The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-21
GROWTH IN SAVING ONE 0F FEATURES OF PROSPERITY ERA Nearly One-Half of Total Is in New York State
 Alone FOUR BILLIONS IS
 TOTAL IN NATION Renewed Attention Is Being Called to the Increase in the Agricul-
 tural Wealth of the
 South
By HOLLAND

1 New York, March o-(Special.) )-Eu- gene Lamb Richards, superintendent of banks of New York state, is peculiarly qualified both by inherited qualities and 1 by training, to make analysis of such ] figures as are reported to him by the banking institutions of New York state behind these statistics. His report, which was issued a few days ago and which ] covers the year 1915, is apparently so pre- pared as to impress other parts of the country with the fact that powerful as | are the money influences which concen- | trate in the Wall street district never theless the industry of the people of the 1 state and the economies of the wage l earners represent, relatively speaking, all most as great concentration of what is l sometimes called the money power as do the institutions of the Wall street dis trict.
 | What appears to have been in MT. Rich ards mind when he prepared his report l was the desire to show that the wage l earners of New York state have accus- | toned themselves to such habits of thrift and saving as have made it possible for l them to increase their savings banks de- posits in 1915 by about $4,0000O0. The savings of the people in all parts of the United States, not including those de- posted in the Sostoffices, are reported to amount to approximately A,320, 0O,000, and nearly one-half of this total amount | is represented by the savings banks of New York state.
 Plainly, industry in New York state se- cured it's share of the prosperity which was the conspicuous phenomenon of the year 1915. Presumably the larger part of these deposits was the accumulation of the savings of those who work for wages or those who are employed in clerical capacities. Farmers, as rule, do not utilize the savings banks as do the wage earners.
 There is, however, another feature of Superintendent Richards report which makes it clear that he is especially in terested in securing the success of the new state land bank which has been es- tablished chiefly for the purpose of facili- tating the farming industry in the state of New York. Already this institution possesses resources of about $2200o, 900, which are to be exclusively used in aid- ing what are called rural credits. Some years ago, William c. Brown-at that time president of the New York Central Railroad company-delivered two
 
 what he believed to be the agricultural possibilities of New York state, and es- pecially that part of the state of which Syracuse is the financial and commercial center. MT. Brown detailed some of the methods by which the soil of New York state might be made to yield crops in quantity and quality greatly in excess of those which have been in recent years produced in the state In addition to the methods of farming which he pro- posed, he urged banking facilities, if pos sible, authorized and supervised by the state of New York, for it seemed to him that the farmers needed credit and could give as good security for it as is the case with many manufacturers or merchants. It may be that the seed then sown by MT. Brown was in part respon- sible at least for the creation of the state land bank, which will provide rural credits.
 AS IT IS ELSEWHERE That New York state must do some thing in order to maintain her prestige as