The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-04-20
Savings Banks.

Of course savings banks might be
made really safe; and there are I'M
doubtedly several savings banks now in
this city which are trustworthy. Still
the confidence which people put in the
mere name of a savings bank is as I'M
reasonable and indefensible as the
confidence of the African in his fetch.
What did the majority of the depositors
in the Sixpenny Savings Bank know of
Mr.. Miles and the other officers of the
bank? What good reason had they to
believe that these men had honesty and
intelligence enough to make them fit to
be trusted with other peoples money?
So long as people in this blind way will
trust their money to virtually unknown
men, need we be surprised that to be a
savings-bank officer is perhaps the most
profitable career of crime upon which
an enterprising malefactor can enter?
The real foundation of this belief in
savings banks is the theory that when
one irresponsible man takes to himself
two or three other irresponsible men,
and they Jointly call themselves bank
officers, they become ipSO fdcto trust
worthy. The native African King be-
lieves that if lion drinks water over
which fetch man has cast spell, the
beast instantly changes his nature and
becomes gentle and inoffensive. We,
who pity the ignorance of the native
Kings, believe the words savings
bank" exercise a magical influence
upon all men who call themselves saw
ings-bank officers, and that they are
thus made incapable of stealing or OF
wasting in foolish speculations the
funds intrusted to them. No one in his
senses would think of rushing into the
street and asking the first stranger
whom he might meet to accept without
security the loan of few thousand dol
lars. Even the depositors of the Six
penny Savings Bank would have
thought themselves unfit to represent a
Western constituency in Congress had
they opened the City Directory at haz-
ard, and, on noticing the name of
William Miles," had, without any
further knowledge of him, gone to his
house and begged him to take their
money and give them Il receipt for it.
The Sixpenny Savings Bank was moth
ing more than partnership between
President Miles and few other men
equally unknown to the general public;
but hundreds of people who would not
have lent a dollar to Mr.. Miles or his
associates personally gladly brought
their money to those gentlemen as soon
as they found them sitting at the re-
ceipt of deposits in bank building
Of course, there is but one explanation
of this. The public believes that men
undergo a miraculous moral transfer
nation when they become the managers
of savings banks, and that the bank
fetch will render it impossible for bank
officers to steal.
In like manner we know all about
the real nature of savings banks. Year
by year we have seen them explode and
vanish, leaving but fantastic mockery
known as Receiver behind them.
Cashiers and Presidents in long and
uninterrupted succession have marche d
toward the Canada border, or to the
wharves of the transatlantic steam
ships, carrying the assets of their saw
ings banks with them. Yet, knowing
ali these things, we still cling to the
delusion that it is safe to lend money
without any security, provided the
borrower occupies a building over the
door of which is the sign "Savings
Bank. ~. T. Times.