The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-12-05
A Visit to the United States Treas
!. ury Viii Make You Think
Money 10 a. Common
as Dirt. .a
HAVE LAUNDRY FOR IT.
Uniformed Guards at Every Door and
You Must Sign tho Pledge
Before Being
Admittd.
limited Press Correspondence

United Press CorreSponuenCo'J
WASHINGTON, D. Cr Dec. o.
From three to five million dollars a
day in greenbacks is the rate at
which banks throughout the country
send cash to Uncle Sans laundry IN
the treasury department for cleaning,
pressing and repairing. the soiled
money comes in bundles by express
It Is sent UP to the counting room
for notification Of the banks state
ment concerning its total value.
The most interesting part or the
moneys Journey is that through Uncle
SANS laundry. Here the bills are
thoroughly cleansed OF the accumula-
lions Of CRIME and grease. They are
then put through stiffening process
known only to the employees or the
laundry. Special machinery does TINS
work. The silk fiber paper is turned
out of these machines as stln ana
spick and span as though 1t were new.
The treasury department furnishes
special guides to introduce visitors TO
all Uncle Sans sensational financial
points. They take you through the
building and show you all the places
of interest, including the nag In
which the actor Booth, tripped.
The flag was draped upon the front
of President Lincoln's box and when
Booth jumped from the box to the
stage after shooting the president. his
boot heel caught In its folds. The
flag was later taken from the theater
and is now preserved in glass case
In the treasury buildings main cor
rldor.
Following the guide. you 60 up to
the burnt money division, where
keen eyed little woman, whom the
guard Introduces as Mrs. Brown, mas
been making out numbers on charred
and otherwise defaced money, lor
forty years You wonder how she
can see anything at all on the pieces
of burnt paper. You look pretty
close, but you cannot see anything.
Mrs. Brown tells you she looks just
little harder than anybody else and
that's what makes her an expert.
Next you go up to the bond vaults.
Here you will find stacks Of folded,
printed paper representing eight hun:
dred and ninety-six million dollars.
There it is, right in front of you
1896, 900, 900 That's the amount of
money Uncle Sam demands of the Ma
tional banks in the United States as
security for the proper conduct OF
their affairs. If all these securities
were changed into 81 bills and placed
end to end they would reach four and
one-half times around the world. The
guide admits that. There are more
than 1900 banks who have supplied
Uncle Sam this enormous security.
Around the corridor walls you see
a. frame filled with what you take to
be oil paintings, but when you get mp
close and look at them you see that
! they are elaborate designs made from
what you Judge to be million differ
ent kinds Of stamps. From the very
| first to the very last sort of stamp
ever manufactured for any purpose,
! all are there. Revenue stamps. war
tax stamps, stamps OF ali kinds from
every civilized country in the world,
stamps Of which. only a few were
printed and which collectors would
give ten years Of their lives to pos
! seSs.
! However, all those stamps are gen
uine and that's more thai you can say
for the greenbacks and money of all
kinds you find plastering the walls Of
the secret service offices. Every sort
of counterfeit, from the poorest and
most crude to the cleverest that the
shrewdest counterfeiters of many gen
| erations could conceive.
/ On your way out you stop to look
| in at the long rooms filled with men
sitting at desks, silently counting,
counting, counting. They are Uncle
Sans bank clerks. Yes, indeed, Uncle
Sam has clerks for his bank just the
! same as any other bank in the coun-
| try. The difference is that Uncle
! Sans clerks handle several million
dollars more cash per day than any
! other bank clerks in the country.
! However, any one of them will stop
| tinkering with millions to hand you
change for nickel in bright, new.
1915 pennies, If you ask.
| 'Inen the guide takes you down the
corridor to where you started from.
You don't realize it until you get
spang to it because the treasury build
J ing Is such a monstrOus big place
/ with such endless caverns of CORR
doris and stairways and passages and
! tomb-like offices that you have ram
bled around and trusted to luck and
| the Guide 70 take you back to the
starting point. .-.
{ The treasury building is a much
guarded place. A man In uniform
stands at every entrance. You must
/ explain your business there before
you get in at all. On holidays only
{ one door is open and you must sign
your name in book, tell who you
| are. why you want into the building,
what you will do and what you will
see after you get in and ii the guard
thinks it's all right, you get in. Wnen
YOU come out you must explain it all
over again and your last story is
checked up on the record with your
| first one.