The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1906-10-04
4 PHILIPPINE
EXPERIMENT.
POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS AUTH'
DRIED IN ISLANDS.

Scheme Which Has Been Long and
UnavaiIineIy Advocated in This
Country to Be Tried With the Fill
ipinos-First Banks to Be at Mani
la, IIolo and cebu-SimpIe charac-
ter of the Plan-ResponsibIity for
Financial Oversight.
Plans for a postal savings bank
have been advocated in this
country for so many years
that it would not be re-
markable if the promoters of such
plans were thoroughly discouraged by
the monotony of their failures writes
the Washington correspondent OF the
New York Posts There has invariably
been a good deal of favorable COM
ment to the effect that such schemes
are interesting as abstract plans, Dut
there has likewise been enough opposi-
tion to prevent the federal govern
ment from giving it's sanction to the
idea in actual practice. To all those
who have believed such a plan prac'
ticable, there is note Of interest in
the announcement made today by the
Bureau of Insular Affairs Of the war
department that a postal savings
bank under government auspices has
been authorized in the Philippines.
Information to this effect has just
come from Manila.
It will be a strange circumstance,
in the opinion of officials here, if this
country has to learn through expert
ments made with the aid of its less
highly civilized constituents or de-
pendents in the insular possessions.
The postal savings bank in the
archipelago will be created as dlv1-
sion of the Bureau of Posts, under the
direction of the department of COM
merce and police. It was authorized
by an act passed by the Philippine
commission a short time ago, and Or
dered to be placed in immediate
charge of an official bonded in such
amount as required by the insular au-
ditor. The three municipal centres
Manila, Iloilo and Cebu-have been
named as the locations for the first
banks. and as rapidly as practicable
the list will be extended to include
other cities, towns and villages.
The chief argument employed by
advocates Of the plan is that while
any individual who has started an ac-
count may enter or withdraw deposits
of any amount at any time, he will
have just as much freedom in increas-
ing or depicting his account when he
is in any part of the islands as If he
we're to appear in person at the very
Office where he had made his first de-
post. Considering the monetary diff
ficulties under which the Filipinos
have been struggling in the effort to
get upon their feet financially and be-
come prosperous people, it is Iappar-
ent that the introduction of system
which will give them practically as
fair opportunities as are enjoyed by
the American man with his check
book is widening their horizon, and If
nothing more, encouraging them to
believe that the government is offer
ing them new opportunities for bet
tering their own condition.
In order to make the plan suscept-
ible of popular use it has been devised
upon the simplest lines imaginable.
The banks are divided into three
classes. Those of the first class may
receive deposits and permit withdraw
ais of any amount, subject to the pro-
visions of the enabling act. In those
of the second and third classes limi-
tation is placed upon the amounts
which may be deposited or withdrawn
at any one time and on the total de-
posits in any one calendar month to
the credit of any one account Depos-
its in either of these classes may be
made either in currency or in the
form of postal savings bank stamps.
In the third class Of banks, deposits
may be made In stamps only. The
limit of deposits and w1thdraws is
doubled in the case Of charitable and
benevolent societies.
To encourage participation in the
plan and to facilitate deposits OF small
savings, especially in the smaller
communities, the savings stamps have
been fixed IN denominations OF o, 10
and 20 centavos, in distinctive colors
corresponding to cards arranged with
10 or 20 spaces. Each card bears an
Identification number like national
bank note, and when it's spaces have
been filled with stamps of the proper
denomination, it becomes thereby the
equivalent, on presentation at any
savings bank, of the money represent
ed by the stamps. They may be re-
deemed at face value for postage
stamps also, but when turned in for
deposit are to be cancelled as soon as
entry is made to the depositor's cred