Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1915-06-04
POSTAL SAVINGS ACCOUNTS

account in a postal savings bank af
| ter July list, acCol ling to an lnstruC
! tive leaflet on the Postal Savings
| System just issued by Postmaster
General Burleson. This important
extension of the service will be
made possible by permitting persons
| living in communities so sparsely
settled as not to justify the desig-
nation of their local postoffices as
regular postal savings banks to open
accounts by mail.
Governor Dockery, Third Assist
ant Postmaster General, who has di-
rect supervision of postal savings,
was so impressed by appeals from
ali over the country to open postal
savings accounts by mail that he
took up the task some weeks ago of
working out a feasible and safe
method for meeting a demand we'll
illustrated in letter from a Saline
County Missourian, who resides many
miles from a postal savings bank.
Having a few hundred dollars
saved from fifty years of hard and
assiduous 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 eff
feet 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 impossible for us TO
buy more with what little We have
saved and we are 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 decency.
Under the plan adopted by the
Postmaster General for opening &C.
counts by mail an intending deposit
tor, residing where there is no reg
ularly designated postal savings bank
will apply to his local postmaster who
will see that necessary identification
data is prepared and forwarded to a
nearby pOstoffice authorized to ac-
cept deposits. The intending deposi-
tor will then be given permission to
forward his first and subsequent de-
posts 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
opened by a married woman free
from any control or interference by
her husband; that postoffice officials
are forbidden to disclose to any per
son, except the depositor, the amount
OF any deposits; that withdrawals
may be made without previous no
tice; and that the Government guar
antees to repay all deposits on de-
mand with accrued interest.
The leaflet will soon be printed in
% foreign languages for distribution
through local postoffices. The for
eign-born citizen has taken very kind
ly to postal savings, and literature
in his own language will be of great
assistance to him. In a recent ar
ticle, Postmaster General Burleson
commented on the foreign-born de-
position as follows:
upwards of 100000 depositors now
have accounts in the Postal Savings
System and they represent every
nationality on the earth. They also
represent every known occupation
professional 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
Postoffice Department shows that
approximately 40 per cent (200000)
Of the depositors are foreign-born
citizens and they own more than so
per cent of the deposits-splendid
evidence Of the confidence of our
newly acquired citizens in the abil-
ity and good faith of their adopted
country to fulfill it's obligations.
There is another reason which led
immigrants, unfamiliar with our
language and business methods, to
turn to the Government to safeguard
their humble savings and that reason
is the disastrous experiences many of
them have had by the failures of bo-
gus private banks" differed by
swindlers of their own tongue who
have preyed mercilessly upon their
loneliness and credulity.'