To Cold Storage

Mrs. Nellie Taylor Ross, winsome Wyoming widow who once presided over all lady Democrats as Vice Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, now presides over all U. S. coinage & bullion as director of the Mint. Last month she made a trip to West Point to inspect the vast strong box she had had built in a corner of the Military Academy's reservation. Semi-sunken, its obdurate walls made of reinforced concrete, Mrs. Ross's strong box is to hold over a billion and a quarter dollars' worth of silver bullion purchased by the Treasury in Manhattan and now overflowing the Assay Office there. "This," said Mrs. Ross with a wave of her hand at the new vaults, "is just for cold storage."

A billion and a quarter in silver is approximately one million 1,000-oz. bars, each ounce worth $1.29 at the Government's statutory price, or 43-c- on the metal market. A thousand ounces is 62 1/2 lb. To move a million such bars, a fleet of trucks was needed, and last week Mrs. Ross awarded her contract to Peter James Malley Jr., 38, of Manhattan, son and grandson of Irish truckers, who bid her 15-c- per bar for the 50-mile haul. Mr. Malley hauls most of New York City's whiskey, also dyes and chemicals. He figures that with 25 trucks, driven by 25 of his men who have never had an accident, loading 350 bars on each truck and making one trip per day, he can complete the job in about five months, starting this week. Two Coast Guardsmen will ride on each truck but hold-ups are not anticipated: bar silver makes bulky loot, hard to dispose of.

This big silver haul is the Malley firm's first Government job. Peter James started in the family business 22 years ago, has taken only one vacation since--his two weeks' honeymoon in 1935. He smokes two packages of cigarets a day, but keeps fit by swimming, golf, handball and horseback riding. Once he rode a jumper in a Madison Square Garden horse show.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.