Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1902-12-17
QUEER FUEL AT WASHINGTON.
Government Bureau Burned Every
Day What Had Originally
Cost $4,000 Cash.

orators, mines and people and rail-
roads, as the result of the coal strike
one branch of the governmeht-the
bureau engraving and printing
chalked up profit of not far from 81 so.
Incidentally, in accomplishing this
saving, the bureau has in the past
month burned fuel for which the treas
ury paid in cold cash more than mil
lion dollars, says Washington report
in the New York Sun.
A million dollars a month for fuel
simply to generate steam with which
to drive the machinery in the bureau
$4,000 day-is an item calculated
to cause even Uncle Sam to look to-
ward bottled sunshine as method for
producing heat, but in this particular
case, Uncle Sam said he could stand it
indefinitely.
Just at this time when the average
man is giving considerable attention
to the fuel bill it may be interesting to
note how Uncle Sam can burn a mil
lion-dollar bin of fuel in a month and
still come out $3.50 ahead at the end Of
the 80 days.
In this particular instance the gov
eminent stokers have been shoveIinp
documentary revenue stamps for
which the treasury paid $4,000 daily
into the furnaces of the bureau along
with proper proportion of coal, the
stamps producing heat that otherwise
would have required the consumption
of more coal.
Had the revenue stamps not gone to
satisfy the hunger of the furnaces be-
meath the bureau boilers, they would
have been burned in the regular fur
mace provided for the destruction of
detective stamps and the heat pro-
duced would have gone out into the
upper air through the big chimney
without having accomplished a useful
purpose.
Beginning with July, 1901, following
the repeal of the stamp tax on bank
checks, telegraph and telephone mes
sages. and augmented this last July by
the repeal of all stamp taxes, the treas
ury has been redeeming the revenue
stamps remaining in the hands of the
purchasers throughout the country.
The stamps have been shipped in wag-
on loads, a considerable portion of the
bulk being made up of the blank checks
upon which the stamp was impressed.
Carloads and tons upon tons of this
stuff have been shipped to Washington
and stored in the treasury
During the fall large numbers of
settlements have been made, enabling
the removal of the stamps represent
ed by the payments. AS fast as a
wagon load of stamps was released it
was hauled over to the bureau and
shoveled into the big incinerator built
solely for this purpose.
In the latter part of September,
while the process of destruction was
going on, and while the officials of the
treasury department were racking
their brains to figure out a fuel supply
for the various bureaus, the engineer
at the bureau of engraving and print
ing was seized with an inspiration.
He suggested the utilization of the
wagon loads of stamps and stamped
checks for the purpose of producing
steam. The thing was tried.
While the officials who ordinarily
are charged with the duty of witness
ing the operation of burning the
stamps stood by to see that the stamps
all went into the furnace, the fireman
and engineer experimental. 1t was
found that about two parts of coal
to one part of stamps and checks made
a combination producing splendid re-
suits.
And so, day after day, the big wag-
ons transported boxes and bales Of
stamps and stamped checks to the
bureau and the stokers sandwiched
a layer of several thousand dollars
worth of government securities be-
tween a few cents worth of coal. At
the end of the month it was ascer-
tanned that an average of a ton Of
coal daily had been saved through the
use of the high-grade fuel, total
saving of $3.50 for the month. estimat-
| ing coal at six dollars ton.
Burnings of stamps both in the bu-
reau and in the basement of the post
| Office building are of almost daily oc-
| currence, but the incineration takes
| place in the regularly appointed fur
mace and the heat produced is waited
out unutilized. Some great blazes
have been pulled off in the basement Of
the post. office department during the
past four years.
| In 1898, following the abolition Of
the newspaper and periodical stamps,