New-York tribune., 1876-10-06

it by the aid of German votes.
THE WEAK POINTS or SAYINGS BANKS.
The suspension Of savings bank carries
with it so many disastrous results that 1t can
scarcely be compared with any ordinary busl-
ness failure. When a merchant stops pay
mcnt, the chief losers are usually men who
when they gave him credit estimated more or
less the possibility Of his failure; they had,
for Instance, different prices for goods sold on
time aud for cash sales, aud they expected
certain percentage of losses Oh credits. Nhen
q manufactures suspends, there is an added
element of hardship ii his wOrk-peorle are
thrown out of employment; but they, after
all, lose not their earnings bat merely the
opportunity of earning. In the case
of the failGre of bank of discount
AMI deposit, or Of railway corporation, the
loss inflicted often brings greater hardship,
but even in such instances it is rarely ruinous,
because it falls on a class of people who do
not as a rule put all their eggs in one basket.
Sayings-blnk depostors, on the other hand,
belong largely to the lower ranks in respect
to income and means OF support. Their saw
ing. are their sole provision against mistor-
tune. If they lose employment or if they or
tbeir families are visited by sickness, there Is
nothing but what they have in the savings
bank between them and starvation. People
who are in what are called moderate circum-
stances and have never known actual want,
cannot fairly sympa,hize with the anxiety
of the laboring man when he hears
that his savings bank is in trou-
ble. II is the one bank to him (;
he keeps no other deposits, nc has no property
elsewhere. II tuat fails, MI Is gone; his
friends are too poor to help him the common
occurrence of hcuc thrown out of employ
mcnt viii at once plGnge him and his family
into misery. Even #, after the banks SlS-
,,,,..i,n, u.rro - proSpoot Vf somo porocnt-
age being paid by receiver after long delay,
there will yet remain 10 such depositor the
feeling that he has been wrongcd and doubt
whether it j. worth while To save anything
hereafter. His spcndthrift companions in the
workshop will tant him with snccrs at his
thrift, ard suggestions that he might better
have spent his spare change as they do and
rot some good out of it, rather than 10 have
had it squandercd by bank officials.
I'm view of such effects, every failure Of "A
savings bank Is a loss to community out of
MI proportion to the money actually sunk
The errors in management which bring about
such result should be classed with the
criminal carele,sness that eXplOde5 the boiler
Of Il passenger steamboat or causes railway
collision The officers VINO bring such a bank
down to distinction ,hould be dealt with
,ummarily by lIf, aa the yiolators of trust.
I'm each instance oi thr su-p,u,l0r OF say
ings baul.. stIIcbiuE invest sa'tOn should
follow; II for no other reason. 80 :hat the
banks winch are not yet in straits may have
tbrir dangers pointed out while there is time
to avoid tlcm.
4 radical source of trouble to the savings
banks of New-l orl, and Brooklyn Is that there
are too many of lirh. The weeding-out pro-
ccs, has been rNcct1glly begun. Bat though
the survival of the ii,tc,t may be law Of
Nature. who is cruel to be kind its wholesale
application TO the artificial institutions of So
cicty would be a relapse into barbMlsm. The
smaller savings banks cannot be crushed out
of existence without crushing their depoSitors.
In every instance where they can be preserved
from failure no reasonable effort should be
left untrieG. The frs thing they need to do
is to cut down expenses. Unwise investments,
especially in bank buildings, and eXtrayagant
expenses, are the two rocks that need to be
blasted out of the savings bank chan
mel. UnhappIy some of the larger banks
have set Il bad example in both respects, and
some of the small banks have followed it.
When the pinch comes the savings bank build
ing NAV be accounted a clean loss, so far rs
paving depostors is concerned, during a run.
Taking the last report of the Supeuntend, MT,
let us examine some of the statements of banks
that still are solvent. Here is one, for instance,
that holds $40 100000 of deposits its sur
ulns is iS30OOO, while $620,000 are in its
luil,!ngs, leaving little over 100000 as avail
able surplus against a run-Say two per cent
of the deposits. Evidently there might be a
very '-ht pinch in such case to meet de-
mand. but the cost of management in that
hank is kept well down, and there are
uo present reasons for its depositors to be un-
easy. Let us take another case. A bank has
little over $9,OOO,OOO in deposits and a
surplus of SG55,000 it pays $71,3SS 81 per