Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-09-28
The presidents signature .writin,

The presidents signature writing
Job Is not the biggest in the govern
ment by any means. The man who
signs the mos checks is William A.
Holmes. disbursing officer Of the vet
rams bureau. Last July, the bureau
sent out 631,780 checks or nearly u.s.
600 a day. This would be more than
7.6oo 900 q year; Mr.; Holmes has two
assistants who help him but he does
most of the signing himself. AS lit
would be a physical impossibility% to
sign $4,000 checks a day every work
ing day, a machine is used. It ia
fcalled a signograph. It~>consists OF
a light frame which holds usually 10
fountain pens. The checks which
are to be signed are placed beneath
the frame. The signer grasps the
pen at the lower left hand corner OF
the frame and writes his signature in
the proper place, The frame is so
constructed in relation to the uniform
size OF the papers to be signed that
each of the other pens writes the ex-
I act duplicate Of what the signer
writes. in nine other places. These
machines are used in all government
departments where many checks have
to be signed by hand.
Treasurer a Busy Signer.
The postoffice department a some
100000 checks a year to sign and the
pension office 5000 checks. The
treasurer Of the United States is one
of the busiest of the signers.\ Treas
urer Frank White and his chief dep
uty. Frank J. F.. Thiel. sign away
more money than probably any of the
others as their checks frequently are
Tor very large amounts. The regular
treasury warrants which they sign
number about 100000 a while
miscellaneous checks number another
leo, 900. ,.s
Disbursing officers of all the o
eminent departments, boards, bu-
reaus n commissions must be in
cluded in this group of busy signature
writer's. All of those whose signing
runs into the thousands employ the
signing machine where it is possible,
The limitation Of the machine is that
It can sign in duplicate only where
the papers to be signed are uniform
in size and shape and where the sig
nature Is to be placed in precisely the
same position on each paper. Thi.
limitation prevents the use of the ma
chine for signing the general run OF
papers and correspondence.
Outside of the government but in a
manner connected with it are the
sig ners of the national currency
A|SoASA0 "tA ACSdA4 AlIh oil national
bank notes bear the signatures Of the
president and the cashier OF the is.
suing bank. In recent years some OF
these officers have used rubber
stamps, but by no meal all. Many
of them. probably most Of them. sign
the notes with pen and ink.
The annual total cannot be pre-
cisely arrived at because there are
new issues and unrcnewed retire.
inents, but it has been estimated that
about $4,000. 900 notes ere issued each
Gar by the national banks. There
are nearly 5000 national banks SO a
tdivision would give each bank nearly
1880 notes q year to sign. or about
$50 day. In times of initiation when
larger sums are issued, this number
increases materially.
The banks have urged congress ia
permit them to have their officers
signatures engraved on the notes, but
congress never has given this permits.
sion. X
On United states currency thu
names Of the treasurer OF the United
States and of the secretary OF treas.
Jury are engraved. II they were moi
Ithcsc officials could scarcely find time
Ito dO4aDything but sign money, SO nu-
merous are the notes.
1t is nothing new for the writine
of Official signatures to be regarded
ass burdensome dutySby persons In
high office. It Ii an historical FAC,
that Carinus. one Q fxthe emperors OF
either was too lazy or too busy atc
sign his name. He made inquiry IN
the prisons to find out WHO was the
most dexterous and skillfuS forgei III
lcustody and had him freed and pro.
NOTED to h post OF secretary where