The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1915-05-21
SCOPE OF POSTAL SAVINGS
WIDENED.

Every person in the United States
ten years old or over may open an ac-
count in a postal savings bank after
July 1, according to an instructive
leaflet on the Postal Savings System
Just issued by Postmaster-Gene
Burleson. This important extension
of the service will be made possible
by permitting persons living in COM
munities so sparsely settled as not to
Justify the designation of their local
post Offices as regular postal savings
banks to open accounts by mail.
Governor Dockery, third assistant
postmaster general, who has direct
supervision of postal savings, was so
impressed by appeals from all over
the country to open postal savings &C
counts by mail that he took up the
task some weeks ago of working out
a feasible and safe method for meet
ing a demand well illustrated in let
ter from Saline county Missourian,
who resides many miles from postal
savings bank:
Having a few hundred dollars
saved from fifty years of hard and
assidious labor and skimping econ
omy on the part of my wife and my
self. we concluded to deposit it in the
postal savings bank of -. We
wrote to the postmaster at that place
and received reply to the effect that
none but patrons of that Office could
deposit in that Office which is very
disappointing news to us. Our little
farm is not large enough to support
us and land is so high that it is i'm
possible for US to buy any more with
so old that we can't labor much now
and we would be so glad to lay by at
least enough to put us away in de-
cency."
Under the plan adopted by the
postmaster general for opening &C
counts by mail an intending deposit
or, residing where there is no regu-
larly designated postal savings bank,
will apply to his local postmaster who
will see that necessary identification
data is prepared and forwarded to a
nearby post Office authorized to ac-
cept deposits. The intending deposit
tor will then be given permission to
forward his first and subsequent de-
posits by money order or registered
mail direct to the postmaster at the
banking point for which receipts or
certificates will be issued. He may
withdraw all or any part of his pos
tai savings by mail and on demand
together with any interest that may
be due him.
The new leaflet points out that any
person ten years old or over may
open an account in his or her own
name; that an account may be open
ed by a married woman free from any
control or interference by her hus-
band; that post office officials are
forbidden to disclose to any person,
except the deposition, the amount of
any deposits; that Withdrawals may
be made without previous notice;
and that the Government guarantees
to repay all deposits on demand with
accrued interest.
The leaflet will soon be printed in
% foreign languages for distribution
through local post Offices. The for
eign-born citizen has taken very
kindly to postal savings, and litera
ture in his own language will be of
great assistance to him. In a recent
article, Postmaster General Burleson
commented on the foreign-born de-
positor as follows:
Upwards of 100000 depositors
now have accounts in the Postal Saw
ings System and they represent every
nationality on the earth. They also
represent almost every known occu-
pation-professiona men, theatrical
people, mechanics, laborers, fishermen
pack peddlers, etc. But the majority
are wage-earners, and of this class
the foreign-born largely predominant.
A census of depositors taken by the
Post Office Department shows that
approximately 40 per cent (200,000O
of the depositors are foreign-born
citizens and they own more than so
per cent Of the deposit-splendid
evidence of the confidence of our
newly acquired citizens in the abili-
ty and good faith of their adopted
country to fulfill its obligations.
There is another reason which
led immigrants, unfamiliar with our
language and business methods, to
turn to the Government to safeguard