The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-14
POSTAL BANKS WILL
 BECOME POPULAR
Working of Trial Banks Very
 Satisfactory
FOREIGNERS IN LEAD
Countries of the old World Have Been Using Postal Savings Banks for Many Years and Have Mi1-
 Hons of DepositOrs


 Washington. January 13-(Special. )-The information about the Bessemer, Ala, and other individual offices until the pos- tai savings banks system is well under way, it is announced But in the mean time the trustees of the system-the post master General, the Secretary of the Treasury and the Attorney General-say that they are fully pleased with the re- ports submitted from the postal savings banks in each of the AS states of the | union.
 The banks certainly have the approval | of the people Long before they were act ually established postmasters were be- ing importuned to receive deposits. The Postmaster General, too, was asked to be } banker, for the operation of the banks are not understood by all the people But the need for the banks would not seem to be palpable. Those who have not in- vestigated the matter can hardly under stand how many thousands of people have saved their money in cracks and crannies and crevices, in holes, under houses and similar precarious hiding 1 places. They can hardly understand how many hundreds of thousands of dollars have been banked in postal money or ders in which the same persons were payers and payees, giving the government l the fee for postal money orders to take care of their money. They can hardly understand that more than s100, ,O00,000 is sent abroad by the foreign born who will trust only governmentally assured banks. 1 All that money will go into postal sav- l ings banks.
 Foreign Postal Banks
 Our postal savings banks have many examples in foreign countries. Great l Britain started her system half cen- | tury ago after the bitterest opposition of | financiers who declared that it would | bring commercial disaster. But two years ago, though ruin had not come for pri- vate banks, the postal savings banks of | Great Britain had more than II ,000,000 de . l positors to whose credit stood nearly $S00,- 100000, drawing interest of more than s1S,- l o00,000 year. In Canada the average postal savings bank account Is more than | S20O All the European governments es- 1 tablished the system years ago. Japan, which established postal savings banks | in lS75, has more than 100000 accounts. They flourish in the Philippines.
 The system of the United States was fashioned eclectically after the best that the already made banks afforded. Its | operation, on the part of the depositor are simple. The patron hands his money | to the postmaster, receives a certificate of deposit for one or more dollars up to l S20. He may withdraw money at his 1 pleasure except that his checks of with drawal are good only at the office of deposit. The certificates of deposit may be exchanged for bonds of the denomi- nation of s20, $40, $50, s10o and $500. They will be both registered and coupon bonds. Rules for the Banks
 Two notable provisions are to prevent interference by the postal savings banks with local private banks. One is that not more than s100 may be deposited by l one person In month; the other that | the postmaster shall deposit in local banks the moneys deposited in postal sav- | ings banks. The local banks will pay not less than 2A per cent interest. 1 A detail that is expected to be very at- tractive provides that children may open accounts with 10 cents-it takes s1 for adults to enter the game of thrift. Cards and stamps, each of which is worth 10 cents, are used in turing the tender ju- veniles along the highway of wealth. After they have gotten s1 worth on their cards they are admitted into solid bullion re- | spectability.
 Of course, the banks have for their ex- cuse for existence the welfare of the man who makes little and can save less | He is permitted to open a bank account with small amount and he has the guarantee of the government. He has | then an inducement to save by reason of convenience and by reason of the inter- est his money will draw, 21a per cent not much, not as much as other savings banks would pay. But he is absolutely secured. In this country, as in all oth-- CTS, the establishment of the postal say ings banks is expected to lead to thrift | the young men had better opportunity to rise to high positions and fat pay en- velopes. I even feel that there is a chance for you and me, but here we are at Troy.
 "Other men who worked on the same 1 section with him are perhaps working on | the section today. Why? Because the door of opportunity was closed to them 1 No. It is because they stood around cussng the corporation when they should have smiled through the sweat on their l faces as young Brown did.
 'I wonder if the hotel is any good wonder what the town looks like. | wonder what kind of people we will see. | I wonder if the courthouse stands in the middle of the public square sur rounded by hitching posts and horse trad CTS I wonder if the streets are paved. | I wonder if the women are good-lookers. I wonder-but we will have to wait until | morning to see.
 q hate to go into a new town at night and have to go to bed before I get a look around at things. You can have no idea of your surroundings and have strange premonitions of what surprises await you for breakfast. You go to | q strange hotel, register while an offici- ous clerk eyes your baggage suspiciously. You are shown up to a stuffy room in the attic occupied by a mule driver or a spectacle peddler the night before per | haps, and you go to bed with four walls of mystery expressing you on every side
 You strain your ears for familiar sounds and try to form an idea of your