Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-12-08
SAVE THE DIMES
And the Dollars VIII Take Care
of Themselves.
Bill Providing for Postal Savings
Banks

To He Introduced in Congress at an
Early Date by Representative Caldwe H.,
ofOhio-The United states ana Germany
the Only Large Countries in the World
without the System.
WASHINGTON, Dec. s. Congressman
Caldwell, of Ohio, will probably intro
dice in the ne}r future a bill providing
for the establishment Of postal savings
banks. He already has q draft of the
bill prepared, and is collecting data to
be made the basis of the details of the
measure.
We are Behind the Times.
The United States and Germany are
the only large countries in the world
that have not postal saving systems.
HOW 1t Works Elsewhere.
In England there is about $100, 900, 900
on deposit in the postal banks, so called
and one person in every eight in the
| kingdom is a depositor. This shows
the popularity of the plan. Some $70,-
100000 is on deposit in the postal
savings bank of France, nearly S6,0O0,-
600 in the Netherlands, and even the
| little Hawaiian kingdom has adopted
the system with the result that some
2,700 persons have availed themselves Of
| it, depositing about 81 600, 600.
Building Associations.
In the United States the building as
sociations have affored opportunities for
people of small means to lay up money
and get q good rate Of interest on it, but
in many portions of the country build
ing associations are comparatively un-
known and saving banks do not exist
so that the only place that the man with
but few dollars to lay by has is the
traditional stocking. In one portion Of
| the country, containing 12,O00,O0O Of
population, there aIe not as many places
Of deposit for the saving Of small sums
as exist in a single city of $4,000 inhabi-
| tants in New England state.
No Danger OF Going Under.
One of the best arguments for the pos
| tal savings system is that it would give
| the poorer classes a perfectly safe place
to deposit their surplus earnings. Those
| who have enough to buy government
bonds are at present the only ones that
have the guarantee of absolute security
that the placing Of money with the gov
eTnmont brings and those Of small
means are compelled to take chances
WIFI J4lS Savings DdlAhp VI pullNAiiS
associations.
The Interest Would BE Small.
While it is proposed to make the in
terest paid ON deposits in the postal
banks small, the security would have a
value of itself and would be an induce
ment to careful people to place their
money in the care Of the government.
Some fears exists that the building asso-
Citations would suffer were the postal
savings systems to be adopted, and it is
likely that they would. But they pos
sess some advantages peculiarly their
own that would insure their perpetuity.
There would be very little competition
between them and the postal savings
banks.
May Be Passed This Session.
There seems to be an excess of fear Of
disturbing existing relations between
savers and their depositaries, and for
that reason it Is not beyond peradven-
ture that Representative Caldwell's
bill will be taken up at once and acted
upon favorably in time to admit of its
passage at this session. 1t remains for
the small savers to make known their
wishes and give support to those who
incline to the adoption Of the savings
system that has been strongly success
full everywhere that it is in vogue.