The National tribune., 1895-02-21
OUR REMEDY.


enacted, into operation. Cleveland is hard
: pressed. He wants the gold now for Wall
street brokers to ship to England. Another
!. thing, the bankers, You know, won't allow
the Government to establish savings banks
ii would be interfering with their rights. But
t suppose such banks were now in operation,
the Government only wants gold, the people
) do not have it, and if they had, and would
, deposit it with the Government, it would at
once be drawn out and exported. Any
money which goes into bonds is merely laid
away inactive-interest-eat not employ
ment-giving. The getting of interest does
not stimulate the employment of labor, and
such general employment ut remunerative
wages is the best and only guage of prosperity.
What is now needed is to find employment
for The people, so they may earn something
with which to buy the necessares of life.
No money now but gold and not enough of
that to 90 around. n. STEVENS Denver,
Colo.
Our correspondent over-estimates the
time that it would take to put the Postal
Savings Banks into operation. 1t really
need not take a month. 1t would not
take two weeks if Congress would act
with the promptness and decision of the
Government during the war days. Con-
gress and the President then grappled
with infinitely bigger questions, and
settled them wisely in few days The
present is great emergency, and Con-
gress should wake up to it as Congress
did to the momentous questions of
1861, 90.
There need be no prolonged discussion
of the Postal Savings Bank Bill. 1t
involves no administrative difficulties
or dangers of any kind. II is not in
the least an experiment, but has been
thoroughly tried in England, France,
and other European countries, where it
is now working very successfully. They
have carried it there to very fine point.
For example, man in England wants
to begin by the deposit of penny. He
goes to the Postofiice and buys stamp,
and is given Savings card" upon
which he pastes the stamp. He contin-
ues to add stamps until he has 12-one
shilling-when he hands his card in, and
the sum is credited to him. We have
no figures at hand later than 1887, since
which time the system has grown enor-
mously. In that year the number Of
depositors in the Postal Savings Banks
of England, Ireland, Scotland, and
Wales was 3,95l,76l, and they had on
deposit the immense sum of s53,974,065,
or s269,S70,324, an average of about
s6S.29 apiece. About one person in
every nine in the United Kingdom was
a depositor. The same ratio would give
us about 100000 depositors, and the
same average deposit would give the |
Government the use Of S500,000,000. |
As our outstanding interest-bearing debt |
Feb. /, 1895, was s664,323,710, this
would absorb large proportion of that |
obligation, and some 100000 year
interest would be paid to the people in
stead Of to the banks and foreign bond
holders.
Up to 1887 Austria, Belgium, France,
Hungary, Italy, Sweden, The Neither
lands, Great Britain, Canada, Cape of
Good Hope, Ceylon, India, New South
Wales, New Zealand, Queensland, South
Australia, Tasmania, and Victoria had |
adopted this plan, with the best results.
The interest paid ON deposits varied from
% per cent in the United Kingdom, to
80 per cent. in France, 4 per cent. in
Canada, and 5 per cent. in some of the
Australian Governments.
As to the gold, the Treasury wants to
borrow some S64,000,000. This is less
than 81 apiece for every man, woman
and child in the country. There is no
doubt much more than that amount
would be Immediately placed on deposit
under the operations of the Postal Say
ings Bank system. There is much more
than that lying around in some old tea
pots, stocking-legs, bureau-drawers, and
other places of saving. 1t would all
come out if the Government would ac-
cept it and pay interest upon it. Few
would hoard away S. gold pieces if they
could get a Government certificate for
each, promising to pay 10 cents year
interest.
Of course, we must expect the opposi-
ton Of banks and others to a plan which