The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1914-11-07
THE POSTAL SAVINGS.

"The war IN Europe is proving
big boon TO postal savings in
this country, From the very day
hostllities opened across the seas
postal-savings receipts began tC
increase by leaps and bounds and
Withdrawals fell off, result quite
contrary TO the predictions OF
many well.informed persons who,
i'll Their Imagination, saw lines of
feverish depOsItors at post office
pay windows anxious to again re-
turn their savings TO the bootleg
and body belt repositories whence
they came before entrusted to I'm
Gle Sam But the fOrecasterr
failed to reckon Oh the absolute
confidence Of the American citizen,
regardless of the flag that first
met his eyes, in The ability and
purpose Of the Government to
carry out its obligations, not only
among the nations # The earth,
hut with the humh.c9t citizen of
our land.
"Two important results have fol
lowed; thousands of people, large.
~ of foreign birth, accustomed to
send their savings abroad, are
now patrons Of our postal-savings
system; and enormous sums of ac-
tual casL have been released for
commercial uses among our own
people at a time when the need
for every available dollar is press.
ing.
"The growth of postal savings in
the United States has been steady
and healthy and the system has
filed an important gap between
the tn can depository and the fac
tory paymaster. On July /, when
affairs were running smoothly
here and abroad and the transmits
sion Of money across the Atlantic
was safe and expeditions, there
was approximately $4,000, 900 of
postal savings standing to the
credit Of about 3SS, 900 depositors.
Since then over $4,000, 900 of de-
posits have been added and the
number of depositors has iDcreas.
ed enormously. This unprece.
dented gain is the more striking
when it is considered that the net
gain in the last three months is
larger than the gain for the entire
fiscal year 1914 Scores Of offices
have done more pOstal-savings
business since the war has been
going on than was done by them
during the previous existence of
the service. The increases are
confined to no special localities,
but have been felt in every nook
and corner of the country. New
York City alone made a gain In
September of more than a million,
while Brooklyn showed relative
ly big increase Chicago reported
d larger gain in the past three
months than for the previous
twelve months. More than 1000
new accounts were opened during
the period, bringing the number
of depositors in that city up to
over 2l, 900.
"Tbe unexpected increase in
postal savings business has not
only added greatly to the general
administrative duties of the sys
TEN, but has brought up many
new and interesting problems
which have called for the careful
personal consideration Of Post
master General Burleson and
Grover Dockery, Third Assistant
Postmaster General. But their
task bas been hghtened somewhat
by the promptncss of depository
banks in furnishing additional
security to meet the abnormal de-
posits. A number of the very
largest banks iD the country,
which have heretofore declined to
qualify as repositories for postal.
savings funds, are now among the
eager applicaDts for them.'
The above' article, containing
iDformations about postal
savings, was sent to this Office for
publication by Postmaster Brous.
sard, of the New Iberia post Office. |
Our locality, like the other
places, according to our postmas
ter's statement, is on the increase
in postal savings receipts, which
for the confidence placed
IN the government by the deposi.
tors