The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-04-02


1867 the annual average was only SO per cent,
currency, or 1-13 per cent, gold. During the
years 1859 and 1860, moreover, the very years
you have described "as the darkest periods ever
seen by the laboring people of America the
deposits in the savings banks, not only of
Massachusetts,, but of all the other States,
increased in aratlo that has almost no precedent
in the history of the country.
But beg OF you to observe, further, that If
the swelling sum of $50, ,43l, 583-the amount of
the currency deposits in the savings banks of
Massachusetts in l867-were reduced to the
proportions which it truly bears, when COM
pared with beef, bread, clothes, or rent-which
are mainly what workiugman wants money
for 1t would be found that the worklngmans
investment in q savings bank, under your
regime, was very much like what Mr.. johnson
wished q capitalists investment in Government
bonds 10 be, namely, no right to any interest,
and profound sense of thankfuln .ss that even
the principal was recoverable at the maturity
of the promissory obligation. In order to
render this fact perfectly apparent to you, let
us subject to analysis the statistics of the
savings banks of the State of New York. By
returns furnished me by the bank department
at Albany, end that the average per deposltor
in the New York savings banks was:-
January l, 1851 S22i' gold.
Let us now determine the comparative value
of the average currency deposits OF 1868, as
measured in gold, and also in -four meats, rents,
board, and commodities in general-the prices
assumed for the latter being those which the
evidence already submitted proves to have pre-
vailed through the Eastern States during the
years 1S67-6S:-
$28l, currency, reduced to gold (135) s2Ns
1921, currency, reduced to flour rates Q90) las
S2Sl, currency, reduced to rates for meats
OF all kinds QS5) 151
S28l, currency, reduced to rents (166l 100
S2s1, currency, reduced TO prices for board
s2Si i,0t currency. reduced to the general LOO
average of prices in 1865 17S) 157
banks in Philadelphia, the results will prove to
be not dissmilar. Thus according to the re-
turns of the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society,
the largest institution in that city, we find
The average per depositor in January, 1861,
The ' average per depositor in January, 1868, ,'
Same reduced to- gold at la5 oowest, net ~.
Same reduced TO -four rates Q9O) ITO
Same reduced to rates for meat of all kinds 80
Same Gne'r reduced to rent (166) . i2s
Same reduced to prices for board u76) 119
Same reduced to general prices Q7s) 1l73
Even if the average advance since 1860 in the
price OF the commodities essential TO the exist
ence ard comfort of workingmen has been only
so per cent, as you say, the purchasing power
of the average OF individual deposits in the
savings banks of the State of New York would
be only 1877 in 1868 against 224 IN 1861, and, for
the city of Philadelphia, lao as compared with
1872.
Ii it be objected that it is not fair in this COM
parison to reduce currency to gold--or that a
dollar IS always uollar-it seems eItain that
this objection cannot be fairly urged against a
comparison OF the purchasing power OF the
money on deposit at different periods in respect
to other commo odities than the pre- ;ious me tals.
Otherwise, what comparison. it may be asked,
could have been instituted in case the present
currency had deprecated to an equal extent
with Confederate money? Is the quantity OF
deprecated paper money deposited In savings
banks to be made the test of the prosperity of
the people? If so, then the greater the depre-
citation the greater the prosperity.
There is one other point which examination
of the statistics OF the savings banks of Phila-
delphia reveals, which commend to your con-
sideration as of special interest. 1t Is that the
increase in the number OF deposltors in that
city has not kept pace with the increase of the
population. Thus, in the Safety Fund Savings
Bank. the increase in the number Of depositors
from 1860 to 1868 was 27a per cent, while the
population of the city during the same period
Is estimated to have increased from $4,000 to
$4,000, or at the rate of nearly SO per cent.
statements submitted in respect to savings
banks, the story Is yet but half told. Formerly
the deposits in these institutions represented in
great part the hard earned accumulatlons Of
persons who were entirely dependent for sup
port upon the wages received for the perform
ance of daily routine labor-such as operatives
in factories, day laoorers, mechanics, needle.
women, clerks, and small traders. Now, on
the contrary, all the evidence tends to show
that exactly the contrary condition of affairs
has been established. Thus, for example, in
the manufacturing city of of Lawrence, Mass,
operatives directly employed IN the mills, 1868
persons are returned as savngs-bank deposit
tors in that place for the year ending October,
1868; but OF this number only one'fourth, we
are officially informed, were operatives.
In short. the recent increase Of savings. bank
deposits in the Eastern States is chiefly due to
the fact that they are more lightly taxed than
any other kind OF invested property. This Is
well illustrated by the case of Massachusetts,.
Till within year the tax on savingsb bank de-
posits in that State was only one-half of one per
cent, and as the investments OF these institu-
tlons were profitable, being very largely in
United States bonds and bank stocks, the
depositcr received a net increase of seven per
cent. without risk or trouble. The consequence
was, that new class of people, for whom the
savings banks were never designed, and who
had no right to avail themselves OF their
ard to deposit the largest sums
which are permitted to draw interest The
amount in Massachusetts, is required to be less
tLan $1,000 standing TO the credit of one per
son. But to avoid this, deposits are made i'll
the names OF the wife and minor children, until
| they often amount to several thousand dollars.
| More palpabe violations of the law than this
are also e'orted to or permitted by some lnsti-
| tuhoDs, which, when the depositoT's account
| reac ed the legal limit, allowed him to open
| another, and still another, in his own name,
| the pass books being numoCled l, 3, etc. The
| single fact, therefore, OF recent rapid aCcumu.
lauon 10 the deposits OF savings banks "does
not, of itself,' to use the language of the Bank
| Commissioners of Massachusetts,, in their report
OF 1867, "afford any evidence that they are per-
| forming the beneficial work expected of them. u
An instance may be given OF one savings bank
in the interior of that State, which having four
| or five years ago some 5000 900 of deposits, was
| taken in hand by retired capitalist, anxious tC
develop its possibilities, and IN the short space
ofthree years carried up to capital OF 500, 900
| the accumulatiOns being all drawn from the
nOnulatOn of an agricultural district This