The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-07-22
Good State for the Test.

These folk think that Massachusetts is
a particularly good state In which to test
out their ideas The savings bank, which
IS naturally adapted to handling life in
surance-since insurance Is only a special
lied form of savings-has such public
confidence that ii is. they hold, the ideal
institution from which to offer policies
bank in the United States was opened in
The city of Boston ninety years ago
Massachusetts has long had the best saw
ing communities proportionately to pop
ulation, OF any American state. The
total OF deposits to the credit of wage
earners on October 81 1906. was S694 OS1. -
l4l6S, sum nearly equal to the interest
bearing debt of the United States and
exceeding the total assessed valuation
OF Maryland, Kentucky or Connecticut
The savings banks have for many years
been conducted without scandal or re-
proach and they necessarily stand high
IN the esteem of the population support
ing them.
Part of the original scheme of the saw
lngs bank as this was devised in Eng
land was that it should contain depart
ments for issuing life insurance policies
and annuity contracts. The savings banks
IN this country have up to this time had
to establish their position as a necessary
part or the financial world, and as civic
cehters compare bic with the school and
the church in the inculcatiOn of the
standard virtues. Now. however, 1t is
proposed to see If the original idea
Of the founders of the Institution can
not be successfully executed, first in
Massachusetts and afterWard elsewhere
Inc act enabling the experiment to be
trleQ was passed by decisive majorities
in both branches of the legislature on
Beacon hlll- Public opinion in support of
the measure was aroused through the
energetic campaign conducted by the
Massachusetts Savings league-an asso-
citation formed last November for the
purpose Of promoting the idea of savings
insurance, an outsrowth of the investi-
10 h. -
Boston lawyer. into the present excessive
cost OF industrial life insurance
Work Of a Young Man.
Practical direction of the affairs of the
league was taken by Representative Nor
man H. White. a young Boston publisher
serving his first term in the legislature
Mr. White organized the activities of the
league much as a campaign for new bus
mess would be organized. The argument
Tor savings insurance was presented in
every important center of the state by a
flying squadron OF speakers. Citizens
were urged to enroll themselves until at
the present time membership of more
than 10000 stands on the books at the
headquarters, "a Park street This City
Ex-Governor William L. Douglas, a
wealthy shoe manufacturer Of Brockton
who early became interested in the plan
consented to become the leagues presi-
dent. Among the vice presidents is Elk
Governor John L. Bates. The present
was so strongly impressed with the prof.
ect that he included a strong recOmmen-
dalton OF it in his 1907 inaugural large
proportion of the labor unions of the
state, one after another, have expressed
their approval of the scheme almost al
ways by unanimous vote. When the
measure, in the form of a carefully
drafted bill, finally came before the leg
islature, bearing the approval both OF the
recess committee, the insurance commit
tee and of the state bank commissioner.
Pierre Jay, what else was there for the
Legislators to do but to pass It? The peo-
pie wanted it, 1t was a merely permissive
act. No bank was obliged to try il.
Accordingly it went through amidst pIau-
dts from a well laden band wagon
Must Be Separate.
BY the law an insurance trust NAV at
any time after next November be estab-
lished by any one of the 1888 savings
banks of Massachusetts,. This must be
kept however, entirely separate from the
ordinary savings trust; and before any
step can be taken In this direction, O ma
Jority vote of the incorporators and a
two-thirds vote of the trustees at a meet
ing specially called for the purpose must
express sense of the wisdom of the ae-
ton. A license by the state will not be
granted until special guarantee fund has
been provided from sources outside the
bank to cover any possible deficiencies in
the expenses OF the department. and a
~2ecial insurance guaranty fund has been