The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1915-09-06
The Passing Of Emergency
By Frederic j. Haskin.

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The biggest pile Of paper money
that Uncle Sam ever stacked up has
just disappeared from the strongest
vault In the world, built especially
fer taking care Of II:
This was the old emergency cur
rency fund, created seven years ago,
and for almost that time, watched
over by treasury officials while II
slumbered undisturbed and accumu-
lated dust and cobwebs. The money
Ia now all gone. There Is, however,
no alarm because Of its departure for
1t has been emancipated. put out
among the rabble that It may be
spent upon the necessities and follies
OF life.
But the life story of this huge
pile OF money is interesting. There
was q panic In the United States
In 1907 and authorities attributed IL
to an unsatisfactory currency sys-
tenn. Had there been Q flexible sys-
tenn in operation. they said. there
would have been no panic.
Thereupon Congress became much
excited and stated. with permission
to quote, that 1t would provide an
elastic system. There was an entire
session devoted almost entirely. to
the enactment Of what came to- be
known as the emergency currency
law. z
Tremendous Order. II
This law provided that the govern
ment should manufacture $500, &c.,
600 in paper money and that it
should be stacked up in the trea-
sury to await an emergency. The
men who have charge of printing
and distributing Uncle Sans cur
rency had never thought Of 80. large
an order before. But Congress had
spoken and 1t was not theirs to ques-
ton.
The money was printed, the green
back and syellowback factory in
Washington working night and day to
that end for many months. Five hun
dred millions is neat sum, and even
in paper money piles up consider
ably. Take this emergency fund, for
instance. When 1t was all printed
1t was found that there was $50 900
pounds of 1t. 1t would make seven
ty-five tons which would amount to
about fifty two-horse wagon loads.
i One rarely thinks OF paper money
as being of such bulk that there is
no place to put 1t in out OF the wet.
Yet this was what happened at the
treasury at Washington. The gov
eminent had no place where 1t could
put away its dig reserve fund of
money. If 1T were piled in solid
mass it would be twenty feet long,
twenty feet wide and thirteen feet
high. There were 5000 cubic feet
Of 1t. i. It would make a pile of bills
one upon the other, two miles high.
Strung out they would reach 5000
miles.
Finally the government decided
that, since 1t had the biggest col
lection of money in its history, 1t
would provide the greatest OF safety
deposit vaults for 1t. The comptroller
of the currency is the man who has
charge Of giving out paper money.
You never had a bill in your life that
had not first gone into his vaults
before 1t got out in the world and
finally came to you.
Special Vault Built.
His Office is on the second floor
of the treasury building in that cor
ner over toward the White House.
He can look directly out upon the
windows of the East room where the
White House brides are all married
and where the tango is danced on
reception nights. An investigation
revealed the fact that the basement
in that corner Of the treasury build
ing was not much used and 1t was
decided that it should furnish the
spot where the great vault was to
be located and in which the great
fund should be fled away. The best
authorities in the nation on the con-
struction Of vaults into which the
criminal mercenary might not in
trude. were called into, consultation
and ordered to build a .container that
could be trusted to preside over the
destinies Of the emergency currency
fund.
This treasure house was COM
pleted and the vast stacks of paper
money filed away on its shelves. So
ingeniously were the stacks arranged
that 1t would have been possible to
take out and ship 500, 100000 in. a
single day to stay a panic with no
chance of losing penny.
There was but one means of exit
to this treasure house. This was
through an elevator shaft that led
to the shipping room on the second
floor directly under the wing occu.
pied by the comptroller of the cur.
4 rency. Down this elevator onl,
those authorized to enter this finan.
cial holy of holes might pass.
Forgotten.
Having thus prepared the great
fund Congress and the American PEG: