The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1912-03-11
BY HAROLD FRENCH.


First Assistant Secretary of the
Treasury A. Piatt Andrew admits
that he went to Guggenheim and
personally requested the services
of Charles Mindeleff, chief chem
list for the American Smelling and
Refining Co., a branch of the
smelter trust, because he, An
drews, was unable to secure a
competent gold expert elsewhere.
Mindeleff made tour of the
United States mints investigating
the refineries. What his report
to Andrews was, Is not known.
Andrews declares Mindeleff's re-
port was confidential and cannot
be made public.
However, some of the things
that happened in the Treasury De-
partment after Mindeleff's inves-
tigation appear in the public rec
ords.
Mindeleff made his tour of the
minis during the winter of 1910.
On March 2, 1911, President Taft
approved of a bill passed by the
standpat 61st Congress which ap-
pears in vol. SO of the United
States statutes. page 965. 1t pro-
vides that gold certificates could
be issued in payment for deposits
of gold bullion according to their
assay value. This bill made it pos
.sible for the Secretary of the
Treasury, at his discretion, to dis
continue the coinage of gold. This
bill also made it possible for the
Treasury Department to issue GER
tificates directly upon trust made
bars instead of the purer product
of the government refineries.
Whatever might have been the
intent of the bill, its effect was
bound to be chiefly to the advan-
tage of the banking interests.
The banking interests can save
hundreds of thousands of dollars
i'm exchange, foreign and domestic,
through the convenient medium of
gold certificates, being freed from
the expense of expressage and the
cost of the custody of coin or bull
lion. The banks and bullion brOlx-
ers buy most of the bullion that
comes to the mint, usually making
high margin Of profit in their
transactions. When the banks
have taken the gold they have
bought to the mints they can re-
ceive for 1t paper that can be sent
in n small, compact bundle across
the continent at a trifling cost.
Under the new law, the Treas
ury Department which has been
laying so much stress on the mat
ter of economy, has shown itself
to- be perfectly willing to go to
the expense of expressing and
guarding the bankers bullion, al
lowing the banks to carry on it's
own transactions with paper, al
though this guarding and trans
porting of bullion costs the gov
eminent hundreds of thousands
of dollars each year.
The only item which can be set
against this loss to the govern
ment would be of 81 $4,000 in sar-
aries, by throwing more than a
hundred specialized workers out
of employment and the saving of
the amount lost annually by re-
melting and abrasion.
The cost of engraving and print
ing and the necessity for recalling
and re-issuing the paper certifi-
Gates would offset the latter item.
Similar economy" has been
ticed in the coinage of silver. Sec
rotary MacVeagh has restricted
the output of silver coin 5,000,-
600 a year.
Records of the Treasury Depart
ment show that for many years
more than thirty millions of silver
money was manufactured by the
government annually. From 1900
to 1909 an average of 100000
600 was coined annually. This
represents the natural demand
for small change.
Economy in restricting the
minting of silver is difficult to
see. The cost of coming, remelt-
ing and the loss by abrasion has
been shown to be more than off
set by the short life of paper cur
rency of small denominations.
Shocking revelations made in the
wide spread of disease by the
microbe saturated paper recently
caused the redemption of an enor-
nous quantity of small notes,
costing the Treasury Department
$4,000 in one year. The aver
age life of dollar bill is two