The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-13
POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS.

POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS.
The outlook for the establishment of
q system of postal savings banks under
the auspices of the national govern
ment at the present session of con-
gress is better than 1t has ever been
before The idea has been approved
by successive postmasters general for
a long period of years, but there has
appeared to be a lack Of popular sup
port behind the measure. While the
people in general had no objection to
postal savings banks, they did not
strenuously demand them. In centers
of population where small economies
had come to be the rule, local banking
institutions supplied all needs, and the
national postal savings bank was I'M
casion for the spread of a desire to
have such a system established was
the panic of 1893 and the subsequent
mortality among banking institutions.
1t does not matter, for the purposes of
this discussion, whether the ideas to
which this gave rise are we'll founded
or not. We are. interested now only in
questions of fact, and the fact is that
the demand for postal savings banks
has grown and spread prodigiously
since that time.
An immense amount of small savings
were swept away by failure of banks
in different parts of the country. AL
throughout the crisis thereby demon
strated beyond all hazard their perfect
solvency and their right to the conf
dence of the people, the workingmen
and women who lay by few dollars
each week to provide for old age
argued broadly, and it will be the best
part Of q generation before the dis
trust which was borne in upon them
has disappeared. To these people the
idea of a place of deposit for their
savings that shall be absolutely be-
yond question, that shall not depend
upon local conditions or be affected
by them, that shall not stand or fall
by the accident of individually good or
bad management, but that shall be as
stable and as certain as the govern
ment itself, has become firmly fixed. A
large number of them can never be
persuaded to trust their savings to any
custodian less responsible than the ma
tional government. The time has come
thers fore, when the postal savings bank
plan is elevated to a position of high
public favor, and when the prospect of
success is open before it.
The greatest problem of all is one
to which those who might become de-
positors give little attention. This is the
method of disposing of or investing the
funds so collected. 1t is a thousand
pities that we do not have an admins
tration wise enough and courageous
enough to fit this requirement to the
present necessities of the case. Never
ed to the beginning Of a postal saw
ings bank system as the present. If
Mr.. Mckinley and his congress were
true enough to their pledges to the peo-
pie and good enough fnanciers to see
their opportunity, It is here. The pos
tai savings bank and the greenback
would occOmrnodota eacb other Tho
legal tenders could be retired by the
Issue of a corresponding quantity of
low rate bonds, and these bonds might
be purchased by the money deposited
in such banks. Thus the toilers Of the
nation would own and hold It's bonds
and our strictly fiat money would van
ish at the touch of labor's wand. The
problem of investment, since the ad-
ADMINISTRATION has not dared to do the
right thing, will be the danger point
It is proposed, in bill which has been
introduced, to use the moneys collected
to purchase bonds Of the United States,
. or those of the states and municipali-
ties that may be selected and approved.
The latter clause should be rigorous
ly excluded.
It will be bad time for the finances
of this country when securities Of minor
civil divisions are admitted to an equal
ity with government bonds, either as
q basis for banking or as an invest