bank funds should be invested are varied, but that there is practical unanimity of opinion that every bank should have a good percentage of its funds invested in readily convertible securities.

206. SCHOOL SAVINGS BANKS1

BY SARA LOUISA OBERHOLTZER

Through the school savings banks system in our public schools the boys and girls in the United States have saved and placed to their credit over five million dollars during the last twenty-five years. The work has been forwarded very quietly, and without public support.

Mr. John H. Thiry, a native of Belgium, where he was educated, and later an instructor in schools, came to New York in 1859. He was there engaged in the book business, buying and selling rare books, preferably French and German ones. In 1870 he took up his residence in the Dutch Kills section of Long Island City, devoting himself to horticulture, chiefly grape culture. In 1884 he became one of the school commissioners of the Long Island City public schools, and in 1885 he instituted the school savings banks system in one of the schools there. The system under his care soon extended to all the public schools. It was simply the calling of the rôle for the collection of the children's penny savings each Monday morning and placing them in a bank to their individual credit.

The amount saved by the boys and girls soon attained considerable size, and their development in self-responsibility, industry, and aptness in study was remarked. The public schools in Islip, Amsterdam, Jamaica, and a few other points, through Mr. Thiry's lead, adopted the system. Mr. Thiry had his Scholar's Card copyrighted and began printing statistics annually, giving the figures of the school savings, combined with valuable information on the subject.

In 1889 the writer, through her literary work, became associated with Mr. Thiry in this philanthropy, and presented the subject of thrift teaching through the school savings banks system to Teachers' Institutes, the Academy of Political and Social Science, the National Council of Women, the World's and National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and other bodies, introducing the school savings banks into a number of Pennsylvania public schools, reaching out into other States, and to Canada and the Provinces. The privilege

'Adapted from the Banking Law Journal, XXIX (1912), 797–98.

of the copyright card was given to her for the United States, and the work has gone on quietly, steadily, and continuously, Mr. Thiry doing much for the cause, making up the statistics each year and printing them for free distribution. The last of these statistical tables, for which we collected the matter jointly, was printed January, 1910, and reports 1,168 schools using the school savings-bank system, and that the scholars in these schools have saved since its introduction $5,051,644.60.

School savings are now collected in some schools in almost every State in the Union, and in Alaska and Porto Rico. It is almost impossible to secure full statistics of the savings of the children in all the schools using the system; we have not been able to make them complete for several years. The work has been rather a lone philanthropy, without financial support, except a slight appropriation from the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. There are W.C.T.U. aids in some of the States, their mission being to distribute the school savings literature and assist in the extension of the work.

The Comptroller of the Currency at Washington is aiding this year in collecting and compiling the statistics. He has sent out our blanks for reports to the different schools using the school savings system.

207. THE ARGUMENT FOR POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS1

BY GEORGE VON L. MEYER

It behooves us as a Government to do everything that is possible to encourage among our own people the habits of thrift. American wastefulness and extravagance are well recognized, and we should acquire to a greater extent the art of husbanding our resources and of making a little go a great way.

· Within the past seven years more than seven millions of foreigners have come to our shores, and in twenty-five years 12,640,397 have arrived. A great number of these people are setting us an example of what small savings can do by sending to European countries $72,000,000 in the last fiscal year. Within a period of six monthsfrom May 15 to November 15, 1907-the amount which went out to replenish foreign coffers was $49,621,000. These figures represent only the amounts that have been forwarded through the medium of 'Adapted from "Postal Savings Banks," The Independent, LXIV (1908),

postal money orders, and do not take into account the vast sums which are remitted to foreign lands by banks and express companies.

A striking fact is that 92 per cent of the money on deposit in savings banks is in eleven States of the Union-the New England States (comprising Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island), New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, and California, thus leaving thirty-five States representing deposits of only 8 per cent. This demonstrates plainly that the opportunities for depositing money in savings banks has not been sufficiently developed, especially in the South and West.

Every facility should be open to our people, and every man, woman, and child should be able to deposit savings in any portion of the country at any time of the day. This can be afforded by the Post-Office Department, because the post-office is established in every city, town, and village, there being exactly 61,814 post-offices. The postal savings bank, besides encouraging economy and thrift, would afford a place of deposit, free from any possibility of doubt or suspicion, for vast sums of money which might otherwise be hoarded and kept out of circulation through ignorance or lack of confidence. Wherever it may be, this money has lost its proper functions, and the business of the nation not only receives no benefit from it, but even the prosperity of the country suffers, and may be eventually destroyed.

The laboring man going home at the end of the week would frequently put his money in the savings banks if the opportunity were open to him, but he returns from his employment at a time of the day when the banks are closed and the saloons are open.

As an evidence of good faith that there is no intention or desire to compete with existing savings banks the rate of interest recommended is 2 per cent, the amount of deposit being limited to $500 for any individual or society. The Government (Post-Office Department) is a preferred creditor, and the Postmaster-General does not ask that any Government bonds shall be given as collateral for the deposits, as it is not desirable to absorb the bonds for that purpose, but that they be left free for currency.. The Post-Office Department would be secured as being a preferred creditor and by reason of the liability of the stockholders of national banks for double the amount of stock held by them, and the facility (through the Comptroller of the Currency) of examining the banks at any time.

In answer to the point which has been raised in a very few instances, that this would tend to encourage depositors to take their money from State or national banks, it is self-evident that any individual who has the intelligence to go to a national or State bank with his deposit does so for the advantage of having it subject to payment by check, and in order to obtain accommodations in the way of discounts of his own paper or that of his business clients. No business accommodations of any kind or description would be. obtained at a postal savings bank, not even that of drawing the money by check.

As to the effect it would have on savings banks, it requires but very little thought to convince one that a depositor who has his money in a savings bank (where he is receiving 3 or 4 per cent) will not withdraw it and place it with the postal savings bank, thus reducing his interest by one-third or one-half, except possibly in times of crises or flurries, such as we have experienced lately; and at such moments the great advantage of the postal savings banks would be felt because of the guarantee of the Government behind the deposits. The Government would be enabled to lead the money back instantly into the channels of trade through the national banks in the same locality, and be instrumental in overcoming sudden stringencies due to large numbers of depositors taking their money out of circulation or hoarding it.

208. SOME DETAILS OF THE POSTAL SAVINGS SYSTEM'

An account may be opened and accounts made by any person of the age of ten years or more, in his or her own name, and by a married woman in her own name, and free from any control or interference by her husband; but no person may at the same time have more than one Postal Savings account.

Deposits will be accepted only from individuals and no account will be opened in the name of any corporation, association, society, firm, etc., or in the names of two or more persons jointly. No account will be made in trust for another person (as is the case in many foreign countries).

No person will be permitted to deposit more than $100 in any one calendar month, nor will the balance to the credit of any depositor be allowed to exceed $500, exclusive of accumulated interest.

'From Instructions Issued to Postmasters by the Postmaster-General.

No account may be opened for less than $1, nor will fractions of one dollar be accepted for deposit at any time.

The interest rate shall be 2 per cent on deposits which have remained for at least one year, and will be computed only from the first of the month following the day on which the deposit was made. Postal Savings deposits will be evidenced by certificates of deposit issued in the name of the depositor. These will be non-transferable and non-negotiable.

To enable any person to accumulate and deposit amounts less than one dollar, depository offices will keep for sale postal savings cards at 10 cents each and 10-cent Postal Savings stamps which may be affixed to the cards. One card and nine stamps will be accepted as a deposit of one dollar.

Postmasters at depository offices must deposit daily all moneys received by them on account of Postal Savings business in local banks which have qualified as depository banks under the Act of Congress and the regulation adopted by the Board of Trustees, and if no local bank has so qualified, deposits must be remitted daily by registered mail to other banks most convenient to the locality, which have qualified as depositories.

Any depositor may withdraw the whole or part of his funds by surrendering at the depository office the savings certificates properly endorsed.

When the Postmaster has not sufficient postal savings funds on hand to pay demands for withdrawals, he must draw on the emergency credit allowed him by the Postmaster-General. If the emergency credit is insufficient to meet the demands, he must report the fact at once to the Postmaster-General, the right being reserved to defer payments until the necessary funds can be furnished to the Postmaster.

Accounts are to be kept private; no person connected with the Post-Office Department to give any information concerning them.

The deposits of postal funds in banks are to bear interest at the rate of not less than 2 per cent. No bank, however, is allowed to receive a sum greater than its capital and one-half of its surplus.

The Act requires that the Board of Trustees shall withdraw 5 per cent of the total receipts to be held as a reserve fund and at its discretion may withdraw 30 per cent more for investment in bonds and other securities of the United States. The remaining 65 per cent is to be kept as a working balance and may only be withdrawn by order of the President under extraordinary public conditions. All