River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1915-09-23
MONEY IN TRANSIT
How Millions Are Moved In Safety
From City to City.
STRONG ROOMS IN BIG BANKS

Millions and billions IN real cash,
gold and bills, are vague things to
most of US, and few people have any
idea where this immensely wealthy ma
ton keeps its real money or how 1t Is
guarded on its travels.
1t Is with the greatest reluctance that
it's owners or trustees ever move 1t;
they prefer to exchange the checks.
notes, drafts or securities that repre-
sent it. But there are times when the
real money must go, and then It's jour
ney is a very interesting thing.
Every bank and trust company is re-
quired by the banking laws to keep
certain amount of money on hand, the
amount being in proportion to the size
of the institution, and in addition the
current business of the house requires
that SO many millions more be ava1la-
BILE for use at the paying teller's Win
dow. To safeguard these large sums
is the business Of safe and vault build
ing experts, and SO far advanced Is
this science that it Is practically I'M
possible for the best equipped crooks
to extract ST from any big bank vault
Bank robbing these days IS practiced
on small country banks or is achieved
by dishonest bankers.
The manganese steel vault, with its
electric skin, is the last word in pro-
lection. The vault designer selects a
spot In the institution, in any place
from the cellar to the roof, where the
vault can be isolated and cannot be
reached easily by tunnelers, and there
the big steel house Is built. It's walls
are so thick that they will resist fire,
earthquake and heavy explosives, and
the whole is protected by an electric
skin. This Is usually of a soft foil of
alloy, and il even a pin is thrust
through 1t at any point a short circuit
is made and alarm bells set ringing In
the building, in police headquarters, in
the offices OF private protective agen-
cies and In the homes of certain Off
GERS of the bank The burglar, with a
torch that would burn a hole through
the steel in few minutes or tools that
would cut out door in an hour, has
not q chance, even after he has tun-
neled to the vault and overcome the
watchmen.
Messengers are never employed In
carrying very large amounts of money.
1t is a familiar sight in the financial
district in New York city to see two
sturdy young men, each holding to the
handle of a heavy leather bag, with
one or more guards walking behind.
But the chances are ninety-nine in a
hundred that the bag contains not
more than q few thousands at most,
though there may be millions in bonds
or other securities.
When millions In cash are taken from
the vaults q picked corps of guarded
clerks check 1t out in steel casks OF
the kind known as express strong
boxes, and these are placed in wagons
in which the carrying compartments
are wholly Of steel screens. Each Wag-
on has its set of guards, usually two
on the front seat, one driving, one lock-
ed in with the money and one riding
on the rear.
For transit from city to city the big
banks follow the system of the Ma
tional City Bank of New York, which
is the largest handler Of real money In
this country, not even excepting the
United States mint. They utilize the
express companies. Each big company
has spent large amounts of money in
picking its employees, and in elaborat-
ing systems for tracing stolen parcels.
Every professional thief would rather
steal from a police captain than steal
from an express company, as all Of
them are allied together to form a
perfect network through which thieves
and plumber can scarcely hope to es-
cape.
The money is checked out of the
vaults into the hands of express COM
pany employees, who cart it TO their
express cars In the railroad yards, and
it travels to its destination in as sim
pie and transformations manner as
If 1t were so many crates Of eggs. The
express company employees never
know what is in the strong boxes
they merely know that they have so
many of them in given numbers to re-
ceive and to deliver. and that Is all
there is to 1t.
An additional safeguard is the very
weight Of any given quantity of gold
and the serial numbering of large bills.
These latter are kept in the same pack
cts in which they leave the banks If
possible, and the groups Of numbers
make them as individual and as easily
identifiable as one man from another.
II a thief extracted a million in $10,-
600 bills he could not cash a single one
Of them.-Washingto Star.
Magnifying Powers.
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