Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 228, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1910 — The Busy Money Changers of New York [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Busy Money Changers of New York

NEW YORK.—Four big banks in the Wall street district of New York city resemble the great gold mines of the west in one striking feature. They have three eight-hour shifts of toilers, and the work never . stops. One set takes up the routine where the other leaves off. All night long, Sundays and holidays, a staff of men in each of these banks is busy opening thousands of letters, sorting and listing innumerable checks and drafts that represent fabulous sums of money, and getting them ready for the day force, which is the only one the public comes in contact with or ever hears about. If this work were not carried on incessantly, the banks would soon be overwhelmed with a mountainous accumulation of detail. Two shifts—the "scouting force,” as they call themselves —work \between five o’clock, in the afternoon and nine

the next morning. Each bank has a big drawer in the general post office. Messengers clear this of its letters every hour all night long. Three thousand letters a day is the average mail of one of these large banks. Twothirds of it comes in during the night. These letters, in the case of one of the biggest of these banks, contain from 35,000 to 40,000 checks and drafts. At times these inclosureß represent as much as $30,000,000. Rarely does the total fall below $20,000,000. The letters are opened as fast as they are received, the checks are counted, and the totals verified with the footings of the lists. The letters are then stamped, which shows that they have been “proven in,” as the banks call it. After that are turned over to the clerks who send out the formal acknowledgments of the remittances they contain. The various checks are assorted according to the numbers of the books In Vtaich they are to be entered and otherwise; the sight drafts are grouped according to the routes of the bank’s messengers/and all is made ready for turning the flight’s accumulation over to the qiy force, so it may be handled by It as expeditiously as possible.