Omaha daily bee., 1899-07-09
Remarkable Record of Work Done in
Promoting Public Thrift.
BUSINESS OF %PoSToFFCE SAVINGS BANKS
seven MILLION Depositors and $780,
~ OF TundS-Bcnehts Ac-
ruinE to the Nation and
the People.

empire. and its enormous transactions fur
nish abundant proof Of its popularity. There
are 1000. 900 depositors on the rolls OF the
bank and its branches and its funds aggre-
gate 5000, 600, 600.
mo financial institution in all history
writes a correspondent of the New York
Sun. has enjoyed so marvellous a growth
as the British Postofice Savings bank. II
was founded only thirty-eight years ago. So
quickly did It win the confidence Of the
| public that a separate building for the ac-
commodation of its headquarters stan soon
became necessary. Extensions and addi-
tons which have since been made have
been fully occupied as fast as completed UNI
til no further accommodations near the
general postofice were possible without ex-
penditure ont OF all proportion to the ends
required. The growth has been so rapid
that more than 100 clerks have been added
to the staff each year for more than ten
years past. 1t is obvious. after a moments
thought that there is good reason for main
tanning the headquarters of the bank in the
heart of London.
Differs from Ordinary Banks.
The Postofice Savings bank is not a
bank where current accounts are kept.
There is no payment of checks over the
counter, no customer can enter into any
confidential relations with the bank-in fact
there is no bank management in the ordi-
nary sense of the term. For the receipt of
money the bank has an office in every town
and village in the kingdom; there are now
over u, 900. The withdrawal of money is a
l~eisurely affair and must be conducted by
correspondence, consequently the direct re-
lations of the head office with the public
are of the slightest character. The bust
.-- 49,. E.
it has been a distinguishing feature of the
bank from the first that all accounts should
be kept in London and every payment made
from there, to issue warrants for the repay
nent of deposits and to conduct a volumi-
nous correspondence.
The duke of Norfolk, the present post
master general, secured the broad tract of
land, covered for the most part with church
buildings, adjoining the Olympia show, Bar
mum & Bailey's headquarters at West Ken
sington. The location is rather less than four
miles from Charing Cross. and is, OF course,
the most distant of that of any departmental
government buildings.
1t is worth while to outline briefly from
the reviews of the work of this remarkable
institution published today the principal fea-
lures of its growth. The point which will
most forcibly impress the American mind is
ILt AdSl hat uIS u per CtIl anu uuTlnB re-
cent years 2a per cent interest has been
sufficient inducement to draw the pennies
and shillings of all classes in a fabulous ag-
gregate to the Golfers of the government.
Growth of the Business.
The bank opened its doors in September,
1861, and at the end of 1862 it had $50, 900
accounts. amounting to IS, 100, 900. In the
five years from 1863 to 1868 the total sum
deposited stood on the average at e., DOC, 900.
in the succeeding five years at Els, 900 900
and from 1875 to 1880 at G29, 900, 900. Then
came Mr.. Fawcett's regime at the postofice.
The savings bank appealed to him as an in
s~titution which helped the laboring classes
to help themselves, and he became its
apostle. He brought the bank within the
reach of children by providing the penny
stamp slip, and thus enabling the schoolboy
to make up the minimum deposit Of a shil.
ling by pennies put by from time to time.
At the other end of the scale he enabled the
depositor who was approaching the maxi
mum to buy consols through the bank and
thus to recommence his deposits of cash,
And by his power of popular exposition he
made all who were interested in practicing
or encouraging thrift familiar with the ad-
vantages of the bank. The result soon be-
came apparent in the accounts. The deposit;
rose to an average of AZ, 900, 900 between 1881
and 1885, and in 1890 they had risen to g.
900, 900.
But during the last decade the business OF
the bank has perhaps made the most gi-
gantic strides, for at the end of 1897 the
deposits reached the astonishing sum OF
nearly ELS, 900, 600, and by this time they
have doubtless exceeded s12O. 900, 900. In
an old report of the postmaster generals
there is a forecast that for some time the
annual inpreaga in tho savings hank husinpSs
would be from 1870, 900 TO lao, 900 in the
number OF depositors and about 81, 500 ,00C
in the amount of the deposits. Between
1885 and 1897 the number OF depositors in
creased by ST., 900 and the amount deposited
by nearly 5000, 900. The vast sum held
by the bank is made up OF a great multi
tude of small savings; there are more thar
1000, 600 of depositors and the average sun
standing to their account only slightly eX-
ceeds sl6. One in every five persons in
England and Wales has an account in tins
bank. In Scotland the bank has never beer
SO popular, not because the population il
less thrifty, but because the ordinary bank.
invite the deposit of small sums; boti
there and in Ireland one in every fourteen
persons is a depositor.
Widespread Uses.
1t is not only by taking care of the say.
ings of the individual that the Postofhct
assists thrift. 1t is the banker OF friendly
societies, penny banks and small. charitable
funds of all sorts. 1t is used by the wal
office for the savings of soldiers abroad anC
for the deposit OF deferred pay, while tn,
Technical Education Board of the LondoI
County Council pays its scholarship.
through the books Of the bank. WheI
school pence were abolished the PostOfic,
and the education department co-operateC
in an attempt TO capture for the benefit o
the children the small sums previously pait
for their education and it is estimated tina.
e4O,0 was deposited through elementar!
schools in the first year after the change
Nor has the bank destroyed the oldeI
agencies for the encouragement of thrift
the trustees savings banks. Very many o
the smaller banks have been closed, anC
this is not to be regretted as the dificultie.
OF voluntary management not infrequentll
lead TO disasters. But the larger AM
sounder banks are in a better condition to
day. than they ever have been and the tota
sum deposited in trustee banks exceeds b,
several millions the amount which the,
held when the Postofhce entered the hel,