Pueblo chieftain., 1921-02-14
GOVERNMENT GOLD

ury building hide. And every penny
OF 1t has to be accounted for. The
treasurer OF the United States is bond
ed for its safety. II a thief should
manage to make way with a bag of
government gold the treasurer would
be held responsible unless congress
took action to stay prosecution pro-
ceedings.
But stealing the treasurcr,s gold /.
one stunt that professional thieves
realize is beyond them. About the
nearest that anyone has come actu-
ally to getting away with treasury
money was the case OF one OF the men
who are employed to destroy old bills.
three of these men, and that one for
a time contrived to stick some of the
best Of the worn money into his
pockets when the other two were not
looking.
That was . very unusual situation.
In most OF the important places of
the treasury. even the guards are
guarded, and while one man VIII have
the key or combination to oren an
outer door. another has to come TO
open the inner door.
Counti.s a Nations Coin.
Because the treasurer is responsible
for the contents OF the vaults. when
month. there has to bc rccounting
OF the treasury stores. This time,
some 25 or 30 persons were detailed
/ to the vault to make the count, and
for l6 days they did nothing but check
up on coin. bullion. notes and Sc
curites. Tho total they found In the
building was sl3,ss3. $40, ,ses.ss pa.
! This does not represent all the gov
ernment's money. Washington is con-
sidered sufficiently far back from tho
vaults. but even SO. the government
docs not put all OF its eggs into ono
| basket There are the mlnts and tho
assay offices and the federal reserve
| banks.
The sub-trcasur.cs. too. were n part
| Of the system of scattering instead of
concentrating public funds. When they
| were established. the sub-treasuries
undoubtedly were needed. Transpor-
| tation of currency over long distances
was uncertain and dangerous. and in
a country as large as ours SO much
transportation OF gold and silver
would have been n serious drag on
all finance. Then there was an early
i law that the public moneys could not
be deposited In banks. and the sub
treasures provided a legal place of
| deposits. This law has long ago beer
altered. 70 the federal reserve banks
can take the place OF the sub-trensur-
les as repositories for government
funds.
| Soft Salaries slnshed.
| In fact since the federal reserve
banks have been established it has
become more and more apparent that
| these banks could perform nearly all
! of the functions detailed to the CUB
| treasures, and only unsettled condi-
tions due to the war have delayed
the transfer of business and duties
until now. SO
a further minor objection to the
sub-treasury organization has beei.
that the heads of the nine sub-tr
uries were appointed by the presi-
dent and confirmed by the senate.
and there, many people claimed. their
| activity ceased. Tho house sub-com-
mittcc on appropriations disposed Of
their assistant trcasurers of the Unit
ed States by the following dialogue:
Representative Wood. "If / were
abolishing the assistant treasurers, It
would not be because of anything
touching the persons now occupying
those positions, but because of their
absolute usclessncss as functionarics."
Representative Davis: what do
they dor
Representative Wood: Draw their
salaries
Representative wason: "As mat
ter OF fact, arc thoir salaries not sent
to them?"
a representative of the treasury de-
partment objected to this harsh sum
mary OF the duties of the sub-treas-
ury heads, and held that the good
onos found something TO do to keep
busy.
The committee finally decided TO do
away with the sub-treasuries anyway.
The clerks were provided for by
transfers to other offices, but the bill
left the assistant troasurers to shift
for themselves at saving to the gov
crnment of about $4,000 n year.
Miss Frances Marion is reputed to
earn $4,000 a year writing screen plays.