Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-12
MAKING PAPER MONEY
Visitors to Uncle Sans Mann
moth Bureau.
HAS MANY employees
HOW THE NEW CURRENCY I'M
PRESSES CALLERS.
An officials Odd Experience Exchang-
ing Bills-Interesting Details
of Stamp Making.

At no time in it's history has the work Of
| the national bureau of engraving and print
| ing been as active as it is at present. It
is increasing rapidly and of course as the
| country expands in area and commercial
greatness so will the operations of pro-
viding United States notes. certificates of
| deposit, bonds. internal revenue stamps
postage stamps. customs stamps and so
| forth and so on expand correspondingly.
| Work is going night and day. 1t per-
force must keep growth with the demands
| OF the country.
At this particular date there are ex-
| actly 1920 people on the employees rolls of
/ the bureau. OF these. 1,31S are men and
| 1902 women. and of them 615 are plate
| printers and apprentices and 720 (all of
| whom are young women) are printers as
| sistants. The force employed al night foots
| up 30. but the indications are that there
| will have to be an increase and also addi-
| tional buildings as the months move on, for
| the demands for new money handed in by
\ the treasurer of the United States are con-
| stantly becoming greater.
Also Makes Philippine Currency.
The engravers and pressmen and their
| assistants. in addition to turning out
| American notes and securities of all kinds
are giving much attention to the benighted
ones In Luzon and the nearly, if not quite,
| 700 other islands of the Philippine archi-
pelago Shipments of notes being made
| to Manila at very regular intervals.
This Philippine money is in notes of one,
| two, five and ten pesos. A peso is valued
at about so cents in the currency of this
country. and of these notes used in our
Asiatic possessions there is some thing that
appears parodoXical. The currency is and
yet is not United States currency.
1t might have a value in commercial
quarters somewhat akin to Canadian mon
eys and the same value in foreign lands,
scribed by the government for use in its
own territory. but on the main land it is
Of little good beyond what attaches to it as
a curio
Possibly. so some of the treasury folks
think. the time will come when the Philip
pine peso note will. with its United States
frank upon it, be. as good anywhere on the
vast American contipent as 1T is within the
wide domain of the Island of Luzon.
Philippine Postage Stamps.
The Philippine postage stamp is, and has
for some time been. in active operation in
that far-off Pacific ocean region of ours. 1t
Is no stranger to the people of this country
and has the appearance of an ordinary
United States stamp, except that it car
ries impressed upon it the word Philippines.
There are, however not a sufficiency Of
those stamps in readiness for the permanent
ana temporary residents IN the 1nlllp-
pines, but there soon will be, and then the
chances are that the ordinary United States
stamps will not be used on the islands.
The bureau of engraving is decidedly a
Mecca of the hundreds of pilgrims who con-
stantly enter the wide-open gates Of the
capital by every train from everywhere that
enters the city scores of times each day.
People from all parts of the country want
to know how the government money fs
made and when they step within the red
brick walls of the bureau building and
secure one of the office guides they have
list of questions ready to present as long as
the moral law and the proper officials are
neither slow nor discourteous in giving them
all possible information.
Note Making Explained.
They are told how the>plates are made:
First, there are the dies manufactured on
soft steel. then these are formed into roll
and from that roll the plates are made
from which the notes from the ordinary 81
greenback to the amazing gold $4,000 yell
low-face and back, too-and no bigger than
the 81 note-are made.
They are informed, also, that about once
in every year a committee Is appointed by
the Secretary of the Treasury that con-
dennis such plates Is necessary to con-
denim; how these are boiled down or
melted, or go through some kind of proc
ess at the navy yard furnace shops and are
rendered into mass Of old iron or steel or
something; and, after having by the magic
of their power at one time been instru-
mental in perfecting those precious notes
which bring both happiness and wretched-
ness into the world, though shorn of
their greatness in this respect and relegated
to baser uses, have not yet lost all charac-
ter.
They may yet be part Of material used
In casting great cannon or perhaps become
an item In the construction of big war
ship.
All this. of course il very Instructive to
the pilgrims They listen with open-mouthed
wonder and feel convinced that they know
a great deal of how their Uncle Sam makes
the money, part of which comes now and
then into their possession. and will relate
1t to their friends when they reach their
respective homes. which are scattered every
where along the continent from Maine to
California, and from the Atlantic to the Pa
cific coasts.
Lady Visitors Largely Predominate.
These pilgrim, the majority OF whom are
ladies', of course, soc az much a. they can
Of all the wonders that Washington con-
tains. but when It comes down to watch
ing other people at work the shows of skill
and labor depicted in the shops OF the bu-
reau of engraving and printing surpass
all others. There 10 something 30 attrsc-
tive about money. and. then, again. TO see
with their own eyes SO many young Wo-
men-whole armies Of them-engased In
aiding to manufacture 1t is ailuring Ia the
extreme.
Just imagine thousand Of them, nearly
all young girls, sitting at presses In one
bors, assisting in the process of getting
notes ready for use in the marts Of the
country! 1t is positively tempting-tempt-
ing enough to persuade any of the pretty
minds to bone their congressman as soon
as they get home for place In the bureau
They want to be money-makers in a double
sense of the world
al lao of hoxr r.