The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1910-11-12

"i NC uooiSHdJeu uepOSltO-
rles has not yet received any prac-
tical consideration.
Among the numerous faults of the
system is one, the seriousness of
winch does not appear to have been
fully appreciated. This is the harm
that VIII be done to the development
OF a community by withdrawing from
1t the money that is needed for its
own use. Whatever money the post
oiilce gets from the members of a
community must, in accordance with
the law, be shipped to the designated
depository bank which may be ten.
fifty or a hundred miles away and the
injury thus done is at once apparent.
The local bank is the greatest fac
tor in bringing together the needed
capital for the development of home
enterprise and it must depend largely
for this capital upon the small saw
lngs Of the wage-earner whose money,
equally with that of the larger de-
positor, is returned to the community
In the form of loans for developing
its enterprises. With this active
money sent away to larger business
centers, the growth of the smaller
cities Is brought to standstill and
by a method as unfair as it is I'M
business-like, the outsider prospers at
the expense of the people whose thrift
has furnished capital which should
certainly be kept for use at home.
Just what will be the result of the
extremely unsystematic and unsatis-
factory condition of the whole postal
bank scheme it is hard to say, but it
is certain that it will result in a con-
fused state of affairs such as has
never been witnessed before in the
history of political experiments. The
$1OO,O00.00 appropriated to establish
the system is ridiculously inadequate
and, consequently, the number and
facilities of the postal banks will be
very limited until such time as more
money can be obtained from Con-
gress. One leading authority claims
that the money appropriated will do
little more than cover the expense
for preliminaries in the way of sal
aries, preparation of blanks, record
books, cards, stamps, etc.
Furthermore, there does not seem
to be any assurance of anything like
uniformity in the plans proposed to
be adopted and by the time that the
date for receiving deposits arrives,
the amount of misunderstanding
throughout the country will be colos-
sal.
1t now appears that a further diff
ficulty is to be placed in the way Of
those who desire to withdraw their
money. Not satisfied with compelling
the depositor to wait ten days, or
more, before he can receive his mon
ey from the postoffice it has been
practically decided by the Board Of
Trustees that postal savings shall be
withdrawn only from the office where
the deposits were made. With the
frequent changes in residence that
the poorer classes in a growing coun-
try, such as this, are apt to make, it
will be readily seen that an important
addition to the already great incon-
venience of the whole business has
been added by this latest regulation.
1t is claimed that while the plan of
allowing depositors, under proper
to withdraw their funds
from any office has many advantages,
it would involve large expenditure
and consequently will not be allowed.
In fact, after an examination of the
Postal Savings Bank rules, as they
now stand, it would seem that they
combine a maximum of inconvenience
with a minimum of service.