The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-12-02
Postal savings Banks.

To the Editor of The Herald:
| l was surprised to see in your col
umns yesterday morning an editorial
opposing postal savings banks, for the
reason that the editor fears there
would be no way to invest the money
and that the interest would have to be
| paid by taxation.
1t seems to me that if there is one
thing we need in this country above all
| others, it is the placing of the control
of the money of this country in the
government, as far as possible. So far
as the investment of the deposits is
concerned. to begin with we have a
government debt of 81 200, 900, 600, which
might just as we'll be held by our COM
mon people as by national banks and
foreigners. Then again, municipal
county, state and school district bonds
of the United States afford certainly
as safe an investment for the govern
ment as they do for the savings banks
as they exist at present. There is no
reason why the government cannot in
vest the funds deposited in the postal
savings banks as safely as the saw
ings banks which now exist can in
vest funds which are deposited in
them.
The depositor in our savings banks
as they now exist knows when he de-
posits his money that it is to be used
by the banker for the purpose of in
creasing the wealth of the banker, and
it is usually the desire on the part of
the managers of savings banks to
make large profits, which causes losses
! to depositors whenever they occur. The
government, as an investor of the saw
! ings of the people, would have no in
! terest in making q profit on the saw
ings over and above the expense of
conducting the business and paying
the interest on deposits.
What we lack in this country is a
system of government which will give
! 10 each Individual citizen, as far as
possible. q direct interest in the stabil =
! ity of the government. In all the civil
lied countries of Europe not only do
they have postal savings banks, but
all government obligations, from the
smallest school district up to those of
the general government itself, are is
| sued in denominations usually of less
than So and upwards, so that the COM
mon people can invest their savings in
them. Not only are they so issued but
! they are sold to the common people
upon the installment plan, so that a
washerwoman, if she pleases can buy
a So bond and pay for it at the rate of
! % cents per week. Every individual
who owns one of these bonds is direct
! ly interested in the stability of and in
the economical administration of the
government Let the government es-
tablish postal savings banks and as
soon as certain sum- say So or $40,
has been, deposited give the depositor a
government bond for that amount, and
as fast as our government debt ma
lures it will be taken up by the COM
mon people in this way. These gov
eminent bonds of small denomina tons
will be q direct addition to the volume
Of our currency, as they will pass read
! lily from hand to hand in payment of
obligations. At present there are few
bonds of any kind issued in denomina-
/ tons of less than $1,000 The result is
! they are only handled by the rich. The
common people have less interest in
our government than they have in
England. France or Germany. Give
our common people, as soon as pos
sible, q direct financial interest in our
government and it will do more than
any one thing to breed a spirit of pa
trotism. AS it is now, we are raising
up class of citizens who are begin
ming to feel that the perpetuity of this
government is of very little concern to
them and that they can not be much
worse off, no matter what happens.
Yours aesI ectfully,
FRANK II. STEPHENS.