The Colorado statesman., 1916-03-04


with him as other members of the
drn about one hundred million nephews and
. nieces.
This governmental factory produces paper
money bonds, revenue postage and custom
stamps. checks, drafts and all the important dozen.
mehts printed from engraved plates. The drec.
TOR OF the bureau OF engraving and printing is
Joseph H. Ralph He might be called the foreman
OF the greatest money-making shop in the United
states OF America and perhaps in the world
From Director Ralph's own words we learn some
thing specific about the activities of this big sbop
of the capital city:
The daily output of United States notes gold
ana silver certificates and national bank notes is
Two and onequarter million notes having n face
value or nine million dollars and weighing over
three and a half tons If laid out fiat they would
cover nine acres. and If placed end to end the
daily output would make a chain two hundred and
atty miles long
Each day forty million postage stamps are
manufactured which would cover approximately
seven acres. or make Q chain of stamps six hun
dred and twenty miles long The value of each
days stamp output Is nearly seven hundred and
fifty thousand dollars. Six hundred employees are
engaged In stamp manufacture. Fiftyone different
Sinds OF postage stamps. In denominations from
one cent to five dollars. made for the United
States and its insuar possessions. They are print
cd ip fifteen distinctive colors.
Another important part of the bureaus work
is internal revenue stamps. through which an an
nusl income of over five hundred million dollars is
larger size than postage stamps and while the
daily output is only twenty million stamps they
would cover twenty acres If spread out in single
sheets. and they weigh six and half tons More
than three hundred different varieties issued"
In Uncle Sans workshop is made all the paper
money for the United States government This
means that every man who has a dollar bill in his
hand, who is lucky enough to have bill of
larger denomination. may know of certainty
that its origin in factory situated at the
of nrtna md r. str in Tho
city OF Washington ID. C.
And speaking of counterfeits. there is thing
of marked interest which might be said The
bureau of engraving and printing organized
under act of July IL, 1852. From that day to
this the government has done Its own work. 1t
has employed the most skifu engravers that it
can find and It is matter of pride today to this
government that never in the history of the bu-
reau has one OF its employees been engaged in the
work OF counterfeting. 1t is true that counter
feiting goes on occasionally in different places
throughout the United States, but in the hundreds
of arrests which have been made of and
women engaged in the work, not one ever had
been in the employment of the government, and
not one found to be in cousion with any of
Uncle Sans wOrkmen.
Concerning the matter of engraving, Director
Ralph of the bureau has had this to say:
THE engraving division is the corner stone OF
the bureau and the buwark of our securities. In
this division every form of security has its origin.
and the most artistic and skilled engravers that
the world produces employed here.
steel engraving is the perfection of art as APP
oiled to securities; II differs from painting and
scu!pturng. lnasmuch the engraver who carves
his work on steel plates must deliberately study
the effect of each infnitesima line. Free hand.
with a diamond pointed tool, known as graver.
aided by a powerful magnlfying glass. he carves
away conscious that one false cut or slip of his
tool or miscalcuiation of depth or width of line
will destroy the artistic merit OF his creation.
and weeks or months of labor will have been In
Svst-