Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1893-01-26
SAVINGS OF woRKINoMEN.
of English Loan Associations.
Savings Banks. Etc,

Management of English Loan Associations
Savings Banks, Etc.
1t is reported that in many parts of
England and Wales workingmen's in
situations, which combine banking and
building operations, are becoming bank
rupt, chiefly through mismanagement
or dishonesty. In England there are
2,700 building societies, the liabilities
of which exceed ESQ, 1000, 200, many of
which are known to be utterly insol-
vent
By the side of these fallen institutions
should be placed the cooperative socie-
ties in distribution and production in
Great Britain which are managed en-
tirely by the workingmen themselves.
These have been eminently successful,
and very large proportion of the earn
ings of the working classes of Great
Britain are now invested in this man.
ner.
In New York, New England, Ohio
and Michigan, and in many other states,
savings banks have been the principal
institutions for the savings of the work
ing classes. These institutions as a
whole, have had splendid history.
The directors are usually persons who
have a sincere regard for the working
classes, and anxious only for the proper
management of the institutions under
their control.
In making loans, security rather than
the largest profits has been the ruling
idea. In few cases directors have be-
/, trayed their trusts by lending the funds
of the institution to their friends or
utilizing them for their own personal
ends, but examples of this kind have
To- +
been enacted to restrain them from
Iongdoing, and, so, in spite of their
numbers failures have been very rare.
The annual interest is low, but it is
paid with great regularity, and, in the
long run, savings bank deposits have,
perhaps, gained as much from their in
vestments as ordinary investors.
In Pennsylvania building and loan
associations have largely taken the
place of savings banks 1t is true that
few banks of this character exist in
the state, and have been managed with
great prudence and success But build
ing and loan associations have had a
singularly successful history. Seventy
million dollars or more are at present
invested in them, and they have been
made the subject of careful legisla-
| ton.
In other states such institutions have
had quite different history. Too often
| they have proved a failure, and one
reason is, as in the case of the building
societies of Great Britain, they have not
been managed by the workingmen in
| their own interests.
One lesson to be drawn from these
( facts is that investors should be slow
l.. I ell
should those who have acquired the ex-
| perience necessary to the profitable
management of their own funds be
wary about committing them to the
| management of others.
| Another lesson to be drawn from
these facts is, that the selection of hon
est and capable men is of far more con-
sequence than the nature of the mech
anism employed for making money.
| The miserable record of the get-rich-
quick associations that have been
launched in such large numbers in this
country in the last few years, to float a
few weeks or months and then disap-
pear, shows that they were designed
by bold, bad men, who make as much
out of them as possible and then sink
them.
Good machinery, good legislation,
counts for something in business, as it
does in government, but not for all II
is never so important as honest and
efficient men. Nevertheless, every eff
fort should be made to surround oul
savings banks, building and loan asso
Citations, and all other banking institu
tions with every safeguard that legis
lation can provide. Maya
zine.