The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-04-01
COUNTING THE CASH

Burke, formerly governor of North
Dakota, takes the oath of office as
treasurer Of the United States, and en-
ters upon the duties of his office, sue
ceeding Carmi A. Thompson of Ohio,
who had succeeded United States
Treasurer Lee McClung in December
of 1912. AS the law requires that the
retiring ~treasurer's record of the
transfer of funds be verified by an
actual count of notes, coin and securi-
ties in the treasury whenever there is
a change Of ~treasurers, the tremendous
task of counting the hoard of APP
proximately $11, 500, 900, 900 contained in
the vaults Of the national treasury will
begin today. This gigantic task which.
it is estimated, would take one person
about 800 years, will be completed by
a small army of trusted employees I'M
der the direction and supervision of
the committee which Secretary Nc
Adoo has appointed for the purpose,
In from two to four months. The
work is carried on during office hours
only, beginning at $3.50 in the norm
ing n closing at 4:30 in the after
oon
All Of the paper money is counted
piece by piece, but the gold and silver
coin, usually stored in canvas bags, is
counted by weight, unless some error is
detected which makes it necessary to
open every one of the bags and count
It's contents. A test bag, the contents
OF which have been counted and found
correct, is placed upon the scales and
balanced against the other bags for
Notification. Each bag is checked and
rechecked before it is returned to the
vaults, and great precautions are
taken to prevent theft. Armed guards
stand over the counters and workmen
to protect them from Interference.
The handling of the heavy coin bags
in removing them from the stacks,
passing them from hand to hand to
the weighing counters and back again
to the vaults to be restacked, is siren
uous work, requiring considerable ply
steal strength. The counting of the
paper money INK securities, While not
so strenuous, requires great skill and
accuracy.
In the course of time there have
been many counts of the funds in the
oNoSSS " ouS ANuAiS III
every cas the actual contents of the
vaults correspond exactly with the
amounts listed in the books and ac-
counts Of the treasury. In 1885, when
the administration passed into the
hands of the democratic party. and a
democratic treasurer succeeded the
former republican incumbent, a deficit
of 2 cents was found at the count, but
the missing coppers were found behind
one of the desks after a few days. A
few years ago 1T was found at one of
these counts that one $1,000 bill was
missing. The treasurer made good the
amount, and was later on reimbursed
by congress.
Upon another occasion, a few years
ago, one of the colored men employed
at the to carry coin bags from
the vault to the weighing counter and
back, stole about 900 silver dollars
from the bags, substituting for them
lead pieces of the same weight as the
silver dollars. He was detected. how
ever, arrested n punished. The de-
lection of the mans dishonesty made
it necessary to open every single coin
bag in the vaults n to verify their
contents by actual count.
The committee entrusted with the
task of the count consists of h chief
of the public moneys division, the chief
of the loans and currency division and
personal representatives of the retir-
ing and the incoming treasurer. The
vaults were turned owe to the COM
mittee today and carefully closed and
sealed. The contents of the vaults
will not be disturbed during the count
excepting for the purpose of counting
the funds. Only enough money to
keep the wheels Of the government re-
volving la bee kept apart for use
while the count is in progress. The
vaults will be sealed at the close of
every work day, and will not be re-
moved until the count Is completed and
the new treasurer ready to hand his
receipt to the predecessor in office.
When Carmi Thompson succeeded Lee
McClung as treasurer he received
more han $1,4OO. 900, 900. He must ac-
count for every cent of that amount,
plus the millions he has received since,
minus expenditures,