The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-05
ST. PAUL PRovIDENT FUND. IT'S
OBJECT AND IT'S BENE-
FIT
CURES EXTREME POVERTY
BY CULTIyATING A. HABIT OF
SAVING, ESPECIALLY AMONG
THE YOUNG.
ALL DONE THROUGH STAMPS.
Money Can BE Drawn Out Any Time
-DepositOrs Later Urged to Put
Their Savings in Banks.

I" "A saving community is always a
law abiding community; saving peo-
pie seldom commit serious crimes
and we believe that as important a ser
vice as we can render the municipality
is to interest the larger number of
people possible in habits Of saving"
said Jas. F. Jackson, of the Associated
Charities, when speaking of the success
and future of the st. Paul provident
fund. It is doubtful if very many,
aside from those Immediately interest
ed in this scheme in ST. Paul, know ex-
actly the extent to which it has met
with success since it's organization
some ten years ago. The scheme is
one which has been successfully oper-
ated in few of the large cities of the
United States and comes the nearest
to the saving system which has proved
so efficient in Great Britain and other
foreign countries, known as the Postal
Savings, of anything so far organized
in America The members of the ST.
Paul Associated Charities are great
believers in Postal Savings and think
that till such a plan is organized in
to the st. Paul Provident Fund is the
nearest adaptation of postal savings
principles. Before the idea was intro
duced in ST. Paul the members of the
board of the Associated Charities used
the same methods. they have used in
every other branch of their work to
properly Investigate the entire princt-
pal as illustrated in the several cities
in which it obtained. That is, they
visited the cities in which the work
had been a success and also paid as
it had failed, making a careful study
of the work. The city which had
proved the most successful along this
line was New York. In this city the
Penny Provident fund, as it was called,
up to Feb, '96, had 300 substations and
net deposit Of over $31 900. The board
also secured literature from other
cities as we'll and made a careful COM
parison in order that they might Sc
cure the best thoughts from those
familiar with the work, and that
scheme which could be best adapted in
st. Paul. Of course no scheme of this
kind can be transplanted bodily from
enc city to another 1t must be care
fully adapted to local conditions if it
is to be successful and for this reason
the subject was taken under consider
alton by the executive committee with
Mr.. Jackson and several months ex-
tenSive correspondence carried on re-
lating to the work. A draft was final
ly made Of the scheme of the manage
ment and submitted to Hon. E. S. Der
ment, who conferred with the board
till everything was thoroughly sifted
and adjusted. When finished the board
believed it had the finest practicable
scheme for the conditions. In decid-
ing on a name the word penny was
rejected and the title ST. Paul Provi-
dent Fund selected as descriptive of
the situation. Of the need of such
a system of saving there was little
question. The object of the Associated
Charities is to prevent as we'll as to
cure extreme poverty, and it was felt
that one of the most effective ways to
accomplish this result was to cultivate
saving habits because improvidence is
a factor in nearly all poverty, and it
was hoped in this way to nullify as
far as possible this far reaching cause
for distress. saving it was argued,
is the first step toward rising perma-
mently out of need; often it is the only
way by which the poor may avoid
asking aims in emergencies. Having
found the need the organization under
took the work because it related to the
whole city, and the Associated Chart
ties as the agent of all the charities in
the city, and knowing the whole city
could care for the work with more uni
formity.
AS before stated, the scheme is very
similar to the postal savings idea.
Stamp stations are located at various
points about the city where some or
ganization has a headquarters which