
are so delicate that they would trans
nit an alarm if pin were stuck in
he panel. Before the Spanish
IAN war any visitor to the Treasury
building could see the vaults. Some
lines they were found open. and the
lisitors gaZed in at the millions and
Millions of dollars piled in bags and
1oXes. When war was declared the
privilege was shut off and has not been
'eneWed since The only way to see |