The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-26

try of the rats and mice and fires that have been doing business in that year. 4S.5
 The rodent would not figure in this story if 1t were not for the fact that in this broad land there are thousands of persons, the majority of them wom- en who have not the least faith in banks. They prefer to hide it in the stove or under the carpet or in the cellar or some place else. They will risk the rats and mice making nests out of savings rather than let them be Chadwickized.
 Added to this source of profit is a regular income from bonds; United States notes, treasury notes of 1890 and silver certificates destroyed and never presented for reiemption: from unclaimed interest on interest-bearing securities, abrasions of gold and sil- yer coins. and money orders that are lost and never duplicated. And then the humble postage stamp is a source of no small income to the government that Is. the thousands which are bought and never put to the use for when they were intended.
 Speaking of the postage stamp. it may be said that the government can never compute the amount that will come into its treasury in any given
 
 stfuction of stamps by fire and other means, the ever-alert stamp collector is aoing business. and that means a saving of thousands of dollars to the government in the course of a year.. They take the stamps that are added to the inrumerable collections out of commission. and the government is re- leased from the obligation of redeem ing them by performing the obligation they are supposed to involve. But these profits are never cast up on the Federal balance sheet for the reason that the debts of the government are rarely outlawed. But, nevertheless, they are just as real. and the money from them jingles every year in the pockets of Uncle Sam.
 It must not be assumed that the Government seeks to profit by all these unusual or extraordinary sources. On the contrary. every effort Is made to avoid any profit accruIng to the indi- vidual from the destruction of any form of obligation that the government may assume. Every reasonable effort Is Invariably made to find the man who is the lose rby some tnishap, and If he be found the government makes proper restitution. But it is a fact that ne is rarely found.
 In the case of fire charrinG bills or rats and mice making nests of theEl, the government ruts experts on the remnants, if there be any, and they do their hest to fix the amount of the money destroyed, and the man who owned 1t gets other bills for all that can be clearly established as to number.
 According to records that are avail .hle in the Sub-Treasury, the value of federal interest bearing securities of ne issue prior to and during the War ht the Rebellion on June 30, 1904 amounted to more than $1,000,00 Ob-
 gations of this nature on which in- crest ceased many years ago date lack to 1S47.
 Computator discloses the fact that the United States has outstanding to- day in the way of securities on which interest long ago lapsed the sum of S1.196.S6o.26.
 It is but natural that one of the greatest sources of this extraordinary income of the Government should be In the way of the destruction of thou sands of notes issued by the Treasury Department bearing no interest They pass from hand to hand. and in the course of their natural existence reach every class of people in the country. They travel around In this way year after year, and in the end many of them are totally worn out, lost or destroyed.
 There is no way to compute the in- come the government derives from this source. From the day of theNfirst issue in 1861 up to the present the amount would foot up far into the millions, ac- cording to reports in the possession of the Sub-Treasury. Just in the one com paratively small item of what was officially called the fractional currency and popularly known as "shin plas- i tera.p put in circnlation ct the time of