White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1911-10-08
UNCLES MONEY
IN BIG VAULTS
MORE GOLD IN THE UNITED
STATES TREASURY THAN ANY
OTHER TWO COUNTRIES IN
THE WORLD CAN SHOW.

a. win
storehouse at Washington is fairly
overlooking with gold and silver, says
the Philadelphia Record. The treas
ury at Washington which W. two
entire city blocks, Is too small to
pack away the vast amounts of gold,
silver and g~reenbacks. And, to
properly safeguard his treasure, he
was finally compelled to build five
more large vaults, which have just
been completed, in addition to the
eight immense vaults containing bill
lions of dollars in gold, silver, green
backs and securities, and several
smaller safe-vaults in use in the
treasury for years past.
These five new vaults were con-
structed on the west side of the
treasury building. The old steer
roadway was removed and lowered
at the same time to permit of the
handling of all kinds of money in
bulk, direct from the treasure wagons
to the vaults.
The new vaults are wonderful in
their intricate construction. They
are surrounded by thousands of high
ly charged electric wires imbedded in
solid concrete, any one of which will
give IN alarm instantly if touched by
any person not intrusted with the
secret combination. One of the new
money Vaults has been built in the
s~ub-basement itself. Each vault is
about rs feet wide by 80 feet long,
and all five are built of reinforced
concrete four and a half feet thick
and strong In proportion. The vaults
are as nearly burglar-proof as
human ingenuity can make them.
Guardians Long in Service.
The present guardians of Uncle
Sans treasure valuts have been in
trusted with this work for nearly
half a century. F. W. Lentz, in
charge of the redemption division,
has been with the government since
1875, and has had charge of the
entire division since 1904. James
d. Rowe is the man who has been on
guard constantly for the past A
years. The new vaults for the ma
tonal bank redemption agency are
under the direction of E. w. Wilson,
another faithful employe of Uncle
Sam, who has been in his service a
little less than half a century. The
men in the vaults who actually count
the money are A. K. Wagner, teller,
a trusted employee for SO years, with
Charles Atkinson, as assistant, who
has served continuously for the past
40 years.
All the money vaults in the trea-
sury are under the direct control of
Lee McClung, the treasurer of the
United States. Mr.. McClung sue
ceeded Charles H. Treat in 1908.
Frank ]. +. Thiel is private secretary
to the treasurer, and is Mr.. Nc
Clung's right-hand man. He has been
with the government for the past six
years and during this time made a
thorough study of the government
finances. The writer is much in
debeted to Mr.. Thiel for valuable
data collected by him for use in this
story.
Gigantic Money Operations.
The financial transactions of the
government are conducted on a scale
of such magnitude as to seem almost
incredible. For instance, during the
period of 10 years from 1897 to
June 80, 1910, the accounts settled
in the office of the auditor of the
treasury department aggregated the
immense sum of $68,1S1,OOO, 900, an
average of nearly $3.50, OO0, 900 a
year. This vast sum embraces the
income and expenditure of the gov
eminent, the issuS, redemption and
exchange of currency, accounts of
minis and assay Offices, customs and
those relating to the postal service.
the revenues of which for the fiscal
year ending June 80, 1909, amounted
to 1903, SEP .383.O7, and the expendi-
lures 221,004,1O2.89.
1t is not generally known that the
United States today holds the largest
stock of gold of any nation In the
world. The amount of gold in the
United States is more than three
times as large as that of Great
Britain. 1t more than equals that
OF Great Britain and France, Great
Britain and Germany, or Great Brit
ain and Russia combined.
A number of interesting facts re-
garding the silver dollar were dis
covered during the writer's inyestiga-
ton of this subject. For instance