Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-10-06

SsouoHeu vi an Ocean-Solng palace, anu
the next week on q filthy tramp steamer.
he must watch everything that goes on.
The internal revenue bureau Is the
second best tax collector the government
mas Its receipts amount to several hun
dred million dollars every year. 1t was
organized early in the history of the
nation. What the bank bill was at Phila-
delphia or the shilling piece at Lam
caster, that was whisky to the town in
western Pennsylvania in 1891. A gallon
smiling piece, and constituted. so to
speak. the coin of the realm. In that
year a tax of from seven to eighteen
cents gallon was levied on whisky, and
this tax led to the first resistance against
the government of the United States
These violators of the law were the fore
runners OF the present generation of
moonshiners The present high tax of
llO q gallon makes moonshining a
profitable business, and there are no
agents whose duty it is to seek out and
bring the moonshiners to justice.
The most interesting part of the work
Of the Treasury Department is its process
Of keepin g
Process of Supplying the nation sup
Nation With Money. money none This
process. in the case of paper money. be-
gins with the purchase of the raw paper
and the engraving Of the plate. The
paper is made after a secret formula.
The plates are engraved with most ex-
acting care The public is not permitted
10 see the engra, ers at work, nor is any
one engraver permitted to prepare a whole
plate. The money is never printed from
the original plate. but duplicates are pre-
pared from 1t by a mechanical process.
If this were not SO 1t would be practically
impossible to detect cOunterfeiting, since
no two plates for printing money Of the
same denomination would be exactly
alike. The fine lines on the paper money
are engraved by machine which has as
each combination producing a different
design and no one but the operator know
ing these combinations. These lines can
never be successfully initiated by hand.
The highest bill printed has a face
value of $4,000. Few ever come back, as
the banks prefer them to any other kind
of money. Twelve pounds of them take
the place of 1000 tons of silver in a bank
vault. 1t costs the government IL cents
to issue piece Of paper money and re-
complete printing of piece Of paper
money, and each bill is counted fifty-two
times during the process.
The main province of the secret service
has many other activities. The best guar
dams of the currency are the tellers of
the banks. More than nine-tenths of all
the counterfeit money in circulation Is de-
tected by them The counterfeiter takes
advantage Of every modern process in his
work. and through the photo-mechanical
methods is able to produce results that
can be detected only by the skilled
minis make the coins in circulation in the
United States. Except the gold coins
none of them is worth their face value
and in 1903 the profit from their making
amounted to ss,OOO.OOO. Nickels and pen
MES by the hundred millions are required
and there is profit of at least 80 per
cent in their coinage. The government
always stands ready to redeem them, but
puts them into circulation again.
With it's holdings of more than a.
quarter OF billion dollars In money and
bullion, 1t be-
Treasury Building comes necessary
Strongly Guarted pna ID me . re- n ~ ~
ury building. A large force of watchmen
patrols the building at all times. Elec-
trical alarms are maintained and tested
every half hour, and enough arms are
stored to arm a thousand men on the
instant Besides this there Is connection
with Fort Myer, the arsenal and the po-
lice department., so that any organized
effort to storm the Treasury would be
impossible.
The controller of the currency has su
pervisiOn over the national banks of the
country, and the controller of the Treas
ury passes upon all expenditures by the
government where there is any question
raised. His decision is final, except that
1t may be reviewed by the courts The
books of all the departments are kept by
auditors appointed for that purpose and
their decisions are renewable by the
of the Treasury
The public health and marine hospital
service cares for disabled seamen and
frames regulations for the prevention of
the introduction and spread of contagious
diseases. The surgeon general is charged
with the investigation of contagious and
infectious diseases and the publication of
a weekly health report He looks after
the enforcement of the interstate sale of
vaccine viruses. serums, toXines and
analogous products. 1t is to this service
that the country owes some of its great
est advances in medical progress and
1t also has charge of the
medical inspection of the aliens who come
into the United States.
GOVERNMENT AT
WORK. ~. THE WAR DEPART
MENT.