The Oskaloosa herald., 1909-09-30
CHANGE IN OFFICE
MEANS MUCH WORK
All Money In Treasury Department
Must Be Counted.
TOTAL is s1,2OO,2S3, l77.512-3
Job VIII Require Three Months Time
and Necessitate the Employment
Of Many Extra Experts In
Handling Cash. u
lunited Press Service

Washington, ID. e., Sept. 29.-There
IL a whole lot more involved In
change in the Office of Treasurer or
the United States than in the mere
acceptance of the resignation of the
retiring officer and the appointment
OF his successor. When President
Taft accepted the resignation of Chas.
Fl. Treat, whose name appears in the
bottom right-hand corner of all Unit
&c States bills, and announced that
Lee McClung would succeed him in
it was equivalent to CIV
ing notice to all the clerks in the Office
OF the Treasurer that they had three
months extra hard work ahead OF
them
This comes from the fact that before
a new Treasurer of the United Statess
takes charge of the Office he has got
to be satisfied that all the money and
trust funds held in the Treasury De-
partment are there down to the very
last fraction of cent. Consequently,
every dollar of the vast boards in the
Treasury has got to be counted.
When the last change was made
in this office 1t took all Of the clerks,
twenty additional laborers specially
hired for the occasion; committee OF
three appointed by the Secretary, with
ten or fifteen specially designated aid
es assigned from other Offices of the
Department, just two months and
eighteen days to do this counting and
to compare the figures thus obtained
with those carried upon the books.
This is not so very surprising when
IL is realized that the aggregate
amount of money and securities which
are held in the office of the Treasurer
reaches. the stupendous total o. ST.
2o0, 2S3 117.51 2-3. That fraction of
part of a cent which has been carried
along in the Treasury books for many
years arose from the interest of a
Louisiana state coupon bond which
carried per cent.
All of this great wealth is held in
thirteen vaults beneath the Treasury
Department in this city. Vault No. l
is SO feet long 81 feet wide and IL
feet high. 1t is packed to the doors
with bags each holding one thousand
silver dollars and contains a total OF
los, 100000 silver dollars. But even
this enormous amount does not rep
resent all of the silver cart wheels
held by the Treasury, there being over
fifty million more slowed away in two
other vaults. Gold certificates to the
value of STAG, 1853, 230; United States
notes to the amount of $66, ,652;
silver certificates to the amount of
$53,2S9, 900; gold coin to the value of
$9,469,032; national bank notes in
pl ocess of redemption, worth s20,645,-
203, and subsidiary silver minor coin.
bring the total in twelve of the vaults
up to s455,S23,S34. In the remaining
vault, No. T. there are bonds the total
figure of s744,459, 2S3.51 2-3. These
are held by the Treasurer as security
for National Bank circulation and for
deposits of government departments;
miscellaneous trust funds and the
sinking fund of the District of Column
bia.
Every item of these giant totals has
to be verified before a new Treasurer,
who is a bonded officer, is willing to
assume responsibility for the figures
as to the amount of money on nand
which is turned over to him oy his
predecessor.
1t would, of course, be an iptGFmino-
BILE job to count singly the 56,57i,45S
silver dollars so they are counted by
weight. 1t is known to a fraction OF
an ounce how much each bag supposed
to contain 1000 silver dollars, should
weigh. So bag after bag is placed on
scales by the husky colored laborers
under the supervision of an officer of
the Treasury. If the bag Is light 1t is
opened and count of it's contents is
made. Among the thousands of bags
weighed it has sometimes happened
that shortages to the extent of dol
lar or two have been found. On one
occasion member of the colored
force probably overcome by the knowl-
edge that he was handling such vast
wealth when he was only drawing 81
a day pay, had the nerve to abstract
several dollars from several bags.
Altogether. he stole about $50, but he
was caught at the proceeding and
not only had to disgorge, but served
term in prison as well.
The silver is handled just like so
many bags of wheat, Just as each one
is weighed from one vault 1t is stack
ed up in a pile in another, The bun
dies of notes before being put into
the vault have been most carefully
counted bill for bill and the number
In each package marked on the out
side OF the sealed wrapper. These
seals are carefully examined and n
Continued on page ST.