Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1909-12-07
POSTAL SAVINGS N

LIE StCOliu 6uUJCSt NOALbS =
in the Postofice Department is the real
necessity and entire practicability or
establishing postal savings banks. The
successful party at the last election de-
clared in favor of postal savings banks,
and although the proposition finds OPP
ponents in many parts of the country.
L am convinced that the people desire
such banks, and am sure that when
the banks are furnished they will be
productive of the tmos good. Tne
postal savings banks are not consti-
tuted for the purpose of creating COM
petition with other banks The rate Oh
interest upon deposits to which they
would be limited would be SO small
as to prevent their drawing deposits
away from other banks.
1 believe them to be necessary in
order to offer a proper indueement 10
thrift and saving to a great many peo-
pie OF small means who do not now
have banking facilities, n to whom
such a system would offer an oppor-
tunity for the accumulation of capital
They will furnish a satisfactory sub
stitute, based on sound principle and
actual successful trial in nearly all the
countries of the world, for the system
of government guaranty of deposits
now being adopted in several Western
States, which with difference to those
who advocate 1t seems to me to have
in it the seeds of generalization to
conservative banking and certain
financial disaster.
The question of how the money 5e-
posted in postal savings banks shall
be invested is not free from difficulty,
but l believe that a satisfactory pro-
vision for this purpose was inserted
as an amendment TO the bill considered
by the Senate at its last session. II has
| been proposed to delay the considera-
ton Of legislation establishing a postal
savings bank until after the report OF
the Monetary Commission This report
is likely to be delayed. and properly 50.
because of the necessity for careful de-
liberation and close investigation. I do
not see why the one should be tied up
with the other. 1t is understood that
the Monetary Commission have looked
into the systems of banking which now
prevail abroad, and have found that by
g. control there exercised in respect to
reserves and the rates of exchange by
some central authority panics are avoid
ed. Ii IS not apparent that a system Of
postal savings banks would in any way
interfere with a change to such a sys-
tenn here. Certainly in most of the
countries in Europe where control is
thus exercised by a central authority,
postal savings banks exist and are not
thought to be inconsistent with a proper
financial and banking system.
Following the course Of my dis
tinguished predecessor, 1 earnestly rec.
ommend to Congress the consideration
and passage of a ship subsidy bill, look.
ing to the establishment of lines be-
tween our Atlantic seaboard and the
eastern coast or South America, as well
as lines from the west coast of tht
United States to South America, China
Japan and the Philippines. The profits
on foreign mails are perhaps a suf.S-
cient measure Of the expenditures which
might first be tentatively applied TO this
method OF inducing American capital &c
undertake the establishment of Amer
lean lines of steamships in those direc.
lions IN which we now feel it most i'm.
portant that we should have means OF
transportation controlled in the interest
Of the expansion of our trade. A bill o.
this character has once passed tbs
House and more than ono passed the
Senate, and / hope that at this session
q bill framed on the same lines ane
with the same purposes may become
law.
In several departments there is pre-
sented the necessity for Legislation
looking to the further conservation
Of our national resources. and the sub
ject is one of such Importance as I,
require a more detailed and EXTENDED
discussion than can be entered upoi
in his communication. Fol hat rea
son / shall take an early op%portunit,
to send q special message to Congress
on the subject of the improvement o
our waterways, upon the reclamation
and irrigation Of arid, semi-arid, and
swamp lands; upon the preservation
of our forests and the ~reforesting O
suitable areas: upon the reclassifica
ton of the public domain with a view
of separating from agricultural settle
ment mineral. Goa and phosphate land.
and sites belonging 10 the government
bordering ON stream suitable for TIL
utilization OF water power.
! commend TO your careful consider
ation the report OF the Secretary %
Agriculture as showing the immens'