Los Angeles herald., 1907-10-12

- STACK OF lightly bound bills six Zee
long, four feet high and two feet wide
Do you see much clean money in there /?
What do you do with it?' q
Put 1t right back in circulation
"Why?"
Because we cannot AFFORD to let Il
go out of the bank long enough to bs
redeemed"
''The requirements of business are toe
great?'
THE government does not print enough
small bills. If 1t did we should not have
| deemed and receive new money for II
every day."
THAT is true" we answered land the
government recognizes the difficulty. The
report of the treasurer says that the
acuteness Of the treasury conditions has
been so urgent for lack of an adequate
supply of bills of small denominations that
banks and others. rather than utilize sub
treasures, have remitted direct to the
treasury for redemption. preferring to pay
transportation charges both ways In order
to save time and secure the small denomi-
nations required. This shortage In the
supply of small denominations has had
~the tendency to retain the currency much
longer in circulation And it is for this
reason that they are contemplating a
much larger issuance of small bills and
the relief of forwarding by registered mail
free of charge"
.ewen," said he" when business
men and depositors generally through
out the country emphasize the
situation by insisting upon clean money,
clean money will come and come to stay"
Redlstrbuted
Subsidiary coin is redeemable in the
lawful money of the United States, and
T.. T,.tnr
large amounts of the coins are returned
to the treasury for redemption, but they
are again distributed either by shipments
to depositors therefor or paid over the
counter at treasury offices in exchange
for other kinds Of money.
Could not this subsidiary coin be
cleansed and sterilized before 1t is re-
distributed? There is no report that
such an advantageous thing is lone.
The amount of subsidiary silver re-
deemed during the first quarter of 1907
in the offices at Washington, 3alti-
more, New York, Philadelphia, Boston.
Cincinnati, st. Louis, New Orleans and
San Francisco amounted to $10.37S,4S9.
What If every piece of this coinage had
been cleaned before again being
handed out? Can one estimate the
value of such a procedure? Can one
es innate the results of its not having
been done?
All germs die when subjected to 900
degrees of heat. Could not air coins be
subjected to such heat at the sub
treasures of the above cities?
But the people ourselves, the indi- |
vidual must be the incentive, the source !
of motion in the demand for clean
In one case in Boston a large |
firm catering especially to women, of
their own accord made an arrange
ment with their bankers, by which they
were generally enabled to give only
clean or new money for change. But
when they could not secure 1t, as was
often the case during the holiday sea-
son, they caused all coins received to
be dropped into a bath containing a
germicide and then had a girl take
them out and polish them on a. buff
Ing" machine, at a small cost, the pro-
cess being shown on the first floor and
attracting most interested attention.
The result has been most gratifying.
Women caught on" to the idea, were
pleased and attracted. The firm has now
its establishment by taking in
two or three other shops. Yet 1t did
not advertise the fact
Should one leading department store in
any city arrange to give out nothing but
clean bright coins and new bills in change
and advertise this advance in the meth
DDS of shopping we doubt not the ap-
probation of the public would soon be
made manifest by increase of business.
OF course the others would be glad to
follow.
Is Appreciation Lacking?
We are told by the president of one
OF New York's great banks that some
years ago an attempt was made to ster-
ilize and polish all coins entering the
bank, so that they would pay out moth
ing but bright coins '1nasmuch as our
efforts met with little appreciation on
the part of the general public we dis
continued the same''
But how could they really tell whether
the public appreciated it or noto BY sys-
asking people whose fortunes
vary from small to large we have found
that when new money is handed to them
It is so thoroughly appreciated that some
put it away to keep" others ALWAYS
pay out the old first. because the new is
so nice" some 'just hate to touch the
stuff and drop 1t as soon as possible"
when it is old and dirty, and think new
bills are handsome-don't you, just like a
picture?"
81 happened to have forty new dollar
bills paid me once" said a merchant,
and was so delighted with them, they
looked so fine, that L would not hank
them, and held them in my purse until I
actually had to pay them out" But what
does it matter whether people appreciate
a good action or not! The attempt of
the New York bank to place sanitary. at
tractive money on the market was prac-
tically progressive and it's continuance
for even month may have saved many
individuals from disease. II kept up it
may have set an example which other
banks would have initiated. Why not
renew the effort? Why not initiate It?
The great corporations of any city, such
as the surface roads. the elevated. fer
ries, railroads. great mills and all estab-
lishments whose trade is generally done
In very small sums, like the fares for the
Brooklyn bridge. for example, in which
The penny the nickel and the dime would
be the most frequent coins to the bushel,
could and should do just what this bank
the days accumulation through
their own sterilizing and cleaning plant
So that when the citizen hands out a
quarter for a ticket over the bridge or on
an electric car he would get his change in
bright apparently new coins; looking and
feeling as If they had just come from the
mint. How satisfactory that would be!
Money Increases
The pOpulatiOn Of the TTnftad Ctatas ie