Evening star., 1925-07-19

bridge luncheons; nor on
Junior with his frat dues and heavy
dates; nor even on the fiapper daugh-
ter, with her party frocks and lip
sticks. They help. of course. but,
after all, their expenditures hit only
the old pay envelope. The actual
money remains in circulation.
But somewhere somebody is taking
all the fresh, crisp, new one-dollar
bills that pour out from the Bureau
of Engraving and Printing at the rate
of almost 500, 100000 year, and is
crumpling, soiling, greasing them SO
badly that within a month they are
useless as money-fit only to be fed
into the greedy jaws of the macerator
that chews outWorn currency into
pulp.
Every day of the year approximately
one and half million of these notes,
about four tons, return to Washing
ton, torn and marred almost beyond
recognition, to be replaced by new
money.
Who is to blame? Where are the
vandals?
Frank White, treasurer of the
United States (you'll see his signature
in the lower right-hand corner of any
dollar bill you can keep long enough
TO really look at it carefully knows
the answer.
Mr. White says the motorist, and his
ally, the garage man, are partly to
blame.
There are two reasons for this In
the first place, according to Mr..
White, many touring motorists find it
necessary to carry actual currency in.
stead of checks. Secondly, they pay
for their fuel chiefly with dollar bills
Gasoline is sold to the motorist
principally in f1ve-gallon lots" ex-
planned Mr.. White in his office in the
Treasury Building in Washington.
Five gallons cost a dollar or more
This means that virtually every time
a motorist stops to buy fuel he passes
dollar bill, along with some change,
to the garage keeper. If he should
use five or ten dollar bill instead, he
receives most of his change in dollar
notes.
Now, the garage mans hands are
necessarily wet or greasy from the
gasoline and oil he handles. They
leave their stains on the paper money
Nothings causes paper currency to de.
teriorate more quickly, nothing makes
uglier stains. That's largely why many
dollar bills come back within 80 days
after they are issued. Examine those
returned bills and you will find that
the ma jority of stains are from oil.
But there are other reasons for
the increasing use and attendant vera
ing out of dollar bills. For one thing,
more of them are used. Everything
costs more than ii did a few years
ago. Articles that once sold for rs or
80 cents now cost a dollar. There
was time when men handled a dol
lar bill carefully, because it meant
more to them. Now they are so com.
mon an article of currency that they
are treated careleSsly. Men crumple
them and thrust them loosely into
their pockets. like change. This helps
shorten their life"
MR.. WHITE referred to the recent
statements of Charles 5. Dewey,
Assistant Secretary of Treasury, be-
fore congressional committee in fur
ther explanation of the disappearing
dollar note.
Prior to the war, Mr.. Dewey said,
the average life of the dollar bill was
II months. Now it wears out in about
half that time. During the war period
it was noticed that the currency was
becoming much shorter lived. A num-
ber of conditions had arisen to de-
crease the durability. One concerned
the quality of the paper used.
The distinctive paper manufactured
Mass, prior TO the war was composed
of 100 per cent linen rags. Owing to
the inability of the manufacturer TO
obtain linen in sufficient quantity the
proportions were greatly reduced by
the admiXture or at one time complete
substitution of cotton rags.
The change in the composition of
the paper" said Mr.. Dewey, "necessi-
tated abandoning the process of resiz-
ing paper currency. This process con-
solution of glue, which tends to bind
the fibers of the paper together and
make 1t more durable. 1t was discov-
cred that paper composed Of cotton did
not properly absorb the glue and pre-
scented a fuzzy appearance, which
gradually faxed off The elimination
of the process reduced the life of the
bill.
Prior to the war, paper received
from the mill was allowed to season
for at least one month in the vaults
of the Bureau of Engraving and Print
ing. Further seasoning was obtained
during manufacture by the slow and
orderly routing of the work through
the various printing processes. Fol
lowing the printing an additional two
weeks of drying and seasoning was
given to the completed currency be-
fore Ii was sealed and numbered and
delivered to the treasurer of the
United States, who ordinarily had suffi-
cient reserve stocks to permit the new
currency to remain in his vaults for
an additional month of seasoning be-
fore being paid into circulation.
"The greatly increased demands for