The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-10-13

'. the bonds were sent in for redemption to the treasury department that they were pronounced counterfeit It is re- l markable that Jay Cooke should have | been deceived He was the greatest bond merchant of our history He ne \ gotiated most of the loans of the Civil
 war and geld the bonds of such loans
 to the amount of more tha nS2 000 900, 00o
 l The most extensive attempt at whole I sale counterfeiting of government bonds | occurred in 1880 when q band of ex-
 pert rascals headed by William E | Brockway made a large number of ! coupon bonds of 5000 each. Tho secret l service officials of the treasury depart | inent got on the track of this job be- | fore it was completed They allowed I the counterfeiters to perfect their plans,
 and 1t was only when one of them
 James B. Doyle, had alighted in Chi | Icago iron, New York that an arrest was made Doyle carried in his satch- | eL~eounterfeit bonds to the amount of S2O4,o0O. At the same time Broadway was arrested, and he turned states evidence confessing to making the bonds. and guiding the officers to q | spot nthe woods where was buried 22 steel and copper plates fer the making of bank notes and bonds
 My investigations of the bookkeeping or the Liberty Loan were made in com pany with Mir Charles N McGroarty
 who is now in charge of this branch or the work. and who has been con- nected with the treasury for many years together we went from room to room watching the clerks handling the securi- ties with as little apparent concern as though they were so much waste paper. In one place there were 15 girls cutting off coupons. I was told that their wages were about $100 a month, and I observed that none wore a dress that cost more than $25. Still they were handling fortunes and clipping off bits of paper each worth I venture several
 times its weight in diamonds.
 l stopped in one room where they
 were sending out the checks for Liberty Loan interest. This is done by ma chinery, through what is known as ad- dressographs. The addressograph makes
 stencil containing the name and ad- dress of each owner of a bond The stencil can then be used to print his name on his interest checks, to register his account on the index card, and to pay the principal when it becomes due. 1 It is used for leaves, proof sheets and all sorts of records connected with the | bond. The addressograph machines are | l thousands of addresses a day. The sav- | ing accomplished by such methods is enormous. In the 18th of last June the | treasury department sent out the interest checks for the registered bonds of the 1 first two loans. They numbered 475,0O(
 and the Third Liberty Loan has so fin-
 creased this number that the checks of
 each interest period will be more than l one million. According to the old sys- 1 tenn of issuing checks the cost was about | 9 cents per check for each individua l bond owner. Now the cost is only 4 of 1 cent per check, and the arrange
 ment is such that the name or address can be changed three times without ad-
 ditional cost
 1 During my visit to the several branches of the treasury department connected with the Liberty Loan I have gone | through vault after vault where the bonds in one shape or another are stored | in great quantities. Tn the bureau of ] engraving and printing everything is
 guarded in the process of making, and there are vaults of chilled steel pro 1 tected by time locks of intricate work manship ip which the plates and dies | from which the bonds are printed art I kept This vault is built like a watch l and it's door is a wonder of intricate mechanism. That bureau has vaults alst
 for storing the bonds before they ge ! out to the people.
 I In the treasury department itself there lis cataeomb of vaults of one kinC or another and the bookkeeping brancf has a little vault on the same flool
 where most of the account keeping is
 done I went inside that vault with
 MT. McGorarty. It's interior is walled
 | with pine shelves filled with package:
 of government securities now in the