The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1932-12-16
OmGoveyumeut
How 1t Operates
BY William Brxckayt
THE MONEY STARTS
TO YOU

ton for the governments stock OF
money in the bureau of engraving and
printing. AT least, that is the impress.
sion it made upon me.
Let us recount the steps by which
currency leaves the bureau of engrav-
ing and printing:
First, 1t is necessary that some Fed
eral Reserve bank or some national
bank must have had need for addi-
tional currency and that it has applied
to the treasury for 1t. In the case of
the Federal Reserve bank, it applies to
the official in it's own organization who
Is known as the Federal Reserve agent
who, under the law, is the federal gov
ernment's representative in an other
wise private institution. He sends the
order through for currency, If he has
insufficient stocks that were stored
with him by the treasury in advance.
In the case Of the national bank, the
application goes to the treasury, for
national banks operate under different
laws, and it can get the new currency
only If it puts up certain type of
government bond as security and to
protect the treasury for the money 1t
is releasing to that bank.
Second, the proper officials of the
treasury approve the applications.
They notify the director of the bureau
of engraving and printing, or some
official designated by him, of the
amount of currency to be furnished,
the denominations and shipping de-
tails. He gets that order in writing
and in duplicate, one copy of which is
delivered to the men who actually start
the money in your direction If the APP
plication came from a bank in your
community.
Third, after the order for delivery
and shipping Of the currency has been
fully executed, it then takes the joint
action Of three men to get that cur
rency out Of the giant storage vaults
where it has been "aged." It has
stayed there, perhaps, three months,
possibly longer, so that it is "cured"
and ready to stand the tests to which
it is subjected when you carelessly
crumple it up in your pocketbook or
fail to fold it properly, or to meet
some of the other conditions of mod
ern life.
But to get back to the three men
who let that money get out of its hid
ing place; one of them represents the
secretary of the treasury, second the
treasurer of the United States, and
the third represents the director of
the bureau. Each has key. None
can do anything about releasing that
money alone. Each has to turn the
key in the great lock.
At last the bundles of bills, de-
scribed in the order, are counted out.
The truck, armored with steel and with
armed guards aboard, stands waiting
with doors opening into the cavernous
interior standing ajar. Each bundle,
tied and sealed, is transferred to the
truck, whose doors click as do the
vault doors. The truck moves toward
the great building that is the union
terminal of all railroads entering
Washington. Adjoining it, is the CEN
trail post Office of the city. To one
of those places is the destination of
the truck.
In the meantime, something else has
been happening in respect Of this ship
ment of currency. The proper officials
of the bureau and the three-man team
have made out their reports, and they
have gone to the treasury and the Fed
eral Reserve board or the treasurer Of
the United States.
If the shipment was destined for
Federal Reserve bank, a message goes
by telegraph to that Federal Reserve
bank. It would do you no good to see
it, however, for it would be wholly I'M
Ineligible. 1t is in code of the most
secret type. 1t might say something
about three thousand hogs, cows and
chickens coming home with some word
or words that would tell on what rail-
road the shipment travelled and the
time of its departure from Washing
ton. do not mean that those are
the words used; / employ them be-
cause they are just as good as any
thing else as an illustration Of how
meaningless the message would be even
to a trained crook who was laying
plans for train robbery.
The shipment that goes to the ma
tional bank-and let me explain here
that the national bank is used because
there are more of them than state
banks who have complied with the
laws respecting circulation of their
own notes-may carry money that will
get into your hands In normal proc
esses of business much sooner than
through the Federal Reserve banks.
You may cash check the next day
after those new bills get there, and
one or more of them may be handed
out. and the journey to you has been
completed.
Shipments to Federal Reserve banks
NAV lie in their vaults weeks and
months before some bank in your
town has occasion to obtain currency
from the Federal Reserve bank of its
district. But that money eventually
gets to you, only to find its way back
to the treasury for destruction in great
machines that grind it to pulp WI en-
Il becomes too soiled and broken TO be
yiassified as "fit"