The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1912-01-04
A WEEKLY STREAM OF GOLD.
Big Locomotive Works Has Used the
Yellow Metal Since 1881.

In it's early days, when it's employees
numbered only few hundred and
gold pieces were in circulation, it
was not a difficult matter. Nor was
it unusual. In fact many of the large
business concerns paid in gold.
The Baldwin Locomotive Works
to-day has more employees than any
single manufacturing concern in the
world, the Krupp Gun Works in Ger
many alone excepted. 1t has had as
many as 1920 men on it's weekly
payroll, but exven with its present
force of 1900 employees it requires
a regular force of eighteen men and
thirty-six extra helpers to put up the
weekly payroll and distribute the
money.
The weekly payroll ranges be-
tween s23O,0O0 and $250,000 the
bulk of which is in $40, $40 and IS
gold pieces. Many of the employees are
paid by piece work, others are paid
by the hour, while others receive
stiplated salaries. Naturally the
amounts due them weekly vary and
are not always payable entirely in
gold.
Never, however, is paper money
used. If a mans weekly salary is
$40 he receives two twenty-dollar
gold pieces. If the amount due him
is $3.50 he receives tWenty-dol-
lar gold piece, a ten-dollar gold
piece, fve-dollar gold piece, a sill
yer dollar and a fifty-cent piece. 1t
is always in hard money.
Even during the civil war, when
gold was scarce, the company paid it's
employees in "hard" money, and dur
ing the recent panic in 1907 it paid
handsome premium to get gold to
continue it's time-honored custom.
The banks of Philadelphia were un-
able to supply the gold in sufficient
amounts, and the company had sew
eral hundred thousand dollars in
gold sent from England to complete
it's payroll.
The foreman and timekeepers in
the various shops, most Of which are
located in the very heart of Philadel-
phia, send in their payrolls to the
paymaster's Office on Monday and
Tuesday. The payrolls of each shop
twenty in number--are kept sepa-
rate. After the amounts on the pay
sheets are verified; Paymaster J. A.
Barrett figures out how many $40,
how many $40 and how many IS
gold pieces are needed to pay off the
| men.
This is done to check up any er-
rors that may be made in placing
the money in the envelopes. AS
many gold pieces as are needed are
allotted to make up the payroll OF
each shop, so that every man can
| be paid with coins of the highest de-
nominations.
By Wednesday night Barrett
knows just how many gold pieces
| and of what denominations are nee
essary to fill the envelopes, which
have been addressed, numbered and
stamped by addressograph machines.
Last Wednesday, for instance, he
knew that he needed $4,000 in $40
| gold pieces, $4,000 in SO gold
pieces and $4,000 in SIS gold pieces;
$4,000 in silver dollars, $4,000 in
5O-cent pieces, s1,400 in 25-cent
pieces, $500 in dimes, 5000 in nick
els, and $119.1S in pennies.
Three banks in ! Philadelphia,
where the Baldwin Locomotive
Works keeps large sums on deposit,
are called upon to supply the golden
stream and other hard money neces-
sary. The paymaster' notifies each
bank how much he will need, and
Thursday morning drives to their
doors in a covered wagon for the
money.
The banks, meanwhile, have count
ed out their portions of the pay
roll, the gold being put up in bags
of $4,000 each, the silver in bags of
500 and the smaller coins in bags
of $25 and $50. When all the money
is loaded on the wagon it covers the
floor to a height of two feet and it
weighs considerably over two tons.
The money is then taken to the
paymaster's office at the works, where
| it is counted again and then divided
into tive y trays in order to make
up the tw enty separate payrolls. 1t
takes all day Thursday to put up the
money in the envelopes. Two men
work at each tray. One calls out
the amount, while the other selects