Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1877-06-27
The Savings-Banks.

in the administration of the trust. it
commits great wrong. Next to the
necessity of fortifying the savings of
wOrkpeOple intrusted to banks against
all fraud, misuse, or mismanagement,
i the urgency of maintaining intact
the confidence of the public in all sound
institutions. The savings-banks. with
out being charitable institutions. are
more beneficent than any charitable in
~titution ever devised. They are, in
truth, the only method ever conceived
by man by which the condition of the
wOrking-class can be permanently anne
horated. BY affOrdinS a means of rem
dering savings secure and profitable
they encourage savings, and every one
who has studied the question knows
that poverty i to be aVerted only by
the industry and economy that accumu-
late savings. Alms-giving NAV AT
times DE a temporary necessity: but the
so-called charities of the world have
made poverty than they have relieved.
The SavingS-bankS, by paying a profit
on the savings intrusied To them. and
by utilizing these savings ~ capital. by
which industry is sustained. have ac-
complished double beneficence that
can scarcely be overstated. When Lord
Jeffrey declared that the spread of saw
ings-bankS Is more likely 10 increase
the happiness and even the greatness of
a nation than the most brilliant sue
cess of it, arms or the most stupendous
improvement of its trade or its agri-
culture, he stated no more than the
truth.
With these facts i'm mind. il is pecu-
liarly painful to hear on every side de-
uunciatiOns of and SneerS against the
Savings-bauks. Ii j. too true that
within few years several banks have
failed and a good deal of distress has
been thereby inflicted; it i Shamefully
true that some of these failures resulted
from fragrant breaches of trust; and il
i urgently true that every practicable /
means should be taken to insure bank |
depOsitOrS against a repetition of such |
disasters. But the current indiScrimi- |
nato cen,ure j. doing more real injury |
than the failures did. When we see an |
influential contemporary declaring that |
the SayiugS-banks ''are no longer Ia he 4
trusted: that they do anything hut |
save: that they insure nothing hut /
total loss to those who put their money |
in Them" and find these extravagant /
utterances freely copied and generally /
sanctioned, il i necessary To protest |
against them. They are supremely un- |
just and wholly mischievous. Ii the /
reader will give his attention to a few /
statistics, which, 50 far from being /
dry, will both surprise and entertain 4
him. he will see the gross injustice of |
the accusations we have quoted. Our I
statistics are necessarily confined to
those of the State of New York. none |
others being at hand:
There has been intrusted 10 the say
ings-bankS of this State since their be-
ginning from 1919 to January /. 1876 |
the sum of two billion one hundred and
seventeen million dollars 81. JIG, ,S5S.-
9S6). There has been paid or credited
10 depoSitors during this period, as profit
or interest, one hundred and sixty-nine
million four hundred and twenty-nine
thousand dollars, while the banks hold,
as contingent fund against exigencies
a surplus of nearly thirty-four millions.
The amount held by them on January
!. 1876 at this writing the statistics for
the whole State up TO the lst of last
January are not in, was three hundred
and nineteen millionsof dollars. These
huge figures show the vastness of the
interest. Now, a careful estimate of
the losses that have occurred by failures
places them at about three millions of
dollars. Il have" writes a bank-of-
ficer to Us, ''made careful estimate
based upon the opoinions of the receiv-
ers. the reports of the bank superinten-
dent, and my OWN judgment, and |
place the amount at about three mil
lions. which is half a million more than
the estimate Of the superintendent" "
This loss l. large. and il has nearly all
occurred since 1870: but. big a. it i. il
i only One-eleVenth of the surplus held
by the banks-the surplus over and
above interest paid; it i about one-tifty
sixth of the interest or profit that has
been paid to depoSitors: ii il, on the
whole amount of funds that have been
intruSted to the banks. less k0R one
SsceHth gf one per ceBt.: if the entire az
gregate of loss had been crowded into
last year il would have been less than
one per cent. on the balance held by
the banks. In the superintendent re-
port made To the Legislature i'm 1870 the
losses on the aggregate of deposits mp to
that time were asserted to be less than
SBe-bUHGredb Of me per ceEt.-leSS than
the tenth of mill on the dollar-and
not a dollar ofthi- loss occurred through
fraud, And vet We are told that these
banks do anything but save; that they
insure a total loss to those who put their
money into them" aud we are further
told by the same authority that ''confi-
dence is gone" A. the deposits in the
banks in New York CITY increased last
year fourteen millions of dollars. this
assertion is also Il little at fault.
Under any management there must e,
have been heavy losses i'm consequence
of the recent great Shrinkage in values.
All old banks with Il large proportion ,
of their funds invested i'm securities at I
ante-war prices can readily Withstand [
the Shrinkage: new banks necessarily I
stagger under it; and unfortunately :
new banks have within the last twelve I
years been organized with dangerous [
frequency. Up to 1865, banks were {
chartered on an average of one and a 4
half year; from that date to 1872 they t
were chartered at the rate of eleven a {
year. In this fact alone we see potent |
source of danger. The bank-depoSits q
had become 80 enormous that they at d
tracted the attention of irresponsible i
and reckless men, and, despite the l
warnings of the old banks, charters d
were loosely and indiscriminately {
given. This i now so well understood d
that there is little danger of a repeti- c
zion of the evil. :
But, Notwithstanding the dark spots t
on the recent record, our statistics show /
that, as a whole, the savings-bank fund 4
has been well administered: and, pre- a
vious To 1870, its history is fairly un- r
paralleled by that of any trust in the il
world. We know of nothing in which {
the percentage of loss has been so little; h
we know of no human device that has I
money more secure. Even if v
we include the recent history, it would {
be difficult to point out any interest i'm
the country which has suffered less.
At time when the most cautious en-
terprises of merchants are attended v
with loss. when nearly all investments 4
in real estate prove unfortunate, when e
shrinkage occurs in all forms of secu- a
rites, when every kind of property has 9
deprecated, the sayings-banks must Ii
share in the general distress: but we "
affirm that the losses they have inflicted o
nnon tho community are mUeh less d