The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1878-07-18

lower, theff 1hteiigence and business en-
terprise less than that Of other natiOnsi
deny it. We have perfected the ma
ehinery for the more intricate work; shall
we not give it an additional task entirely
consistent with its functions?
There ere fOrtv-One hundred and fifty
nine money-Orde- Offices in the United
States. About four hundred more will be
created July l. These do an average
business to the extent Of $3.50, O00, 600 pes
annum. Have they absorbed the exchange
business OF the country? Have they re-
duced or crippled its other banking inter-
ests? Not at all. Since the money order
Offices were established that branch OF the
banking business with which it was sup
posed to iEterfered has steadily increased.
Statistics prove this to be the fact. The
postal money -order Offices have simply
increased the number Of persons who do
business in that way. 1t has been a con-
venience almost exclusively for the people
and never interfered with the ordinary
bank transaction OF business men.
A careful examination Of the bill matured
by the committee will show that it intrudes
no new or disturbing element into the Post
Office Department. 1t creates no new de-
partment or bureau. It does not multiply
governmental machinery, already too cum
brous. The share the Post ONCE Depart
ment performs in the work is subordinate
one, and is predicated on the simplest plan
to work in harmony with and to use the
machinery already existing for the money
order Offices In each State there are
certain great disbursing pOst-Offices. These
are branch Offices Of the Department real
! V. To these large numbers Of money
| order offices are now required to send their
funds each day, or every few days, under
regulations OF the Department suited to
their circumstances.
On these Offices mail contractors, route
agents, and other employees or creditors Of
the Government draw. These disbursing
officers take In and pay out. While the
details are left to the Department this bill
gives the power to receive money as 1t Is
now received for money orders and trans
NIT to these disbursing Offices promptly,
and from them to the sub treasures and
Treasury Of the United States. There Is
nothing novel i'm the machinery introduced.
1t is Just as easy to send two hundred
dollars as one. The Department has al
redy complete machinery for transmitting,
and it would really cost little more. The
local postmaster keeps his books under
such system as the Department can best
devise, with checks and provisions for ac-
countability. He can, II necessary, COM
pei the depositor to transmit to the proper
Office receipt for each deposit, only 1t
shall be free Of charge to the depositor.
He is required to furnish pass-bOOk receipt
To the depOsitor arranged with such check
as he may think proper. Under the pass
book system alone a single fraudulent
transaction would surely be detected.
The committee in maturing the bill was
very careful to provide that the task as
signed the local money -Order Office should
not be too burdensOme or complicated.
The success Of the whole post Office sys-
TEN requires three grand essentials: SIM
plicity, directness, and rapidity. This
additional task interferes with none Of
these principles, but requires them all.
Many people thoughtlessly demand that
the post-office shall simply be a bank.
taking in and paying out money over the
counter. The condition OF our money
order post Offices at present does not cd
nit Of that. 1t would be too intricate and
too responsible. As in the English and
Canadian systems everything runs to and
from the central Office or its agent, the
depository. Every item Of paying in Is
accounted for, and every item Of paying
back is on notice, and authority for every
transaction comes from the central Offices.
This was Indispensable, and the labor Of
the committee in framing this bill was
to secure every essential requisite OF
savings bank, and yet make it subject to
these inevitable restrictions. The local
post office expense is provided for by the
application OF portion Of the apprOpria-
ton made in the act for rounding the
national debt. That was 1 per cent. Of the
amounts. In funding the four and four
and-a-half bonds, that amount was used
for advertising and agents and syndicates,
and the necessary machinery to float the
debt In funding this loan to the Govern
ment by the people we provide precisely
the same amount for this post Office ma
chinery 1t may be asked, is It enough?
The money order system costs five eighths
of per cent, but the money -orier system
is more cumbrous, and necessarily more
expensive.
The experience of the countries that
have adopted the postal savings banks
would justify me in saying that OF l per
cent. wuold probably be enough, in con-
junction with the money-o rder system, but
ii is very safe at the per cent. provided.
Il was the purpose OF the bill not to
confound the separate functions required
but keep each distinct. 1t does not con-
template and its trainers did not believe
this House would tolerate a new Depart
ment or bureau as designed in the bill
framed by the Committee on the Post
Once and Post Roads The first function
of these national savings-banks the col
lecting and accounting, Is In the Post
Office Department, where it takes its place
as u portion Of the money order system.
Then the line is crossed into the Treasury
Department.
The first portion Is merely detail, cOnve.
nience, incidental; the second contem-
plates great principles and great interests.
The first is to obtain money, the second TO
dispose Of it. II we pause for one mo-
ment to contemplate the fact that our
nation has gone and is going abroad to
borrow money at high rate u coin inter-
est, we are amazed when we reflect that
the people Of our own country have the
means at their disposal to do AWAY with
this if we viii only furnish them the requi-
site machinery, the Indispensable security.
From every old wallet and buried box the
funds will be drawn under the magnetic
attractions Of interest and security. Sure
lv the wise and beneficent management Of
q popular lean is within the Just province
of government.
Such loan to be possible must furnish
the people the means 10 get their money
again whenever thew need or want IT, To
furnish this means Of immediate convert
bilitv into ready cash Il at once indispen-
sable for the people who deposit and for
the business interests Of the country,
which forbid its being locked up. And for
this reason the provisions Of the Senate
Wallace TN, and the House Robins Bur-
chari bili, and the bill of the Committee
on the Post Office and Post Roads, will
not do. BY all Of these the funds are
invested in long time 4 per cent. bonds.
As these bonds can be bought for currency
they will never rise above the price Of
currency: but they may and assurediy
will at times fall below n. Especially will