The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-30
POSTAL SAVINGS AT
 ENSLEY LARGEST IN ENTIRE STATE
Deposits Show Large In- crease Since War Began and Withdrawals
 Show Decrease

The Ensiey postoffice. which is the ! largest postal savings bank in the state
 of Alabama, shows deposits of Sio.s4aon.
 Tor the three months of August, Septem-
 Der, and October, 1914. which is an in- l crease of s29io.oo in deposits. over tho
 same three months in last year, and
 withdrawals of ss7ss for the above three
 months, as against withdrawals of s5oos for the same period last year, s decrease of sl2i9.
 The amounts of deposits and with
 drawals for the last three months show
 an increase in baalnoe to credit of de- l positors of s6a6s. This office has at pres
 ent gss open accounts and of this mum
 Der 12s are in the name of people of foreign birth.
 The Italians. of which Ensley has a
 great many, seem to realize tho advan-
 tnges that the postal savings bank offers.
 for Of the i9 accounts opened by people of foreign birth, 94 of them belong to Italians. The total deposits at present
 are s29,S6s, for the 229 accounts, an av- craze deposit of S1I, which indicates
 that the small depositor is the one who Is making the deposits. the average wage earner or man with Il small salary, who wishes to put away a small amount each
 month. and who realizes tho absolute | security that postoffice bank offers The war In Europe Is proving big boon to postal savings. From the day hostilites opened across tho seas postal savings receipts began to increase by l leaps and bounds and withdrawals feli | off, R result quite contrary to the pre- dictions of many well informed persons who, in their imagination. saw lines of feyerish depositors at postoffice pay win dows anxious to again return their say ings to the bootleg and body-belt de- positories whence they before intrusted to Uncle Sam.
 Two important results have followed. thousands of people, largely of foreign birth accustomed to send their savings abroad, arc now patrons of the postal savings system and enormous sums, Of actual cash have been released for com merc1al uses at time when the need for every available dollar k pressing. Scores of offices have done more postal savings business since tho war has been going on than was done by them during the previous existence of the service. The increases are confined to no special locaii- ties. but have been felt in every nook and corner of the country. New York city alone made gain in Septemebr of
 more than 100000, while Brooklyn showed
 relatively big increase. Chicago re-
 ported larger gain in the past three
 months than for the previous 12 months. More than TOO new accounts were opened during the period, bringing the number of depostors In that city up to over | 2, 900.
 The unexpected increase in postal saw ings business has not only added greatly to the general administrative duties of the system, but has brought up many new and interesting problems which have called for the careful personal considera- ton of Postmaster General Burleson and Governor Cookery. third assistant post l master general. But their task has been frightened somewhat by the promptncss
 of depository banks in furnishing addi- tional security to meet the abnormal de-
 posits. number of the largest banks
 in the country which have heretofore
 declined to qualify as Repositories for
 postal savings funds. are now among the eager applicants for them.