The Topeka state journal., 1897-11-18
ALMOST UNANIMOUS.

Samuel Conpers has recently given
his endorsement to the postal savings
bank system in the name of the Ameri-
can Federation of Labor. The Organi-
zation is said to have a membership
of 500 900 If President Gompers is
certain of his ground. and so far his
action has not been questioned, it
brings to the measure a force that
congress can hardly afford to ignore.
The plan seems to appeal to people of
all classes as one which viii prove to
be of great benefit to the people and
the best of it is that it can be put in
operation at so slight an expense The
machinery is already in operation and
the men to operate it are already in
their places. The necessary buildings
are prepared and furnished.
In England not only is the handling
of the mail and the postal savings bus
mess carried on under the same roof
but the telegraph and the express busi-
ness as well and by the same govern
ment employees.
p. T. Brown. president of the Gales
burg National bank of GaIesburg, Ill,
had the following to say recently in
favor of the postal savings banks:
Yes, I believe in postal savings
banks. There is a need in our coun-
try-yes, an absolute necessity-that
people should be taught to make a ju-
dicious use of their earnings; in other
words, taught to save money. This,
like all other education, should begin
with the young. The postal system
would help in this, as it would be in
the reach OF all and would afford any
one. even the small children, an oppor-
tunity to make a beginning in saving
something. 1t should be started on a
that now never sees a bank. In this
way the penny is cared for until it gets
enough added to it to make a dollar,
and from this it grows until it reaches
a judicious Investment homestead
and loan association, a lot or a home
started, or something to which the
owner attaches a value. Then this
person begins to become something.
Here ends our anarchist and socialist
and government ownership, which so
many today are advocating and of
which so many are afraid. The secret
of saving is to make a beginning.
When this beginning is made then
there arrives something better in the
individual The saving must be used.
invested, set to work. Out of this
grows the business habit, and out of
this habit the man who develops and
becomes capable of managing it. Now,
it seems to me as a means to this end
ali auXiiaries we can advise that are
just and honorable should be used. Do
ing things is contagious, and if this
movement was once universal and be
came a popular movement all would
move more in that direction and in
time might become a national charac-
teristic
mo; it is my opinion banks and
bankers as a rule are not opposed to
the postal bank system, and it is my
opinion the system in time would be
come an adjunct of banking and bust
ness, just as in church the Sunday
school is a help to the church-not a
competitor. We should take a broad
view Of these things, not a selfish one
Selhshness hurts the self in business
a swell as in morals. Yes, for one
you may put me down for postal saw
ings banks, and as said before, when
the time comes you viii find banks are
not. as d rule. opposed to them. as they
will recognize in them an adjunct of
business of all kinds and it is out of
increased business that banks grow
and prosper"