Omaha daily bee., 1913-10-12

~ feet below the level of the
White House and 200 feet below the floors
OF the halls OF congress, where our states
men sit and Juggle with Uncle Sans
finances. ] refer to the vaults. in which
Uncle Sans money lie kept and where
are stored away more real hard coin and
valuable paper than in any other place
upon earth. The vaults contain millions
in gold and silver, and their coin and
securities, all told, will run considerably
over N,oO0 100000. They have so many sill
yer dollars that II you should load them
upon four-horse wagons. and put the
teams nose to tailboards, the train re-
quired to haul them would reach from
New York to Cincinnati. The currency
alone runs high into the hundreds Of mil
lions. During my stay there today 1
held S1,OOO,OOO, in $4,000 notes, in my good
right hand. and 1 saw sSoOOo.OOO more in
three packages so small that could
crowd them into a half-bushel basket
You have all heard of the $500 10000 worth
Of treasury notes which Secretary Nc
Adoo lifted up and shook In the face of
the panic mongers of Wall street They
are all stored here. apd there is one great
vault which is packed with them almost
to bursting.
Looks Like n Tomb.
j have called these vaults catacombs
The title fits the whole Treasury depart
ment The building is the personification
of gloom. 1t looks like a tomb and It
would be fine home for suicide club.
Long and squatty, with a massive roof
and walls OF gray granite many feet
thick, 1t makes one think Of a sarcopha-
gus OF the gods. and its surroundings are
those of cemetery. The Treasury de-
partment lies in hollow just across the
street from the White House, whose
sayety Is accentueted by its gloom. It's
front yard is a pit. the walls Of which
are covered with ivy. Tho lawn itself
II rss smooth as velvet, but It takes a
scorO Of grave-digging gardeners to keep
out the weeds.
The treasury itself is moro dreary Than
any picture ever painted by Dante As
you look at the cavelike doors which
lead into the basement you arc reminded
OF the quotation of that post engraved
above his gates to he'll;
''All hope abandon ye who enter heroi''
The doors are covered with iron bars
a. thick az your wrist. and the windows
behind arc sad and dreery, making one
think Of the rheumy eyes Of dying giants
looking out through the steel network
with which they are veiled.
In the second and third stories the
windows are cleaner, but they are deep
set and gloomy. Entering the buildins
you find the interior quite as depressing.
The narrow corridors are so dark that
they have to be lighted by electricity
throughout the day. The lower passage
ways make you feel as though you were
in burial vault. and when the doors
silently open you sbudder at tho thought
Of tho coffins which one feels must be
piled up within. It is the same through
out the building from tho basement to
the attic, and It is only the south rooms
on the second floor. where Secretary Nc
Adoo has his offices. that are at all
CHEEKY.
seeretnry Bright ana Cheerful.
I shall not discuss the Job OF tho sec
retaYy of the treasury In this letter.
may write OF that In the future 30 far
Mr.. McAdoo is in good health and spirits.
His eye il bright his step firm and he
looks ten years younger than the half
century which his modest autobiography
in the congressional directory puts to hts
credit stin, let him bewarel He is now
between the upper and neither millstones
Of this mighty department. He is In the
mill which killed Secretary Folger which
ground the life out OF Daniel Manning
and which when Secretary Window in
the pride OF his strength grappled with
it laid him low. II did the same
with Charles W. Foster, the fusty treas
urer under Benjamin Harrison, and II has
Just succeeded in sucking out what little
juice Franklin MacVeagh had in his
bones.
l shiver when l think OF the Job. When
Mr. McAdoo first came, Treasurer Burke,
Uncle Sans new watchdog, who lies at
= the doors Of the vaults and takes charge
OF the moneys, wrote out q receipt for
the sums then on hand. That receipt
gives some idea Of the responsibilities OF
Secretary MeAdoo. II represents the
largest sum ever taken over by mortal
man at one single time. 1t represents
aImost S,5OOOOO,OOO. and its actual fig
ures were 81, ,426, 422O51.4S Yes, two
thirds, The money was figured out to
the thirds OF a cent and Secretary Nc
Adoo has to make the accounts come
even to the smallest fraction. Do you
wonder that such work preyed upon the
minds Of his predeoessors7
Money Beyond UnderstandfnE.
Have you any idea how much fifteen
hundred million dollars means7 Il repre-
sents more than One-tenth Of ali the
money value OF all the gold taken out OF
all the mines Of the earth since the dis
covery OF America, and OF the vast
amount thus receipted for. the greater
part was in gold. Much OF the gold is
not stored away here at the Treasury
department It is kept at New York.
Denver OF San FrNncisco. where It lies
in the vaults OF the subtreaauries and in
those OF the mints in tons OF golden
bricks ready for coinage at a moment 8
notice. The gold In the treasury proper