Show NATIONS HOUSE AT TREASURE WASHINGTON 4alvl 1t J f W NIWlII jI l ij Mammoth the Surplus Steel Vault Wealth of That Holds 4 Uncle Sam 1II5N congress passed the tho emergency currency WJlI last May authorizing tho controller of currency to have printed emergency currency to tho value of onehalf of the amount of government bonds owned by tho national na-tional banks throughout the country a condition was created and a very serious condition which nobody leal lred so fully aa Watson W Eldrldgo chief of tho division of Issues under tho currency bureau For this vast sum about 490000000 was to bo placed In his hands for safe keeping an Is all tho national bank currency At the time of tho passage of this act there was on hand In the vaults on tho second floor of the Treasury building In Washington about 200 000000 ot national banknotes as a working stock This quantity of paper pa-per money was about all that these two vaults would hold So when tho bureau of printing and engraving after sending out a C Q D summons for all tho expert engravers In the country to come to Washington and aid in altering the steel plates to comply with the now law began to send tho emergency currency In dray loads to Mr Eldrldgc that trusted guardian of the nations wealth began be-gan to spend tho moat uneasy nights in all his 40 years service in tho treasury department and 20 years in his present position The money continued to pour In not In thousands and hundreds of thousands but in millions It was the most unwelcome money ever unloaded unload-ed upon a man working for a salary New Vault Made Necessary When things reached a crisis an order was given for a vault to hold this emergency currency a vault which would make all previously manufactured safes look like pocket savings banks for tho now structure of steel was to bo thin shells between be-tween inconceivable wealth and thieveswho were ready to break in and steal and tho corruption of fire earthquakes nnd devastation of any other character It must be a vault so tho treasury officials specified capable of holding the vastest sum of money over stored in one place five hundred millions The order was given and tho safe makers set to work Today tho vault stands completed as witnessed by the accompanying illustration tho first which the government has allowed al-lowed to bo taken of this vault There aro stored In the steel pigeonholes a little more than 300000000 of banknotes bank-notes and tho remaining millions are being stored away as fast as they can bo counted In tho big offices above tho level of the street Tho new vault which was built at a cost of 45000 Is a twostory struc I 1 I O 0 l II I I 1 I 1 4r k r 1 N iri f Iii I-ii HdU I 0 I iI 1 I L The Door to the VaultIts I Walghtlt I Seven Ton ture furnished with steel racks which I closely resemble safety deposit box racks Tho Interior walls are of Hal i voyized steel half an Inch thick nnd the whole vault is Incased In masonry nnd cement more than two feet thick Hut beneath the masonry and tho hell i of steel lies tho chief protection protec-tion of the vault against burglars punt of cloM ly woven steel wires N uw each of th M whew Is chal elI el-I with electricity M Mint when one of them is toiuhid with an nl or u bt I or a dynamite pump tin tilarm Is in i I Btantly set off In an adjoining buildIng I build-Ing where watchmen are constantly on guard And to make sure that this Ii i I electrical nppartus Is working properly I proper-ly there Is a buzzer which goes off I every 15 minutes Inside the vault If I tho warning apparatus Is not working I properly this buzzer will be thrown i out of commission and tho watchmen j J will be Immediately notified I Cannot Tamper with Cables I limit what It the cables connecting the vault with the watchmens room should be cot 1 Mr Eldrldgo was asked Tho reply was that any tampering tam-pering with the cable would have the sumo effect upon the alarm system as If the vault Itself had been attacked This enormous vault whose root Is Ion I-on n level with the pavement has a I perfect system of ventilation by great driving and suction fans which are I turned on when tho vault Is opened Iso I-so that the air Is fresh and cool at all times It Is llghtoiUby electricity tho I lighting plug being put In place only i after tho vault door is opened I One of tho marvels of tho vault Is the vault door a complicated mass of I gray steel weighing seven tons but so wonderfully balanced on ball bearing I hinges that It can be opened without effort It has four combinations and no one man In tho employ of the government gov-ernment knows them Two mon know two of them and two others the remaining re-maining two so that In order to unlock un-lock the money chamber at least two persons must be present The door Is of course equipped with the time i lock device which Is now in use on all firstclass safes Hut even entrance through the vault door sots off tho alarm In tho watchmens room It is necessary therefore to supply the watchmens department with a schedule sched-ule showing at what hour the vault will be opened nnd at what hour It will be closed The vault according to the schedule must not bo opened before 845 In the morning and It must be closed before five every night Old Fashloned Elevator Tho only way to reach the vault Is by way of a tiny hydraulic elevator which Is protected by an Iron door opening almost at tho elbow of tho chief of tho division of Issues who keeps tho key in his desk This elevator ele-vator car was barely largo enough to carry Mr Eldrldge the newspaperman newspaper-man and a photographer down to tho vault It Is operated by the old fashioned fash-ioned ropepulling device and Is tho most prosaic road to millions Imaginable Imagin-able On Juno 18 the morning on which the photograph from which we got the Illustration was taken the vault contained 309199910 In the following follow-ing denominations 7751GGGO In lives 210011300 in lens and twenties twen-ties 0256200 In tens and 15415750 In fifties and ono hundreds Tho money Is printed In sheets four billn to thu sheet and 1000 sheets to this package There were nearly 0000tmo sheets or 8791 packiget to store away The actual value represented in this amount of prlPtnd paper IH only 4398 > t In estimating this yalw < of the iMinuJ ici the government figures that < < h i a < IIKC weighs 11 i I pcmiidh J1j lit p i i i I nnhastil t 41 11 i t lf I i i 111 r i I for tic I 11 i i i i un f tlf I I I t beor I i u > Twenty years ago this vast amount of printed bills would have been utterly ut-terly worthless until each bill had been signed by tho president and tho i cashier of the bank in whose name It wan Issued but In tho nineties congress con-gress passed a law making the notes legal as soon as placed In circulation thus adding materially to Mr El drldges cares whose duty It then became be-came to handle money not in the I making but the perfected cash Now as soon ts tho bills are entered upon tho ledgers of the treasury as being shipped to n bank they are considered money The express companies handling hand-ling these shipments are bonded for 500000 and In case of loss or robber rob-ber the company Is held responsible for tho loss It was only a short time i ago that a shipment of 40000 to tho Pacific coast was stolen In transit I and the express company was forced I to give a check for the full amount I The treasury Is today redeeming I some of these stolen banknotes without I with-out question although some of them bear no signature at nil while others bear time forged signatures of the president of that bank and of tho rash IeI Time express company was never able to recover more than 15 000 of the stolen bills It had to loso the lest Deserves Thanks of Nation The crlspnoss nnd durability of our present day banknotes aro due largely large-ly to the efforts of Mr Eldridgo the guardian of the Jumbo among vaults Many years ago congress passed a law authorling tho Issue of treasury notes and the bill required that these notes bo put In circulation within 30 days It was a rush job The paper M w iii I I j 1 1 t I Watson W Eldridge Custodian of Seven Hundred Millions of Dollars on which money Is printed has to be dampened before It takes the impression Impres-sion of the hand press so that when It comes out It Is not sized covered with glossy surface as tho result of a bath in a glutinous substance These treasury notes were Issued just as they came from the press As a result the fibers soon began to break through the surface of the paper and as each bit of fiber dropped from tho bill the Ink began to fade so that within two weeks after the first bill was Issued the treasury had to begin to redeem the tattered notes and Issue new ones It was then that a committee appointed appoint-ed td examine Into methods of tho treasury department suggested that all paper on which banknotes were printed should bo reslzed after printIng print-Ing Mr Eldrldgo was the aggressive factor In this particular refdrm and it is to him that tho present pleasing appearance of our paper money Is duo j Prior to the completion of tho now vault the emergency currency was stored in the basement of tho Union Trust Company at the corner of Fifteenth Fif-teenth Bind H streets N W Tho first few millions that were received were I placed In a large Iron vault but when i carloads of money began to arrive this vault with a capacity of a mere fortymllllonsMion overflowed and then 4 this enormous wealth was stacked on the floor In ordinary wooden boxes which any hatchet could have knocked to smithereens This seemed an awful risk 1 for the government j to take put there was nothing elso to be done A Uny dynamite cartridge discharged areaway in the roar of the llttli In n blown a il bank building would have In the cellar walls that would hole Imvo bared to view wealth of which Solomon In all hfs glory could not have dreamed and which would have made ImuKhty Cioosua green with onvy In order to west this danger > d ten extra rument cmplojinl thp government watchman who panelled limo streets land alleys in the neighborhood ot the Union Trust building for nine months diy and night These watchmen were only dropped from the pay roll of the I treasury ou May 10 when tho now nult was turned over to Urn government I govern-ment by Hi contractors Forced Change in Steel Plates I Hut the ill 111 t of i suc was not time only brtri rf the government which foind > t elf extremely busy irc MC i nf tho emergency currency act Tho steel plates for every national bank In the country had to bo altered To the legend on the face of the banknotes and at tho top Secured by bonds of the United States thero had to bo added a third line Or other securities In order to add those three words every plate had to be softened the extra words engraved and then the whole plato retompercd Each of these banknoto plates which costs 75 1 will print 30000 bills then tho Impressions begin to get dull and the plato has to bo softened the dies recut nnd the plate tempered again after which about 10000 more Impressions can betaken be-taken Time plates are then destroyed nnd new ones made Today MrS Eldridge sleeps easy Let your note come in as fast as you can make them Is his message to the head of the bureau of engraving and printing Hush the notes over until we have a stock of 700000000 200000000 to remain In the upper I vaults for current needs of the banks nnd 500000000 to rest secure in the vault beneath the treasury guarded by Its walls of steel and stone and by Its network of wires which never sleep |