THE SUNDAY OREGONIAX, PORTLAND, SEPTEMBER 19, 1920
THE MAN WHO MAKES ALL THE MONEY USED IN OUR LAND
. He Prints It for Uncle Sam and for You and Me and He Here Describes All the
Very Intricate Processes Involved in Keeping Up With the Increasing Demand
Vh?'vnz-' iia CR j SILVER
. ...... t "
SILVER
urrn st&tts
1 s
LVKK ERl f .SILVER SILVER ui
tBij r s J -i i i
s . . I ,
r n i
1
1
-
- S I ! tS:- if- - f v III ' t f- -
" ..' .... t; mr-
I T-:- . JSk . i 1 Mi i -.-w 1 W- ...11 M I A 1 ' v,-rt i . ft. . - . r 'ft 1 I I I m S V J
i ItrV.- I-"- -w K: 1 I m& -s- -niT i ,
I I jJ ..-.. f Wt I I 1 .... . I - 1 F' w Hfc " i . '.II 1 I -it,: v. '.r v.- . . XII II I .. t. ...
I . fc.v ft . -V .-v. Jt-' -m -i -I f I. ft KB f" KS K E S ff I A H I llllllir.i i I II X.-"--.- ;V : w T. : S . III. -.-. :-. . f. X
1 . ... . on mm )r
a-l.
Tare Sz'zrs ofJVaszfz; ?S7, fzf
( (TT WOULDN'T be polite for me
I to ask you how much money
you have got in your pocket
at this minute, but I'll venture a guess
that It (a m nro than i.mi f..jrria.l nn
your person this day, say, four years
agro."
The head of Uncie Sam's great
money factory, James I. Wilmeth,
Bmiied quizzically at me as he went
on to say:
"Everybody has more money In his
pocket nowadays. Prices are higher,
people spend more, and they must
carry more."
1 had a sort of a vague notion that
there was a "good story" in the bu
reau of engraving and printing in
"Washington, "when I ascended the
steps and entered the portals of that
imposing structure. But I was amazed
at the insight into human nature
and the simple mastery of intricate
economic problems displayed by Its
chief almost from the first moment
1 began to talk with him.
Mr. Wilmetn met me more than half
,way in an effort to explain to the
lay mind some of the problems which
have been presented by unprecedented
conditions of the last few years. De
veloping that Idea of more money for
everybody, he continued:
'Mrs. John Jones, whose home cir
cumstances are very modest, used to
take fa with her when she went to
market. Now she takes $10, finding
it no more than enough to supply the
immediate wants of her family.
"With you and me and every one
else 1 is the same way. As prices go
up, it takes more money to transact
business. More money is required in
circulation. There is much more
business being done in this country
than ever before and the doing of
it calls for money. It makes a special
call for change and that is why we
have been printing dollar bills in un
precedented numbers.
"You never saw so many dollar bills
as are running around loose at the
present time. We have had trouble
to supply them fast lenough to keep
up with the demand. One thing we
have done has been to split up big
notes into little ones. A 50-bill. let
us say, comes into the treasury for
redemption. Instead of printing a
duplicate of it, we turn out 50 $1
notes. You get the idea?
"A $30 bill may oDstruct a business
transaction. You've been in such a
fix yourself. Plenty of small money,
on the other hand, facilitates busi
ness. Demand for it increases with
the volume of business. Then you
must remember that people are doing
a ereat deal of traveling in these
days, mainly for business purposes,
and under such circumstances they
require a lot of change. They are
obliged to scatter money about
email sums. The man who stays at
heme can draw checks; and his need
of change is merely incidental."
"Isn't this multiplication of notes of
small denomination expensive for the
government?"
"Do you know how much a dollar
bill costs? To make it, I mean.
ouicklv responded Mr. Wilmeth. "It
costs Uncle Sam 114-cents; and its
life is short. The average dollar bill
lasts less . than a year; then it is
worn out and has to be replaced with
another. It passes from hand to hand
Avcnl times as often as a $5 note;
for which reason the latter has
much longer life.
"Recently the mint bureau melted
170.000,000 standard silver 'cartwheel
dollars arid sent all but 10.000.000 of
them to India in the shape of bullion,
to help out a silver famine. The silver
certificates which represented those
dollars had to be withdrawn from
circulation; and, to replace them, we
printed bank notes."
' "Is there less gold and silver in
circulation now?" was the next query
' "Here, of course,, in the bureau of
engraving and printing, we have to
do only with paper money. But if you
will take a look at the last report of
th director of the mint you will find
that there la a vast deal mora of
metal money now in circulation than I
ever before. People have got to have '
it. Consider the modest penny, which
is in a way an index of business. In
the last calendar year the mints
coined 588,935,000 cents; in the pre
vious year only 370.614,634. The mints
in 1919 coined 76.395,000 nickels; in
1918. only 45,320,314.
"Metal money is not in my line,
however. Let's get back to what we
were talking about. The federal re
serve system introduced a new form
of paper money,' called federal re
serve notes. These notes are based
on the assets of the issuing banks,
which include commercial paper, with
the requirement that the banks shall
back their notes with not les3 than
i' per cent of their face value in gold.
"You can take a bunch of federal
reserve notes to the treasury1, demand
tli eir face value in gold, and get it
offhand. Thevtreasury, however, does
not encourage gold payments, because
ic wants to conserve the gold. The
banks, for the same reason, will not
let you have gold. Gold in your pocket
does neither the banks nor the gov
ernment any good; and paper money
Is just as useful to you for spending
purposes.
"How lon is It since you have seen
one of those cheerful-looking, yellow
backed treasury notes which bore on
their faces an offer of redemption in
gold coin 'on demand'? There are
hardly any of them in circulation, be
cause the government has gobbled
thorn up. . Kor years past, whenever
a gold note has been deposited in a
tank,-it has vanished from view, not
aain to reappear. The bank has not
paid it out again." - . 'S
And is this method satisfactory to
the people?"
Up to the time of the war there
was very little paper money in circu
lation on the Pacific coast. People
out there preferred to use gold; they
were used to it, and liked it better.
But if you go out there now, you will
find that paper money has taken the
place of gold almost entirely. The
yellow coins have been boggled up by
the banks and replaced with printed
promises to pay."
'Well, how much of this' paper
money do you make in a year?" I had
thought I had a poser, but quick as a
flash this alert- foreman of Uncle
gain's printshop replied:
'During the last fiscal year we
printed here in this building, just a
few short of 200,000,000" federal re
serve notes, an increase of nearly
one-third over 1918. Of pieces of
paper money of all kinds we turned
out 730.857,840. The face value of ourl
output of all securities during the
12-month was nearly $49,000,000,000
more than the total of any 15 years'
prcductio.n prior to the great warj
"It is impossible to grasp the
significance of such huge figures, of
course, but I can give you one little
illustration that will help a bit. Con
sider those 730,857,840 pieces of paper
money. Imagine them laid edge to
edge and end to end on a flat surface,
like a patchwork carpet. How much
space would they cover? If you will
take the trouble to figure it out, you
wili find that they would carpet an
area of four and a quarter square
miles."
"Hasn't the idea been seriously en
tertained of reducing the size of our
paper money?"
"The scheme would have undeniable
advantage; and perhaps it may yet
be carried out. A dollar bill now is
a trifle over three inches wide and
slightly less than seven and one-half
inches long. By making it six inches
i long an4 two. and one-half inches
wide it would be cut down about one
third. "That is the size of the notes and
certificates circulated in the Philip
pines, all of which are printed here,
and it is really much better. If our
paper money were of this size, it
would be much more convenient to
handle. It would fit the pocketbook
better, and might be carried flat; or,
with one less fold, it would wear
longer. Requiring less material, it
would be cheaper to make, and banks
could store more of it in a given space
la their vaults."
' "Then why don't you make it
smaller?"
'The main reason why we did not
carry out this clever idea was that
the banks strongly objected. They
said that the smaller bills would not
fit their cashiers' pigen-holes and
drawer compartments. That was a
trifling matter, however, relatively
speaking. The main disadvantage
was that of being obliged to deal with
two sizes of notes. Attention was
called te the fact that something like
10,000 new plates would have to be
engraved for the faces and backs of
the new notes, at the cost of about
$140 apiece; and that five would be
required perhaps for the making of
these plates, during all of which time
there would be the trouble and an
noyance of handling two sizes of
every denomination of paper currency.
"Wouldn't such a scheme save pa
per, or doesn't the paper shortage af
fect you?"
"Yes, indeed; smaller notes ould
save a great deal of paper; and the
paper used for our money is expen
sive, being made of the best quality
of linen rags. All of it is manufac
tured by a private concern at Pitts
field, Mass., which has had the con
tract for many years, the process be
ing conducted under the watchful
eyes of authorized agents of the
treasury department. Every wasted
sheet must be carefully accounted for,
just as if it were so much printed
money.
"Each sheet Is of a size to make
four notes, und lengthwise through
it run two bands you may see them
on the face of any, dollar bill of
scattered red and blue silk fibres.
These fibres have been found to be
a very excellent protection against
counterfeiting; for, though they have
been Imitated with pen and ink, they
cannot be introduced into paper with
out elaborate and expensive machin
ery." "How much more money have we
now than in former years?" I next
wanted to know.
"There is today in - circulation in
this country more than five times
as much money as there' was in 1879.
Treasury figures show that in that
year the amount in circulation Jan
uary 1 was $816,266,721. On the first
day of May, 1920. it was $5,991,207,
441. "Of course, allowance must be made
for the fact that the population of
the United States has more than dou-
FEROCIOUS SHARKS ARE REPORTED TO BE
PROWLING OCEAN LANES AFTER MANY SHIPS
Prodigious and Formidable Monsters Trail Passenger Boats That Ply in Tropical Waters, According to Pas
f . sengers Who Arrive at Various Ports.
w
ASHIXGTO.V, Sept. 18. As the
"open season" for sharks ap
proaches. South American
liners arriving in New York report
the sighting of these sea monsters.
fact which lends interest to the
following communication to the Na
tional Geographic society by Dr.
Hugh M. Smith, a world-famous
authority on fish:
When giant fishes are mentioned
most people will at once think of the
shark, i among which, indeed, are
found the largest fish now existing,"
writes Dr. Smith. "Of the many
species of sharks noteworthy on. ac
count of their Bize there are about
half a dozen which are pre-eminent.
These differ much in their disposi
tion, somo being as harmless a's doves
teeth are three Inches long. While
there are few authentic instances of
sharks attack human beings (prior
to the recent tragedies), there have
undoubtedly been many cases where
sharks simply Swallowed people who
had fallen overboard, - just as they
would swallow any other food. How
easy it would be for a man-eater to
devour a person whole may be judged
from the finding of an entire 100
pound sealion in the stoiqach of a
30-foot shark on the California coast.
A certain man-eater 3fiVi feet long
has jaws 20 inches wide, inside meas
ure, and teeth 2 inches long.
This may have been the "great fish'
of the scripture narrative, and it is
possible that at that time much
larger man-eaters existed than are
and others the incarnation of feroc- now known, as shark teeth with cut-
(tyv
"The sleeper shark (somniosua
microcephalus), whose scientific
name fits it so admirably, appears
to have developed its body at the ex
pense of its brain, for it is a sluggish,
stupid glutton, about six times as
long as an average men. At home in
the Arctic regions, it sometimes
makes visits as far south as Cape
Cod, the British Isles and Oregon. It
is most often observed lying quietly
on the surface, apparently dozing
and easily approached, but at times,
when hungry, it rouses itself and
fiercely attacks whales, biting huge
pieces out of their sides and tails,
and when feeding on the carcass of a
whale which has been killed by hunt
ers it is so voracious that it per
mits spears and knives to be thrust
into it without seeming to take any
notice.
"One of the most prodigious and
perhaps the most formidable of
sharks is the "man-eater" (carcha
rodon carcharias). It roams through
all temperate and tropical seas and
avapwKora la on r,) il'l n f rirPnH 1 1
maximum length ia 40 feet and its lot 50 feet and, is exceeded in size by
ting edges five inches long have been
found on the sca-bottom, and these
are believed by naturalistts to have
belonged to sharks not long dead.
The phosphate beds of South Caro
lina yield very large fossil teeth of
a shark which was related to the
man-eater of the present day; judg
ing from the comparative size bf
these teeth. Professor Goode thought
that sharks 70 or 80 feet long must
have been common.
"Many years ago " a Norwegian
bishop in. a learned paper brought to
the attention of the scientific and
theological worlds a shark which he
attempted to prove must have been
the "great fish' that swallowed
Jonah. This .was the basking shark
(cetorhinus maximus) known also as
the elephant or bone shark, which is
an inhabitant of the polar seas, but
occasionally strays as far south as
Virginia and California, and in for
mer years was not rare on the United
States and British coasts. The species
has the habit at times of collecting in
schools at the surface and basking in
the sun with its back partly out of
water. It reaches a maximum length
only three or four animals extant.
Provided with small teeth, it feeds on
fishes and floating crustaceans, and
is not of a fvocious disposition. It is
dangerous only by virtue of its great
bulk and when attacked its powerful
tail easily demolishes boats. In for
mer years the basking shark was
hunted for its oil on the coast of Nor
way and Ireland;, it was also har
pooned on the, shore of Massachusetts
in the early part of the last century,
and as many as 12 barrels of oil were
sometimes obtained from the liver of
one shark. I There are many records
of busking sharks 25 to 38 feet long
from the cost of New York, Massa
chusetts -and Maine, but the species
has not been common in our waters ii
recent years.
"The largest of all fishes, the
largest of all cold-blooded animals
and the largest of all existing ani
mals, with the exception of a few
species of whales, is the whale shark
(rhtneqdon typicus). originally de
scribed from Good Hope, but now
known from India, Japan, South
America, Panama, California and
various other places, a small speci
men . having been obtained on the
Florida coast a few years ago. This
shark has a very broad and obtuse
snout and an exceedingly wide mouth
armed with numerous minute teeth:
the dark-colored body is marked with
many email whitish spots. The species
is stated to attain a length of 10 feet
and is known to exceed 60 feet. Not
withstanding its immense size, how
ever, it is harmless to man unless at
tacked, and feeds on the small crea
tures for which its teeth are adapt
ed. Its huge bulk makes it danger
ous in the same way that a whale is
dangerous. Years ago it was reported
that the sperm-whale "fishermen at
the island of Saint Denis, in the In
dian ocean, dreaded to harpoon a
whale shark by mistake, and stories
are tolfl of a harpooned fish, "having
by a lightning-like dive exhausted
the supply of rope which had been ac
cidentally fastened to the boat, dived
deeper still, and so pulled a pirogue
and crew to the bottom.'"
bled since 1879; but when we come
to reckon'it out on a per capita basis,
we find that the average person 41
years ago had $17 in bank or in
pocket, whereas today the average
American citizen possesses $56 in
cash.
"This includes all the children and
even the babies. But babies have
neither pockets nor bank accounts,
an3 children rarely possess more than
a few pennies. So, if you reckon
that' two in every five peVsons in this
country have no cash in hand worth
mentioning, it will be obvious that
the average adult carries on his per
son, or has somewhere put away,
over $90 in paper currency and coin.
"The workingman.- getting much
higher wages, has more money In his
pocket than before the war. If
thrifty, he has more in the savings
bank. The employer's payroll : has
grown more people on it, at bigger
pay, and so he must use more money.
If he is a shopkeeper, he has more
money in his till.
"Many high-waged workingmen.
especially ignorant foreigners afraid
of banks, hoard large sums, carrying
the money on their persons or hiding
it. Immigrant laborers returning to
their native countries take a great
deal of money with them. The un
desirable aliens shipped to Russia on
board of the famous 'ark' that carried
Emma Goldman were found to pos
sess, some hundreds of them, an aver
age of more than $1000 apiece In cash.
Then, too, you must remember that
much United States money is in cir
culation in fttexico, Cuba, Central
America, Porp Rico, Hawaii and the
Philippines."
"Where do you get those beautiful
pictures and handsome portraits of
the fathers of our republic with which
you decorate the paper money?" I
asked.
"When the next president has been
inducted into office, the bureau of
engraving and printing will ask for
a photograph of himself. He will be
requested to pick out the portrait he
likes best, in order that it may be
used on paper money. But he will
never see it so used, because custom
forbids the printing of any man's
likeness on our money until after he
is dead. In former days there was no
such restriction; and at frhe period of'
the civil war the portraits of several
living persons appeared on the cur
rency that of Treasurer Spinner, for
example, on the
notes.
"The selected photograph of the
new president having been secured,
a man highly skilled in that particu
lar kind of work will undertake the
task of reproducing.it in the form of
a Bteel engraving. It is a job that
will occupy six or eight weeks. The
steel plate wiJI then be put away in
stock for future use, making com
plete our set of engraved portraits
of all the presidents, from Washing
ton down.
, "It is worth, mentioning-, as a point
merely by the way, that custom hith
erto has been adverse to stamping
the heads of presidents on our coins,
for no other reason, I imagine, than
that foreign monarchies have used
in this way the likeness of sovereigns.
Mr. Roosevelt broke the rule by de
creeing that the bronze cent should
bear the head of Lincoln: and now it
is proposed that the head of Roose
velt shall adorn a 2-cent piece.
"Paul 'Revere's ride made him fa
mous, but he deserves celebrity for
another reason, inasmuch as he was
first to establish the industry of steel
engraving in this country. From this
beginning was in course of time
evolved the American Bank Note com
pany, which printed all of our. paper
money up to the year 1876. when John
Sherman, then secretary of the treas
ury, started the bureau of engraving."
"And what about the ink you use
to print these little sheets, that have
a kio-iTAK il,nillulinn than i .' Tl f II T
a ki,e, v.i. ........ - - " - -
favorite newspaper?"
"We have here, in this building, the
largest plant in the world for the
ing the last fiscal year we used more
than K 0(1(1 fldfl nounris of such inks.
which cost us less than 15 cents a
pound. By making our own inks we
save the government a lot of money.
The raw pigments we buy in the
shape of dry powders, which come
in barrels, and we have our own ma
chinery for mixing the pigments with
linseed oil and otherwise preparing
them.
"What becomes of the wornout
money? Has Uncle Sam a big rag
bag somewhere?" '
"An Incidental task assigned to
the bureau of engraving and printing
is that of destroying paper money
that has been redeemed by the treas
ury. It is consigned to a cylindrical
tank and boiled with a chemical solu
tion until reduced to unrecognizable
pulp. During the last year our out
put of this money pulp was 4.072,250
pounds, which, packed in bales, was
sold for paper stock. It fetched
$64,138, yielding a tidy little profit
of $38,133.
"You would never guess how much
it costs to provide and keep clean
the rags used by the printers in this
establishment for wiping the en
graved plates. They are regularly
laundered at frequent intervals, to
50-cent fractional ' Bet rid ot tne lnic wun wnicn iney
soon become saturated; ana ior mis
work and the replacement of used
up rags we paid last year no less
a sum than $404,575."
And my head swam with statistics
and facts; but it was an inspiring
interview altogether and I came away
more than ever proud of a govern
ment that, whatever its defects, really
does much routine in a big way and
so quietly that the average man
rarely hears of it and usually never
dreams of the vastness of its prob
lem .