The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1917-04-10
UNITED STATES SELLS
OLD PAPER MONEY
LAST YEAR MORE THAN SIS, 900
WAS DERIVED FROM SALE.
TO MAKE SOUVENIRS.

Uncle Sam is never too busy man
aging the government to pick up an
honest dollar on the side. Part of
his income is from rent of a Chinese
restaurant. which operates in gov
eminent owned building, and he con-
stantly is doing business with second
hand furniture dealers and buyers of
junk.
That the government never gives
away anything it lawfully can sell is
shown by the fact that it sells the ref
use of the money it destroys.
Of what use is the pulp of macer-
ated paper money? Of no use what
ever. That is what officials of the
government said for many years.
But that it has value is shown by the
books of the treasury department,
which show that last year Uncle Sam
disposed of his stock of macerated
money puln for more than $25, 900.
There were many bidders for it and
it finally was disposed of to a New
York manufacturer.
What Becomes of Money.
This is what he does with it:
Have YOU seen in a souvenir shop
gray designs of the capitol, the white
house and the Washington monu-
ment, which the salesman informs
you are made of money!"
If you have pursued your investi-
cation you have been told that the
Washington monument, for example,
is made of macerated money, which
once had value as a circulating me-
dunn of so many thousands of dollars
the amount being determined largely
by the way the salesman sizes up the
prospective purchaser.
Sometimes he will attempt to "get
away with" the statement that the
souvenir represents what once was
a million dollars. 1t can be had for
a dime.
Paper money never is macerated
so long as the government can keep
it in circulation. When the bills grow
so dirty that they are becoming in
distinct and are looked upon suspic- |
iously as possible germ carriers, the
banks send them to the nearest sub |
treasury or direct to the treasury de- /
partment in Washington.
How Money Is Cleaned.
At the treasury a man washes
them with a view to making them |
again presentable, by putting them |
through a machine which gives them
a chemical bath and washes and irons
them. If they can not be cleaned by
this method they are condemned and |
delivered to commission created by !
law for destruction !
This commission consists of rep
resentative of the secretary of the
treasury, of the United States treas
urer and a civilian, who represents .
the people of the United States. In /
the presence of these commissioners
the wOrn-out bills first are placed /
in chemical solution which extracts
the ink. Then the paper is fed to a
machine which has a system of
knives, which cut it into bits. These
bits are run through rolls, emerging
as sheets which are delivered to the
manufacturer, who converts them in
to souvenirs of Washington.
Denominations Mixed Up.
The value once possessed as money
by the souvenir exists only in the i'm
agination. No estimable valuation
can be placed upon the pulp of which
1T is composed for thereas on that
bills of various denominations are
macerated together.
A thousand dollar bill and a one
dollar certificate may enter upon the
macerated process at the same time.
Besides, with these bills may be
sheets of defective bills which have
come from the Bureau of Engraving
and Printing and which, according to |
law, must be destroyed the same as
WORKOUT money.