The Marietta journal and courier. (Marietta, Ga.) 1909-1918, 1916-08-11
WASHINGTON LETTER

OSloeuly CHe most lHIefeStIn z
place in Washington is the Bureau
of Engraving anC Printing. Forty
five hundred people are daily en-
ployed there and four million dol
lars in crisp greenbacks are daily
put into circulation Think of it,
twenty four million dollars each
week or one billion, two hundred
and forty eight million of green
backs are annually added to oar pa
per money
Three hundred people are employ
ed in one room, and their exclusive
business is to make this commodity
for which, or about which. empires
rise and fall. AS | watched the con
slant stream Of green crisp steets fall
ing from machines | could not help
but wonder how money famine can
be possible
Money is older than history, and
the kind of money that has alway
been in existence has ever been re-
garded as the measure of civilization.
In the days of barbarism skins of an
lmals served as money; as man ad-
vanced, cattle became a standard of
value. These, and other forms of
money are still employed in remote
and unenlightened portions of the
earth.
Even to this day the Australian
carries a tough green stone suitable
for making rude and primitive hat
chefs, hundred miles, and exchan-
ges it for red earth with which to
smear his body Our own country
has passed through many monetary
experiences. The Virginia Colony
used tobacco as currency and dur
ing the abundance of crops when
wives were few, the harvest would
be exchanged, pound for pound for
wives. Amusing pictures have been
drawn OF gallant young Virginians
in colonial days Fastening to the
water side when a ship arrived from
London, clad in their best a0parel
carrying a bundle of tobacco intent
on exchanging it for a wife. In wes-
tern Pennsylvania the early Scotch
and ScOtch-Irish settlers employed
whiskey as currency, and many a law
yer's fee, as well as minister's sal
airy was paid in Old John Barley
corn. It is related that in the lum-
Der regions of Wisconsin a thousand
shingles was the regular price for a
sermon, while two hundred and fifty
was considered a fairly good price
for conducting prayer meeting>
The United States has always
found place for paper money. Our
paper currency consists in denomi-
nations ranging from one dollar to
ten thousand dollar bill We asked
our guide to take us where they
were making ten Thousand dollar
bills, and the curt reply was 1--WE
are not making any ten thousand
dollar bills today AS they are not
used in general circulation they are
not made every day. The money
made here is divided up under var
ious heads, such as the National,
Federal Reserve Bank. sc. The
money for the Philippine Islands is
made here and all forms of security,
stamps and notes, from the Internal
revenue stamp whose value it, one
eighth OF cent, to a goyerumc, :
bond whose par value is soc. COO.
No other workshop in the world ards
such Universal demand for its pro-
ducts, and never is complaint heard
from it's customers of being over
stocked It's work is the imperish-
able record of history. The faction
al currency, the greenbacks. the Mas
ional Bank, Federal Reserve. Treas
ury notes, silver. gogd certificates
and bonds are the visible and sub
stautial evidence of our struggles
and triumphs.
They are the concrete forms of
cyclopic forensic battles waged an
der the dome of the Capital. They
are thermometers registering the rise
and fall of policies, parties and can
didates, The paper employed for the
making of these bills is a Gne firm
quality of linen known as "distinc-
tive" paper, manufactured under gov
eminent inspection at Dalton, Mass.
The history of the almighty dollar is
an exceedingly interesting one, as
the possession Of it is 80 essential
to our happiness and prosperity, To