The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-03-17
BRNAL REVENUE STAMPS
ANNUAL STOCK-TAKING
 BY THE
.u at washlngson-A Task of
 Magnitude.

Magnitude.
 |hmissioner Yerkes will begin next Iday the customary triennial taking of the internal revenue bu- stamp vault, a transaction probaly Hut parallel in the commercial
 The commissioner is charged in
 ooks of the treasury department stamps worth something like 300
 ns-not quite a billion-of dollars
 to him since the last invoice, and
 take the committee of expert ac-
 ants appointed by the secretary,
 led by a force of laborers, five days
 through the immense vault and
 the accounts of the internal rev. |bureau and those of the treasury ftment balance.
 tou take blank sheet of paper 1t wide by 20 feet long and cover Eh figures of the size ordinarily
 in bookkeeping, you would have
 ximately the amount of figuring
 will be done before the inventory } nations stock of internal revenue bs is completed. And yet the last (voices, covering a period of IS at intervals of about three years,
 balanced to a cent, so carefully Accurately is the business handled
 day to day.
 foretically the books are balanced
 afternoon at the close of business, he stamps on hand are not actu- Pounted and checked up. The bur- usually carries a stock of from 80 D millions of dollars worth of the enominations of internal revenue ps used by the producers of goods let to internal revenue tax, such as led spirits, beer. cigars, tobacco.
 oleomargarine, etc.
 kr1y 300,0G9 sheets of stamps are bred to the bureau every day by
 printer, and every day large ship s, aggreating at times from four tons, are sent to the various col Ss of internal revenue by registered
 The daily transactions of the bu-
 for three years naturally reach z figures, and the checking up to of each separate transaction, be- Ing with the last balance struck, monumental task.
 ernaI revenue stamps are printed Especially prepared paper at the ku of engraving and printing and bred to the commissioner of inter- |evenue in package containing a Band sheets. Each package is ted and inspected before leaving printer, and as soon as it reaches tamp vault is taken up and twice .nted.
 $ counting is done by ninble-fin- ] women, who become very expert
 both hand and eye, not only count | he sheets, but watching for defec- ones, which they frequently find discard. These women count from p to 27,000 sheets of stamps in seven S work. Some of them can count examine 5000 sheets in an hour and
 ver defects as they go along.
 casionally a package will be short eet, and this makes trouble. The E package is recounted by two ol E different women to make sure oi |error and then all the packages re ed that day are recounted in an ef. | to find the vagrant. If this fails bcate it, the director of the bureal hgraving and printing is called up b supply the missing sheet, and he lily finds it.
 |ter the stamps are recounted they burned over to the packers, ane again some rapid work can bt B on rush days. The stamps art fn put into packages of 1000 sheets packages weighing from to ? hds, sealed, tied and marked to in lte the denomination contained, etc man wraps and seals the package
 next man marks it and the thirl h ties it. A package a minute Is disposed of
 he expert counters and packers were to their most severe test wher gress passed the revenue law tt t the expenses of the war wit. in. The war revenue measure was finally completed until within two ks of the date upon which it was tt