Year: 1877

4


need of some better method Of securing
poor depositors. 1t is for the interest not
merely of the working classes but Of the
people ut large to promote habits Of thrift
and frugality Nothing is SO well calcu-
lated for this purpose as solvent, well man
aged savings banks. When people have
small sums of money which they are under
no immediate necessity of spending they are
fortunate if there is convenient place where
they can deposit it with perfect safety, and
where, until they wish to use it, it will earn
interest. AS soon as they have nest egg of
this kind the natural love of property i'm
pels them to increase it, and their desire to
swell the little hoard grows with it's increas-
ing amount. The consequence is that many
superiuities are dispensed with, habit Of
frugality is established, and when the ten
or twenty dollars first deposited have
swollen to several hundred there is
generated sense Of independence,
feeling Of safety against vicissitudes
and satisfaction in the possession
of property, which are even more valuable
as O moral safeguard than as a resource
| against sickness and loss of employment
1t would be deplorable to have this encour-
| ing classes


| One of the wisest and most benefcent
expedients that could have been adopted
for converting the emancipated negroes into
self-respecting and prosperous citizens was
/ the establishment OF the Freedman's Savings
Bank soon after the war. The amount Of
its deposits attested its value as a stimulus
to providence and good habits. The
rotten management and early failure
of that institution was far greater
blow to the colored race than the
mere loss of their money. That
wretched swindle, perpetrated under a garb
of helpfulness and benevolence, tended to
convince them that frugality was blunder.
They regretfully considered how much
fnery they might have bought, how many
jovial sprees they could have INDUCED in,
what quantities of whiskey they could have
drunk with the greenbacks which they
might as well have put into their stoves and
burned as to have trusted for safe keeping in
the Freedman's Savings Bank. 1t is very





confidence of poor people who have been
persuaded to practise abstinence and lay
by their earnings. The effect OF the
recent savings bank failures on white
depositors in the North must be similar to
that Of the collapse OF the Freedman's Saw
ings Bank upon the minds of the negroes.
They will think of the many things they
might have bought with their money if they
had spent it instead of trying to make
provision for future wants by trusting it to
other men to squander. The tendency of
rotten, swindling savings banks is to de-
moraliZe the laboring classes, destroy their
habits Of foresight and thrift and tempt
them to spend as they go in order to make
sure of enjoying the fruit of their earn
ings. To beget such habit Of
mind in the laboring classes is more
deplorable than to cheat them out of their
money. These numerous and fragrant
abuses of their confidence not only destroy
their past savings, bat discourage them
from making attempts to save in future.
The astounding corruption which has been
exposed in the management Of savings
banks tends to make the poor reckless and
improvident, tempts them to spend their
money in hurtful indulgences, and points
to o large increase Of taxes for the support
of the INDECENT by public charity. 1t is for
the interest of the community to prevent
pauperism by encouraging habits OF saving
among people who live upon their daily or
weekly wages. The savings banks, so long as
they possessed public confidence, were the
most powerful of all incentives to provi-
dence and abstinence. The demonstrated
rottenness Of SO many of these institutions
is o serious blow to the morals of the most
deserving class in the community.


| We are now in a condition very similar to
that which 80 loudly called for a remedy
some sixteen or eighteen years ago in Great
Britain. The breaking of savings banks in
that country, which led to the adoption of
what has proved to be q satisfactory rem
edy, were not nearly so numerous
nor so scandalous as the startling
and astounding wrecks which have
been scattered along our history for two or
three years, and have been multiplying
with disgraceful rapidity during the last six
or eight weeks. The time has come for ap-
plying some efficient remedy We are more
and more convinced that the true remedy is
that which was adopted in England. The
postal savings bank in England gives uni
versal satisfaction. Some six or seven years
ago the Canadian government transplanted
it to this side of the Atlantic, and Sir Fran
els Hincks, in his excellent speech to the
late Bankers Convention in this city, de-
clared that it is great success The
English plan might require some slight
notifications here. but it could hardly be
considered as doubtful experiment after
sixteen years brilliant success in Great
Rritain and saven vears' snccnsa Ii,