The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-28
WEALTH LOCKED IN NEW YORK VAULTS Modern Repositories Are
 Greatly Improved ROCKEFELLER VAULT Volume of General Business Is In- creasing-Investigation of Money
 Trust Is Causing Great
 Deal of Discussion
ROCKEFELLER VAULT
By PRESTON C. ADAMS

Ky PRESTON C. ADAMS
 New York. January O.-(special. 1.-The great fire which destroyed the Equitable building called attention among other things to the enormous accumulation of wealth in cash and securities locked up in the great treasure vaults of the finan- eial district. The figures are beyond the computation of the average man running away up into the billions of dollars.
 The Mercantile Safe Deposit company's vaults beneath that structure were among a dozen double decked steel edihces in the financial district patronized. by the wealthy men of the United States.
 The vaults were old in the sense that they were built years ago, before the in. vention of some of the extraordinary pro- struction that surrounds the private vaults leased by John D. Rockefeller and other millionaires a few blocks lower down. In the great treasure house where the Rockefeller securities are held 20 or 90 millionaires and rich corporations lease individual vaults at rentals varying from $500 to $50O0 a year.
 The Rockefeller vault consists of an ar nor plate enclosure big enough to hold dozen men. Along a 30 foot passage way within it extends a row of great steel vaults on either side In these vaults are the Rockefeller securities, which are numerous enough to require a small army of trusted clerks to "cut coupons" on in- terest day. The great vault thus includes collection of small vaults, and since il was completed only a few months ago it provides every safeguard known to the modern art of protecting valuables.
 The Rockefeller vault is surrounded by dozen others almost as large, each of which is for the exclusive use of some man or some great corporation. the ten ants enjoying special privileges with commodious coupon rooms, insuring ab- soute privacy.
 It is a common thing to see some well known rich man walk in and with a nod to the detectives ask to be left there with half a dozen clerks. Then one of the huge private vaults will be opened quiet ly, and at the five or six tables within the partitioned enclosure fronting the door of the vault the click of the scissors can be heard as the coupons are cut off. This happens every week or two, for the secu- rites in the vaults of that safe deposit company come from all parts of the world and represent both foreign and home gov ernments As the ruins of the old Euita- ble building were being searched for lost valuables this week an officer of one of the greatest corporations in the United States has undergone extraordinary changes. The modern safety deposit vault of today is as unlike the structure of 40 years ago as a battleship is unlike ferry boat. And safe deposit vault is a good deal like a battleship, in the sense that it is built of armor plate, it is a veritable arsenal, and it is watched day and night by a disciplined force of armed men. In no city of the world has armor plate vault construction reached the perfection seen in the series of remarkable little treasure houses all within a three block radious of the Equitable building.
 In this territory 12 of the 30 large safe deposit companies of Manhattan are To- cated Tn addition to these are the pri- vate vaults of the largest banks in the United States. Within stone's throw of the Mercantile vaults on Cedar street are the vaults of the New York Clearing House association. In some respects these vaults are the most interesting safe de- posit vaults in the United States Three stories below Cedar street, in a granite enclosure almost as solid as the vault itself, they stand alone, with a narrow passage way around three sides, ID and down these narrow passageways uni formed men patrol day and night, with rifle at hand
 It is dark, dismal little room, with the atmosphere of a. cemetery vault, that is scarcely relieved by the sight of the little peep holes in the stone walls through which an intruder who had escaped the guards could be shot down at a moments notice. This vault holds the most precious stock of gold in the United States outside that held in the vaults of the United States government. No one outside the clearing house committee is supposed to know just what was the actual amount of gold that the 66 affiliated banks and trust companies had there last Tuesday. It was, however, about $15O000,0O0
 That vault like the new vaults in the Standard Safe Deposit company, the Han over National bank the failed Carnegie Trust company, the Fourth National bank the American Exchange bank, and the National City bank, are not only fireproof, but bombproof and mob proof.
 The volume of general business is in- creasing. Statistics coming to hand con- firm this.
 There has been Shown further de- crease of 2, ,330, ,493 pounds in the American surplus of copper. bringing the surplus to s9, 454, 695 pounds, as against 122,O9o,l95 pounds a year ago.
 There is an increase in unified orders of the United States Steel Corporation of