The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1910-09-13
VALUE OF POSTAL
SAYINGS BANKS

Especial to silver Dtats.)
By F. J. Dyer.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 13.--Some
idea of the great value that the postal
savings bank will be to the people Of
this country may be gathered from the
experience of other nations. Six
European nations, in 1907 and 1905,
had 26,O00,OOO depositors in their po.
stal banks, with deposits amounting to
81 ,641 100000. England led with TO-
100000 individual depositors who had
$766, ,000, 900 ON deposit, an average of
$72 each. Italy and France each had
| 100000 depositors, and the average
amount on deposit was $58 in Italy and
| $55 in France. In Belgium there were
| 2, 100000 depositors having an average
of $64 each. in Austria 1000, 900 de-
positors having $22 each, and in Rus
sia 1,800,0 900 depositors having $72
each. Canada in 1909 had 5000 de-
lpositors with $45 200, 900 or $500 each
to their credit. The average savings
bank account in this country is over
$400. In New York state alone the
139 savings bans had, Oh July l. 1909,
81, ,444, ,974 ,S60.61 ON deposit almost
as much as all the postal banks in the
six big countries Of Europe. This is
believed to indicate that the postal
savings bank in this country will have
q volume of business that will be tre-
mendous. IT follows that the machin-
cry for the handling Of this business
will of necessity be complex. The cen
tral office in Washington vii soon re-
quire a building OF large size and many
clerks to do the bookkeeping. For the
purpose of deciding on the many de-
tails connected with putting the postal
banking system into effect, q board OF
officials is now engaged in working
out comprehensive plan, and it is
probable that many, and perhaps all. of
the details will be tested in bank to
be established in Washington.
Travellers and Customs Duties.
The American Economist, organ of
the protected industries Of the United
States, is annoyed, not to say angry,
because the secretary of the treasury
recently made ruling that "Upon the
identity of wearing apparel and other
personal effects, which have been al
lished to the satisfaction of the col
lector or his representatives on the
pier as articles taken abroad as bag
gage by residents of the United States.
duties should be assessed upon the
value of such repairs or Alterations
only, upon the production of satisfac-
tory evidence of the character and
cost thereof
Residents of the United States re-
turning from abroad have been much
annoyed by the requirements that they
pay duty on repairs or alterations to
articles in their possession. They may
not have been justified therein, but the
ordinary American citizens resent the
prying scrutiny of the customs OH
cials, as they would police surveillance.
The American Economist, however,
thinks that the secretary of the treas
ury is too lenient. It says: "This rul-
ing is contrary to the universal prac-
tice from time immemorial. Already
lit is causing trouble to customs off,
GERS.
"The great objection to the ruling
is that it opens wide the doors for
fraud. How easy it will be for fash
ionable dressmakers to take abroad
dummy gowns and bring them back
made into the latest creations and es-
cape the payment of duty upon every
thing but the actual labor performed
in such remodelling. Under this ruling
no customs can be collected upon the
ideas, the original designs which form
by far the greatest part of the foreign
market value of the Parismade
gowns"
The Economist thoroughly defines its
position when il says: "And there is
no equity on the side of the traveller
whereby he should escape the payment
Of duty on the full value of the article
in its advanced or improved condi-
| tiono
No one who has met the customs of
ficials at New York or San Francisco
face to face, who has been compelled
to submit to searching catechism as
to his baggage, whose statements and
declarations were treated with sus-
picion or else downright unbelief, and
who has had to stand by while the con.
tents of trunks and travelling bags
were spilled without ceremony upon
the dirt covered docks, will have much
patience with the Economist or the
highly protected and still unsated in
dustries to which it panders. It were
a question indeed whether the bene-
fciaries of the tariff would better go
on demanding their pound of flesh or
whether thy would better give heed
to the temper of the people and rea-
lie that "insurgency' may be placat-
ed by justice but that it cannot be
dubbed into submission