The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1915-05-27
EXTEND BENEFITS OF The
POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS

Every person in the United States
ten years old or over may open an &C
count in a postal savings bank after
July l., according to an instructive
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 COM
munities so sparsely settled as not
to justify the designation of their To-
cal post Offices as regular postal saw
ings 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 demand well Illustrated in let.
ter from Saline county Missourian,
who resides many miles from postal
savings bank.
Having a few hundred dollars saw
ed from so years Of hard and assidu-
GUS labor and skimping economy on
the part of my wife and myself, 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 de-
post in that Office, which is very dis
appointing 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 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 post
master general for opening accounts
by mail an intended depositor, resid-
ing where there is no regularly desig-
mated 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 accept de-
posits. The intending depositor will
then be given permission to forward
his first and subsequent deposits 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 postal 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 for
hidden to disclose to any person, ex-
cept the depositor, the amount of any
deposits; that Withdrawals may be
made without previous notice; and
that the government guarantees to re-
pay all deposits on demand with &C.
crued interest.
The leaflet will soon be printed in
% foreign languages for distribution
through local post offices. The for
eign-born citizens has taken very kind
ly to postal savings, and literature in
his own language will be of great as
sistance to him. In recent article,
Postmaster General Burleson COM
mented on the foreign-born depositor
as follows:
Upwards of 100000 depositors now
AdFO dCCOuulS Ill IuO pOSLd4 Savings
system and they represent every ma
tionality on the earth. They also rep
resent almost every known occupation
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 ap-
proximately 40 per cent (200,O00) of
the depositors are foreign-born citi-
zens and they own more than so per
cent of the deposits-splendid evil
dence of the confidence of our newly
acquired citizens in the ability and
good faith Of their adopted country
to fulfill its obligations.
There is another reason which led
immigrants, unfamiliar with our Ian.
guage and business methods, to turn
to the government, to safeguard, their
humble savings and that reason is the