The Detroit times., 1910-10-12
THE GOVERNMENT AT Work
THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT
By FREDERIC J. HASKIM


seek out and bring the moonshiners to
justice.
The most interesting part Of the
work OF the treasury department IL its
process Of keeping the nation supplied
with money. This process. In the case
OF paper money. begins with the pur-
chase OF the raw paper and the en-
craving OF the plate. The paper Is
made after q secret formula. The
plates are engraved with most exact.
Ing care. The public IL not permitted
to see the engravers at work, nor IN
any one engraver permitted to pre-.
pare whole plate. The money Is
never printed from the original plate,
but duplicates are prepared from II by
mechanical process. II this were
not 30. It would be practically impos.
sible to detect counterfeiting. since no
two plates for printing money Of The
same denomination would be exac tiy
alike. The fine lines on the paper
money are engraved by machine
the best safe lock. each combination
producing different design and no
one but the operator knowing these
combinations. These lines can never
be successfully initiated by hand.
The highest bill printed has q face
value Of $4,000. Few ever come
back, as the banks prefer them TO any
othed kind OF money. Twelve pounds
of them take the place OF two thou
sand tons OF silver In a bank vault.
1t costs the government one and n
half cents to Issue a piece OF paper
money and redeem II. II takes about
thirty days to complete the printing
Of q piece Of paper money. ard each
bin IL counted fifty-two tunes during
the process.
The main province OF the secret ser.
vice Is to prevent counterfeiting, al.
though 1t has many other activities.
The best guardians of the currency
are the tellers of the banks. More
than nine-tenths of all the counter
felt money In circulation Is detected
by them. The counterfeiter takes ad-
vantage of every modern process In
his work, and through the photome-
chanical methods Is able to produce
results that can be detected only by
the skilled handler OF money. The
United States minis make the coins In
cept the gold coins none of them Is
worth their face value, and In 1908
the profit from their making amount
ed to eight million dollars. Nickels
and pennies by the hundred millions
are required, and there Ii proft OF
at least 80 per cent In their coinage.
The government always stands ready
to redeem them, but puts them into
circulation again.
With its holdings of more than Q
quarter Of billion dollars In money
and bullion, II becomes necessary
strongly to guard the treasury build
ing. A large force Of watchmen pa
trolls the building at all times. EIectri-
cal alarms are maintained and tested
every half hour, and enough arms are
stored to arm q thousand men on the
instant. Besides this there IL connec-
ton with Fort Myer, the arsenal and
the police department, SO any organ
lied effort to storm the treasury would
be impossible.
The comptroller OF the currency has
supervision over the national banks
OF the country, and the comptroller OF
the treasury passes upon all expendi
lures by the government. where there
Is any question raised. His decision
Is final, except that II may be reviewed
by the courts. The books of all the
departments are kept by auditors APP
pointed for that purpose and their de-
/ cisions are renewable by the comp
troller of the treasury.
The public health and marine hos
pital service cares for disabled seamen
and frames regulations for the proven
ton of the introduction and spread or
contagious diseases. The surgeon
general is charged with the investiga-
ton of contagious and infectious dis
eases and the publication OF a week
ly health report. He looks after the
enforcement of the interstate sale OF
vaccine viruses, serums, toxins and
analogous products. IL to this ser.
vice that the country owes some OF It's
greatest advances in medical progress
and sanitation. II also has charge OF
the medical inspection Of the aliens
who come into the United States.