The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-10-16
POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS.

For some years past there has been
a demand in certain quarters for the
establishment of a system of postal
savings banks by the government.
There have even been bills introduced
in congress for that purpose.
Nothing has been accomplished along
this line. except perhaps an increase in
public interest in the subject, probably
because the friends of the movement
have hitherto been unable to enlist at
tentiOn in the proper quarters. Con-
gress has been apathetic largely be-
cause it has failed to recognize any
widespread public demand.
Recently some of the leading news
papers of the country have taken up
the advocacy of the system and var
ious organized bodies have endorsed it.
The movement now has a friend in the
cabinet in the postmaster general him
self and it is not unlikely that when
the national legislature again assemblies
postal savings banks will be establish
ed as a permanent part of our institu-
lions.
Postmaster General Gary announces
that he is preparing plan for submits
sion to congress. There seems to be
little logical opposition anywhere to the
system. Such objections as have been
raised from time to time have been
promptly and effectually swept away
by the friends of the plan.
The operation of postal banks cannot
be called an experiment. Nearly all
nations have them.
Postal savings banks are in success
full operation in most of the British col
onies, among them Canada, New Yea
land, New South Wales, South Aus
tralia, Victoria, the Bahamas, and the
Of
banks were established in Belgium in
1870, in France in 1881, in the Neither
lands in the same year, in Italy in 1875,
in Austria in 1888, in Hungary in 1886,
in Sweden in 1888. Recently such banks
We're established in Russia and Fin
land. The system is also in operation
in Japan and in the Hawaiian islands.
In Austria and Hungary the govern
ment has gone further and established
banks of deposit affOrding a regular
check and clearing service. These
banks, however, are kept distinct and
separate from the savings banks.
The first postohice savings bank was
established in Great Britain in 1861
The act putting the system in opera
tion there was championed by Mr..
Gladstone, then chancellor of the ex-
chequer.
Lewins, in his History of Savings
Banks" says of the postal savings
bank of Great Britain: Next, per-
haps, to the repeal of the corn law,
this is the greatest boon ever conferred
on the working classes of the country;
and next to the scheme of penny post
age itself the scheme of postoffice
banks is the greatest and most import
ant work ever undertaken by the gov
eminent for the benefit of the nation.
The success of the postofice banks has
been Of the most complete kind
The total number of depositors in
savings banks in the United States in
1894, according to a report issued in
that year by the United States treas
ury department, was under 5000, GOO, or
about one in fourteen of the population.
In England one person in seven is a
depositOr in the postoffice savings bank,
to say nothing of the depositors in pri-
vate savings banks, who probably are
as numerous in proportion to the pop-
ufation as in this country. AS so per
cent of the depOsitors in savings banks
in the United States are in New Eng
land and New York, it follows that the
proportion of depositors throughout the
rest of the country is very small in
deed. Some account for the greater
number of depositors in New England
and New York by saying that the peo-
pie there are more economical and
thrifty than in other parts of the coun-
try. But the advocates of postal saw
4ngs banks assert that the people of
the west and south would be just as