PERHAPS but a comparatively few people realize what a great trust is reposed in the single individual who may be placed in charge of the United States treasury. He is the custodian of more than $1,300,000,000 in cash, and is responsible for financial transactions11amounting to $3,500,000,000 a year. But Frank A. Vanderlip, former assistant secretary of the treasury, writing in Scribner's Magazine, says that the control of finances is not the only important task imposed upon the secretary. Mr. Vanderlip says that the secretary is the head of the navy of revenue cutters, lighthouse tenders, and the coast survey steamers. He is the arbiter of the admission of from half to three quarters of a million immigrants a year. He is the head of the national public health system, of a great detective service, of a life-saving service with 272 crews patrolling 10,000 miles of coast, of a coast survey, a lighthouse system illuminating the shores of this continent from Maine to Alaska, and of an architect's office that has built and cares for 400 public buildings. He is the commander in all these activities of an army of 26,000 men—as many as were serving in the regular army of the United States before the Spanish war. There are some things even the secretary would like to reform, but can not. There is one collector of customs who receives a salary of $1,800, who, in one recent year, collected 20 cents. There are twelve customs districts officered at a total cost of $15,578.14 whose total of collections in one year was $275.26.