Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1921-07-04
COAX II INTO
POSTAL BANKS
IS HIS PLAN
Wants to Double Rate
of Interest and In
crease Depositaries.
Announces His Outline
After Conferring With
Midwest Bankers.

Sullivan, Ind, July 3.-A
billion dollars which should be
in circulation to assist the CON-
ing industrial revival is being
boarded in American stockings,
Will II. Hays, postmaster gen.
eral, declared Sunday, in an
nouncing plans for revision of
the postal savings system to
make it more attractive to
potential depositors.
Through his reorganization plans.
Mr.. Hays hopes to draw the boarded
wealth of the country out of its hiding
places and into useful channels The
present treatment of depositors in the
postal savings banks, he said after con-
ference with middle western bankers
amounts almost to fraud while tho
government has profiteered at the ex-
pense of the depositors to the sum, in
the last year alone. of S1,72O,0O0.
Borrowed by Bankers.
His general plan of reorganization,
which will be submitted to congress.
has been approved by bankers east and
middle west at conferences held in
Washington. New York, Terre Haute
and at his home here. Mr.. Hays as
sured the bankers that he had no in
tenticn Of entering the postal savings
bank in competition with private banks,
but hopes to make it a valuable feeder
of established banking institutions.
While asking congress to make the in
terest rate double the average paid
now. he pointed out it would still be
below the average paid by the majority
Of savings banks.
Private banks are not reaching and
cannot hope to reach the vast boarded
wealth which offers a wide field for
postal service expansion, Mr.. HayR
said.
Depositors Are Foreigners.
He pointed out that 20 per cent of
the present 50S.O0O depositors are of
foreign extraction and that they as well
as others of their countrymen who are
accustomed to postal savings systems
abroad, viii trust no one but the United
States government
To reach this field of potential de-
positors. Mr.. Hays plans the following
basic changes in the present postal
system:
Increase the interest rate from two
TO Lnree per cent.
Payment of interest on deposits held
less than one year.
Removal of the restriction against
depcsitors under 10 years of age.
Provision for joint and trust funds.
Increase the Number.
Establishment of postal savings
banks in $4,000 postoffices instead of |
the present $500.
Compensation for fourth class post |
masters on the basis of the deposits !
they handle. |
Redeposit of the funds in local banks |
with more liberal qualification rules /
for such depositaries. |
"a An enlarged board of directors. in !
,Iuding a representative of the federal !
reserve bank and possibly one Or more
civilians.
'HThere is lot of business in this |
that is really sick. still stagger-
ing under the shell-shock of war and
the debauch of extravaganza" Mr..
Hays said, ''but there is a good deal
more that is merely malingering.
Time to Get Busy.
s'What we need more than anything !.
Else is the common sense of courage
md confidence. This is of course. the
greatest era of expansion and prosper
tv ahead that the world has ever seen.
Everyone knows this and the only gues-
ion discussed is when it will start.
We'll. it is time to 90 out and meet it.
Th;c We proDose to help to do"