The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-07-06
Letter From Banker Indicates
Much Dissatisfaction
POSTAL BANKS ARE WANTED
New System of Postal Savings VIII Not
he Established for Some Time
Owing to the Clerical Work
That Is Necessary

| washington, july o-topecidi.J un-
qualified statement that the vaunted
state guarantee banking system" of
Oklahoma is defective and that its oper-
ations are partially in the hands of in
competent persons, is part of a letter to
the postoffice department from an Okla
| homa banker who requests that the de-
| partment establish as expeditiously as
possible postal savings banks in Okla
| homa for the purpose of comparison by
actual competition with the state banks
| there.
| The letter, of the many that the de-
partment has received from persons in
| terested In the postal savings banking
system that the government Is preparing
to operate under the provisions of the
law enacted by the Congress at its last
session, is at once the most interesting
| as a proof of the eagerness with which
people are awaiting the new venture,
and the strongest in Its advocacy or
methods whose merits and demerits were
| so thoroughly and bitterly discussed, par
| ticularly in their relation to Oklahoma's
banking laws, which in nearly all de-
bates on the question were kept to the
|
banks The banker, whose business is
domiciled in a town of about $1,000 peo-
pie, asserts that the guarantee deposit
! law Of Oklahoma is ION the wane,' and
that 1t is or soon will be one of the has
| beens" He is very desirous, he wrote
to try out the local law alongside OF
the postal savings bank system. and he
made the statement, in reference to the
proposed comparison by competition, that
the guarantee deposit system Is bound
to come to grief" He charged that some
l of the state banks are in the hands CT
incompetent men, "and some day things
will break loose and the rottenness will
be exposed
Dfsapproyes of System
Just what the rottenness is, the banker
did not specify; but the tone OF his let
ter was aggressively disappearing.
The working principle of the Oklahoma
state bank guarantee deposits laws Is
guarantee fund for the protection OF
depositors in the banks. The fund Is
composed of revenues from tax OF n OF
per cent on all deposits In all banks
In Oklahoma, national and state; and
any banks liabilities to depositors are
thus guaranteed indirectly by the state
That state, by the levy of the a or l
ner cent tax on deposits, compels all
hanks operating in the state to contribute
proportionately to their respective de-
posits, to the guarantee fund.- whicn IL
a reserve fund securing depositors'
MANY bankers have objected to the
oklahoma plan, and one OF the nios'
frequently made charges against II rs
that it's tax upon deposits OF one haiI Oh
one per cent, Is too heavy burden. lts
effect upon national banks was mucn
discussed and it was believed by most
bankers that it worked special naro-
sbins upon them, but opinion upon that
nbose NJ the subject is more widely dis
c,ssea now and that the belief that the
st.te hanks were given a great advant-
age over the national does not SO gen.
| orally obtain.
Postal System Delayed
| The letter from Oklahoma, In addition
| to presenting the fact that the natiohai
postal savings bank system, where de-
positors will have the security or their
deposits vouched for by the federal gov
ernment will be operated In actual COM
netition with a system where the guar
antee is made by the state of Oklahama,
utilizing the enforced contribution from
banks correlated by the strong II not
| socred tie of taxes, Is notable for bring
ing out again the impossibllity OF the
| governments early establishment of its
newest branch of the postal service
| 1t is impossible now, even II 1t were
expedient, for the department 10 desig-
nate or indicate the post offices In which
savings banks will or may be incorporat-
| ed. 1t Is quite probable that the postal
savings banks will be graded and classi-
| fled appropriately to the office of which
| they are to be made part, an that will
| ouite as probably be one of the last
works of the board of trustees Of the
postal savings bank system upon which
Congress laid the burden OF establishing
the system.
| In the meantime bankers are eagerly
asking that their banks be designated
repositories of postal savings funds.
postnlasters are asking that their Off
ces be Immediately enlarged with bank
ing facilities of which their patrons are
| In need, and clerks in postoffices and
banks are asking for jobs In the now
| function of the government. Letters OF
| this kind, numbered 65 in todays mail
| at the department, and they came from
many different states and cities. from
east and west and south, from New
York and Philadelphia and little Texas
villages and California communities.
| And the only answer that the departA
ment can give is mot yet nor soon
either f