The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-06-22
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
CoUPoNs OF THE LIRERTIEs.
FREDERIC j. HASI1IN, Director.
Washington, d. G.

of fact it travels to a tall building
j here in which sits M. william S.
Elliott. register of the treasury, and
moves unerringly to its final haven
of rest.
Its logical course is thru the near
est federal reserve bank. The local
bank sends it to this federal reserve
bank where it is charged up against
I the treasury department. 1t is sent
to Washington as proof that the
| charge is properly made and there
the transaction ends.
At this resting place of coupons you
see how the mill works thru which
the government pays interest ON the
war debt. One whole flool is given
over to the receipt of these coupons.
| They come in from the banks by reg
istered mail In packages about the size
of a shoe-box They are stacked up as
so much merchandise until the clerical
! force can distribute and cancel them.
On the day you are there it may hap
| pen that a lot OF coupons has been
sorted, that neat rubber bands have
been put around them in paCka~
one hundred, that a hamper has been
| filled with them, ready for exa.--ina-
ton and cancellation. The hampers
at the office of the register will hold
about 100000 coupons which is a
good days receipt.
Each Coupon Has a Home.
These coupons are first classified.
Each of them is then run thru a can
ceiling machine. Each is examined to
see that it is genuine. Each has a
| place in the files just back of a. card
which carries the number IF the bond
from which it was detached. From
the time it leaves the scissors of the
| bond owner it is circling about like
boomerang in its flight but its planes
are so set that it will find its resting
| place behind this particular card.
Each coupon for eacl- bond. when the
years have passed that bring it to ma
turity, will eventually rest here.
In round numbers the government
has twenty-one billion dollars worth
of these bonds out among the people.
This means that it is paying interest
on that money which it has borrowed
| from them. 1t pays about Line hum
dred million dollars year, two and
half million a day, as interest on
this debt. That is more money N
it cost to run the government a decade
ago. 1t is eight dollars a year for
every citizen.
These bonds have exerted a great
educational influence on TIE whole
people. Before the war thtre were
comparatively few who had had the
experience of clipping coupons. Now
nearly everybody does it. Most .eo-
i pie cash their coupons thru their
banks and in this way the operation
almost automatically takes care of it
! self.
There is evidence. however. that
many holders of these bonds do not
appreciate the value of the coupons.
Nearly every day at the treasury let
! tiers are received enclosing these cou-
| pons with checks for their fee value.
These writer's say that they faye
bought bonds and now they want to
u
not appreciate the fact thai they are
to get the interest. They have bought
the bonds as patriotic service and be-
lieve that they must pay additional
periodic installments to the govern
me7t.
Many Forget to Clip.
The government realizes. also, that
there are many people who are not
clipping their coupons. These peo-
pie think that their part is to sit tight
until the bonds mature and that they
! will then present them and get face
value. The bonds are filed away and
will rest secure for twenty or thirty
years.
The government has certain expert
ences back of it upon which to base
| judgment as to what is happening.
There was a certain issue of bonds
growing out of the Spanish American
| war, for instance. There were about
hundred million dollars worth of
them. regarded as a stupendous issue
| in their time. They matured in
twenty years. There are. however,
100000 of them still outstanding.
Some of these have been lost, some
burned, some merely filed away.
Small amounts of them ars still COM
ing in.
| A hundred dollar bond OF this is
sue, if the coupons have not been
! detached, will have $50 worth of them
! Ill &c int
| coming into the treasury with all the
coupons still in place. When such
bonds of 800 denomination is re-
/ ceived, for instance, a check Is sent
to the owner for its face value and an
| additional check for $50 on account
! of the coupons. A formal slip is sent
stating the purposes for which the
! two checks are enclosed. 1t often
! happens, however, that the holder or
these bonds did not realize that the
interest was coming to him: 1t mas
| even happened that the check for SEQ
| has been returned to the treasury
with a statement that a mistake had
been made.
Many Are Cheated.
The most unfortunate phase of this
failure to appreciate the value OF the
coupons is evidenced when the unin-
formed holders of bonds offer them
for sale If such a holder takes his
bond to his bank he is given correct in
formation as to it's value. There are a
great many individuals who are buying
bonds. however. who are less honest
If holder takes a bond to one of
these and offers it for sale. 1t is likely
to be bought at the market price, and
the buyer profits illegitimately to the
value of the coupons. They are just
/ so much cash in his pocket. This is a
scheme thru which dishonest dealers
in many localities are today defraud-
ing the bondholder to the amount of
the value of his coupons which are
like so much gold. in his pocket.
The government is attempting to
educate the holders of its bonds to
their value and to an appreciation of
the fact that matured coupons are so
much cash. It is doing all that 1t can
toward advising a bondholder that a