Arizona republican., 1907-02-14

Withdrawals proposal was favorably
received in some quarters, despite the
I ridicule Of conservatives. Savings
banks. open to the whole general pub
. lie as depositors. forthwith TO be organ
| lied throughout the length and
breadth of Great Brit lin. Particularly
in thrifty Scotland where the name of
Henry Duncan, clergyman of Dunn
fries, is associated with the correct
working out of various practical de-
tails the institution that watches over
the pennies while the pounds take care
of themselves was early developed into
an important feature of the national
life. Most of the other originators, it
: is true. have been orgotten-although
il is also true. as Francis Jeffrey once
wrote in the Edinburgh Review: ut
would be difficult. we fear, to convince
either the people or their rulers that
the spread Of the savings banks is OF
far more Importance and far more like
" to increase the happiness and the
greatness of the nation than the most
brilliant success of its armies or the
most stupendous improvement OF its
trade or agriculture; and yet We are
persuaded that this is So"
Into Ireland, too. the new scheme OF
banks for the provident penetrated
quickly-though the Irish institutions
for savings, such as the celebrated one
at SullOrgan. founded in 1915 by Rev.
John Reade, had for many years a
peculiar arrangement by which each
each depositor's account was kept sep
arate. The Irish depositors at the out
set were 50 suspicious that they felt
that their money had been tolen unless
they could at Will see in a box bearing
! in the individuals name either the
coins and bills he had deposited or the
stocks and bonds which had been
bought with these.
Savings banks. as all the world
knows, grew rapidly into popularity in
Great Britain, until. about the middle
of the nineteenth century, special de-
partments for handling ordinary saw
/ ings as well as annuities and life in
surance were taken over by the British
! Post Office
The newly formed American repub-
( lie was only little behind the mother
country in adopting this benefcent
scheme for the encouragement Of hab-
/ its of thrift and industry among ii
plain people. That eminent advocate
/ Of habits Of economy, Benjamin Frank
lin, would have been delighted, could
he have lived but few years longer,
TO witness the practical application of
/ so many Of Poor Richards maxims.
/ through the opening of institutions for
/ the reception Of the penny saved. As
early as November. 1916. the Philadel-
phia Savings Fund Association began
1 doing business even before il had been
I incorporated The first savings bank
/ 10 be legally empowered to open its
doors in the United States was the
l Provident Institution for Savings in
Boston which a number Of philan-
thropically inclined gentlemen Of the
/ American Athens started very shortly
after their articles Of Incorporation
We're taken out on December Is, 1916.
/ In one of their earliest advertisements
( the statement appears: The trustees
will take no emolument or day for their
/ services, having undertaken solely TO
promote the interest Of the city and OF
: the persons above described who may
/ put their money herein This dispo-
I sitiOn on the part Of savings bank trus-
/ tees has continued down to this time.
Modest success was achieved by the
! Provident from. the start, and by nu-
merous other banks which were opened
} shortly after, though it was not ex7
I pected that any institution could han
die the very low aggregate of deposits
that are now common in all our great
cities. James Savage. for example,
| secretary OF the PTovident Institution,
and its guiding genius of the early
years. once announced that it would
D be time to wind up the banks business
I if ever the deposits should reach a to-
! tai of S1O.OOO.O 0O. No institution. he
| thought, could possibly handle so much
I money as that to a profit. Yet in New
] York city the Bowery Savings Bank,
/ the biggest Of all institutions of its
kind. has today deposits aggregating
| in the neighborhood of $100000,000 and
! there are in the metropolis sixteen 9TH
[ er savings banks that have exceeded
/ the limit Mr.. Savage imposed. Yet so
positive were various authorities in the
/ early days that large totals of deposits
were dangerous that in many states a
] limitation was imposed by law-as
when the Bowery Savings Bank was
incorporated in 1884 with the right to
handle 100000 only.
The stability of the American saw
ings banks has been frequently been
commented upon by students of finan-
cial history At the outset their fund