The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1910-04-20
SEE UNCLE SAM MAKE MONEY
CROWDS FLOCK TO BUREAU OF
ENGRAVING AND PRINTING.
Big Figures of What Is Done

Big Figures of What Is Done
Governments MINIS and Bureau Are
Hard Pressed to Satisfy Need For
Lucre. Money Can Be Issued Only
in Two Ways.
WASHINGTON, D. Washing
ton at this time of the year is the
mecca for tourists from all over the
country. Naturally their interests
center on the public buildings of the
city into which they flock by the
thousands. After seeing the white
house, the halls of congress and the
Congressional library the tourist
shows most interest in the treasury
building and the bureau of engrav-
ing and printing, the two great mon
ey centeTs. The first question usu-
ally put to the guides by sightseers
is: How much money has the gov
eminent put into circulation since
it became a nation?" No guide pos
sesses this specific knowledge, as it
is an utter impossibility to name
anything like the correct amount.
Statistics gathered from various
treasury reports, however, show that
at present there is in circulation be-
tween % and 80 hundred millions
of dollars in paper money alone. OF
the amount of coin in circulation no
man now connected with the govern
I, h. F0sx
rough guess that has been made
places the huge pile of wealth at
about from 20 to 25 millions of dol
lars.
Hard at Work Making Money.
The government minis and the bu-
Teau of engraving and printing are
pushed to their utmost capacity in
making new money to keep this vast
circulation up to the required stand
ard. The records disclose that there
is an average of 100000 made
every day in the year in the minis at
Philadelphia, New Orleans and San
Francisco and in the bureau of en-
craving and printing at Washington.
The minis stamp into coin between
100000 and 100000 daily, while
the bureau prints about 100000
each day of paper money.
While the United States is said to
stand pre-eminent among the various
nations in the manufacture of it's
paper money, the establishments
where it is made do not compare
in any way with the large money
factories of European countries. The
quality of it's work, however, is such
that very few, if any, counterfeits
are not discovered.
AS an example of the economy of
the government the bureau of en-
craving, an Anticipated building,
stands prominent. The building has
been condemned as unsanitary and
not fit to house, by one-third the
employees. Anticipated methods,
too, are used to manufacture money.
In the bureau a printer and a girl
assistant, using a simple hand press,
which possibly saw it's palmiest day
a century or so ago can finish about
500 sheets of bills a day, each sheet
containing four bills. The type of
this press, according to the printers,
has not changed since the govern
ment began making it's paper money.
In the building there are perhaps
between $50 and 700 printers, some
of whom are engaged in printing
stamps, bonds or other forms of gov
eminent securities, but most of them
are engaged in printing money.
Scene of Intense Activity.
rtc;t IN MI Fos Ir
TO visit this building. It's intense
activity fascinates one; the dexterity
of the clerks who count the money
after it has been printed and the
methods employed in safeguarding
the money form perhaps one of the
most interesting sights of the nation
al capital With nearly 5000 en-
ployees, who are actively working
from 8 o'clock in the morning until
the same time the next day in shifts
of a thousand, the bureau turns out
nearly $626,000,0 in paper money
a year, besides supplying the postage
stamps and other securities required
by the. government.
1t is, of course, necessary, in the
manufacture of paper money, that
one piece of money should cores
pond with another of like denomi-
nation. Hence the engravers and
their work are of the highest stand
ard. Each bill made is an excellent
example Of the finest steel engrav-
ing, but the dexterous clerks who
count hundreds of thousands of dol
lars every day can detect at once
any Irregularities in the currency
This department of the govern
ment puts out five different kinds Of
paper money. The silver certificates
in denominations of one, two, five
and ten dollar bills with which the