The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-02-28
YOU ARE NOT
 AFRAID OF MONEY
But It is a Belief to Be In formed that One Needn't Be.
New York Tribune.)

That soiled paper money is not a medium of infection and persons in the banks of Washington and in the United States Treasury who handle currency are in no more danger of contracting disease than any one else, was the opinion expressed by sev- eral bank officials, United States Treasurer Lee McClung, J. G. Mo Grath, who represents the Treasury in mancerating dilapidated bills; F. w. Lantz, chief of the Redemption Bu- reau, and Dr. William c. Woodward, Health Officer of the District of Co., lumbia
 Dr. Woodward in speaking of this subject, which has never been settled by scientists, and which has b<en brought to the public's attention a score or more times said, according to the Washington Post:
 There is no doubt in the world that paper money is laden with germs, but the disease breeders are absolutely powerless to produce harm by contact with the unbroken skin. Unless the man who handles a quantity of paper money which has probably been sub on his hand or is careless about touching his lips with his hands, he is running no chance of infection. The experience of bank tellers bears out my statements in this connection. I have never known of a case of in lection from handling money"
 Charles J. Bell, president of the American Security and Trust Com pany, scoffed at the idea of money being detrimental to health,
 .I have never had a case of infeo- tion called to my attention that could not be accounted for" MT. Bell said, s'by other causes than dirty currency. nr,,, aJo o;e%o their lips when it is necessary to count rapidly, and they are provided with spongeS for that purpose. If paper money could carry disease germs of the active and magligant sort, I don't believe any one would be alive today, for most Americans are well versed in the art of counting money and they handle it without fear.'
 At the Treasury Department a thor ough canvass was made of the macer- ating department, where millions of dollars coming from all sources are destroyed and no record of infection was found.
 F. w. Lantz, chief of the Redemp- tion Bureau, of which he has had charge for years, said he had super vised women whose only business it is to count condemned bills, and had never heard of a single case of in lection even remotely traceable to handling of money.
 !'We sometimes handle as much as $2, 900, 900 a day. MT. Lantz said, '<and it is counted four times by 45O clerks. Our illness ratio is no higher than in any of the other divisions, showing that the idea of germs being trans mitted by old bills is absurd. The skin on a human hand is proof against any poison that might be in the soiled money we are required to count, and the clerks are supplied with sponges, which make it unnecessary to touch the lips with the fingers.
 eff, however, we get a package of currency from a source known to have been infected with disease. the package is sterilized before the clerks touch it.''
 The new Treasurer of the United States, Lee McClung, also is of the opinion that practice is a better meth cd of arriving at fact than science, and as the employees under him, who daily work among the bills, have no complaint to make, he thinks they are the best judges of the matter.
 Science can say that paper money is loaded with germs of all sorts and descriptions, and that any one mak- ing a practice of handling them will be infected MT. McClung said '.but if these same persons report no ill consequences, science must be wrong."