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THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1913.
A
THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST.
Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Matter of
\ the Second Class.
JAMES R. GRAY,
President and Editor.
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Atlanta Ga.
Reducing the Cost
Of Road Maintenance.
The county of which Detroit, Michigan, is the
seat has attracted much attention by the compara
tively low cost at which its highways are main
tained. In New Jersey, the cost of road upkeep
is nine hundred dollars a mile; in New York, a
thousand dollars and in Massachusetts, twelve hun
dred, while in the Michigan county it is only from
ten to twenty-five dollars a mite a year. This re
markable difference is ascribed to the fact “that the
Wayne County (Detroit) commissioners have the
wisdom and the courage to put fifteen thousand
dollars into every mile of new road, thereby virtually
wiping out maintenance expense.”
Here is an example for road builders the country
over and particularly in the South, where'the people
are aroused as ne-er before to the importance of
good highways and are contributing large sums of
money, either through bond elections or legislative
appropriations, to road improvement and extension.
If this generous enthusiasm is to yield due results,
it must be accompanied by business foresight. Not
how much we spend, but how well we spend it, will
determine the South’s progress in highway develop
ment.
. Road building is an art, based upon a more or
less definite science. It can never be undertaken
profitably except - r ith a clear understanding of all
the problems involved In the particular piece of
work to be done and with an eye to the years far
ahead. There is nothing more expensive than a
poorly built road. It is worse than a leaky roof or a
pocket with a hole. The cost of keeping it in repair
will soon amount to as much as that of its original
construction. 1
A community that is preparing to invest money in
road improvement should protect itself by securing
the service of expert engineers and also by spending
enough in the outset to guarantee roads that will
be durable.
Starving Diplomacy.
William F. McCombs declines appointment as am
bassador to France simply because the expense at
taching to the post is a hundred and fifty thousand
dollars a year while its salary is only seventeen
thousand five hundred.
He is well qualified to represent his nation abroad
and would find it particularly pleasing, on the per
sonal side, to serve in that capacity. He is worthy
of the honor and is entitled, to it. Yet, he is unable
to accept iirbecause the fund provided by the Govern
ment for the maintenance of the post is so meager
in proportion to its expense that only a wealthy man
could afford the financial sacrifice involved.
This condition of affairs is distinctly a discredit
and a misfortune to the United States.
It is ridiculously undemocratic..
There is no good reason why rich men who are
fitted for diplomatic affairs should not serve. But
there is every reason why men of modest means who
are personally gifted and capable of well representing
their country, should not be barred from such service.
The Secretary of State urged this matter upon
the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House yesterday
in amplyfying his request for appropriations to estab
lish embassy buildings at Tokio, Berne and other
points.
"We should not force this Government to choose
Its diplomats from among rich men only,” he said.
Congress should take due cognizance of this impor
tant problem and see to it that diplomatic posts are
made sufficienlty remunerative to warrant acceptance
by men who have not devoted all their time and tal
ent to money-making.
The country will thus be truer to its democratic
' ideals and it will he better served abroad.
Dangerous Fireworks.
Progressive cities the country over are taking
timely steps to safeguard the public against danger
ous Christmas fireworks. Many municipalities have
adopted iron-clad ordinances against 'the sale or, use
of fireworks; and wherever the meaning of Christinas
is truly appreciated popular sentiment has asserted
itself in behalf of a sdne and seemly observance of
the day.
Time was when Christmas, like the Fourth of
July, left a trail of death and suffering. Hundreds
of lives were sacrificed each year and unnumbered
Injuries were sustained as the consequence of a
graceless and foolish custom.
A Britisher once wrote that more Americans had
been killed by holiday fireworks and pistols than in
all the years of the Revolutionary war. Certainly,
the death toll from this source has been appalling.
There are cheering indications, however, that the
people have awakened to a keener regard for their
own safety and to a higher sense of the year’s great
festival. In 1912 the fatalities from Christmas fire
works were notably fewer than ever before. This
was due simply to the fact that the use of dangerous
fireworks was discouraged by public opinion and, in
many instances, positively forbidden by law.
The Thoughtful Public
And the Currency Bill.
Test votes on the currency bill indicate that
within a few days it will pass the Senate by a sub
stantial majority, amended in certain particulars,
but unimpaired in those underlying principles on
which the Administration insists. This being true,
no great importance attaches to the present debate.
It is interesting, however, to -note the extraordinary,
yet futile, efforts of the opposition to arouse public
distrust, or even alarm, over,the measure as it now
stands. In intellectual force, Senator Root is the
acknowledged leader of the Senate Republicans.
Most of his speeches are thoughtful and impressive.
But his recent attack on the currency bill was pjtably
flat and unconvincing even to those who admire him.
Certainly, it carried no influence with the country’s
independent thought, if we may judge by the follow
ing editorial comment from the New York Herald:
“While details of the pending bill require
amendment, its principle of currency expanding
and contracting with the ebb and flow of busi
ness is essentially sound. Therefore, when Sena
tor Root likens the ‘inflation’ possible under its
operation to that in progress In the years before
1893 and to that proposed in the 16 to 1 campaign
of 1896, the comparison does not apply. In the
years preceding the repeal of the silver purchase
act in 1893, the Government was buying not less
than four and a half million ounces of silver a
month and issuing circulating notes against this
stored ‘pig’ silver which was useless for re
demption. They were fiat notes. The proposal
to throw the mints open to unrestricted coinage
of silver at sixteen to one would have been un
restricted inflation of depreciated currency. But
issue of notes against sound commercial paper is
a vastly different proposition.”
Coming from a newspaper that is without partisan
alliance and that has freely criticised the currency
bill, this opinion is noteworthy and significant. It
reflects a public calmness and the refusal of the rank
and file of independent thinkers to be disturbed by
alarmist cries.
The fact is the pending bill is generally accepted
by students and by informed men in all parties as
sound in its essentials. Jn the matter of details, it
has provoked wide differences. What measure would
not?' Bankers themselves are not in accord as to
precisely what changes in the existing system should
be made. But both branches of the Senate com
mittee, the Republican as well as the Democratic,
submitted reports which were in practical agreement
on most of the really important questions involved.
It has been determined that control of the country’s
monetary resources should be public instead of pri
vate and that the concentration of money by partic
ular interests at one or two financial centers should
be prevented. Indeed, the balance of all creditable
opinion is now in line with President Wilson’s orig
inal utterance on the subject months ago, when he
said In a special address to Congress:
“We must have a currency not rigid as now,
but readily, elastically responsive to sound credit,
the expanding and contracting credits of every
day transactions, the normal ebb and flow of per
sonal and corporate dealings. Our banking laws
must mobilize reserves, must permit the concen
tration anywhere in a few hands of the monetary
resources of the country, or their use for specu
lative purposes in such volume as to hinder or
impede or stand in the way of more legitimate,
more fruitful uses. And the control of the sys
tem of banking and of issue, which our new laws
are to set up, must be public, not private, must
be vested in the Government itself, so that the
banks may be the instruments, not the masters,
of business ,and of individual enterprise and
initiative.”
The hill now before the Senate embodies these
principles, guarantees this protection, and to that all
important extent it is acceptable to all well-wishers
of the country’s business life. Since it came from
the House, it has been changed and improved; it
has been scrutinized in the Senate committee on
banking and is now being freely debated by the
Senate as a whole. But its cardinal provisions have
withstood all attacks because they are fundamentally
wise and right. Prolonged discussion, of the measure
would, therefore, be useless. Should it prove, upon
trial, to have defects, these can be remedied; but
unless the banking and currency issue is settled in
the immediate future, unless some law is enacted
safeguarding- common interests against old perils
which are becoming more ominous, the country will
suffer. 1
Never before was there such unanimity of
opinion as now in regard to the main lines which
banking and currency reform should follow. The
question has been discussed for years and years, the
need of constructive change has been felt for decades;
but not until the problem was urged upon the present
Congress by a Democratic administration, was any
forward or fruitful step taken toward its solution.
A law must be enacted now or indefinitely postponed.
The Democrats of the Senate are measuring up to
their responsibility. They have forced the question
to a final issue. The decisive vote will soon be taken;
the bill will pass, adjustments with the House will
speedily follow and the country, relieved;of suspense,
will go about its business with fresh assurance and
enthusiasm.
Work of the Salvation Army.
Brigadier Crawford, of the Salvation Army, states
that the needy people in Atlanta who are dependent
on others for their Christmas cheer have increased
this season by five hundred, and that estimate in
cludes only those to whom the Army ministers.
Considered merely from a sociological point of view,
this record is an appealing one. It shows that as a
city grows in population and prosperity, it develops
new needs for human kindness; as the pace of in
dustry quickens, there is all the greater demand for
unselfish thoughts and charitable deeds.
Last year the Salvation Army dispensed fifteen
hundred Christmas dinners to the poor of Atlanta;
this year, its officers say, two thousand baskets will
be required to help those whose needs are already
listed. In addition to such work, it’is purposed to
fill a Christmas tree for children to whom, otherwise,
Santa Claus Would never come.
The Salvation Army asks for modest con*ributions
to aid it in carrying forward this wholsesome en
deavor. The Army touches, corners and byways of the
city’s life that are generally unknown-—desolate
households to which no Yuletide brightness comes,
chill firesides, where no Christmas stockings hang.
It seeks out poverty, suffering and sickness, and, to
the limit of its ability and resources, relieves them.
Such work helps the community as well as individu
als. A generous public will not fail to do its part by
this cause in a season when human needs are espe
cially keen and human thoughtfulness is especially
emphasized.
V
THE ANONYMOUS LETTER
BY DR. FRANK CRANE.
(Copyright, 11)13, by Frank Crane.)
Lift up your hand right now and swear that never,
So long as you live, will you write an anonymous let
ter, except it be a kind one.
If you hate anybody, either go and whip him, or
else go away and let him alone.
Don't stab him in the back, don’t put poison in his
tea, don’t shoot him from behind a fence corner, and,
what is worse, because still more cowardly, don’t
write him an anonymous letter.
The anonymous letter Is the triumph of the petty.
It is the victory of the impotent. It is the pride of
the cowardly.
The writer of such a letter is a copperhead snake,
which differs from the gentlemanly rattlesnake in that
it strikes without; warning.
An open, out and out enemy who loathes you
heartily and says so is a wholesome person. He keeps
you humble and makes you careful. But the man
that smiles on you and goes home and writes you an
anonymous letter is too low to be described here, on
account of the postal laws.
Of course, you do not use profane language, which
is naughty. But recall all the bad words you ever
heard, the unrepeatable vile epithets of all the lan
guages you know, focus them upon one point—that is
the anonymous letter writer.
Don’t hint. Don’t insinuate. Insult' if you must,
but do it in plain English. And sign your name.
Imitate the clerk, who was called to the boss’ of
fice. The boss said:
“Mr. Brown, I understand you have been making
insinuations about me.”
“Oh, no. That must be a mistake.”
“It is no mistake, Mr. Brown. I have it upon the
best authority. Don’t try to wriggle out of it.”
j "But it must be a mistake. I never insinuate. To
be sure, I said you were an old muttonhead and a ras
cal, but I never insinuated anything.”
By common consent, since the world was built, and
men began the great game of fighting each other for
gold, for woman, and for nothing at all, the sneak,
the spy, and the traitor have been blackballed from the
society brave men. Awp.y down below sneak, spy,
and traitor in the list of human detestables may be
found the man or woman who enjoys sending an anon
ymous letter.
If you are full of venom and must get it out of
your system write—write fully' and foully. Then burn
your, letter. Thus it may relieve yourself and hurt
no one.
A Disinterested Tribute
j To Senator Smith
(Brunswick News.)
In detailing the whys and wherefores of the trans
formation which has come over the United States sen
ate, Harper's Weekly pays a distinct tribute to Sena
tor Hoke Smith, of Georgia. No member of the senate
is more frequently or conspicuously mentioned and to
him is given much credit for effecting the triumph of
the progressive senators over the ultra-conservatives
and reactionaries. It is shown that Senator Smith is
in the forefront of the senators who dominate legisla
tive action in the senate and is regarded as one of
the wheelhorses, one of the leaders.
Harper’s Weejtly, says in part:
‘‘On the Democratic side of the senate . . .
there has been a gradual evolution toward pro
gressiveness within the party and a political rev
olution in the country, which, working together,
have converted a Republican majority of two-
thirds, four years ago, when Taft was inaugu
rated, into a Democratic majority of six, the Dem
ocrats numbering fifty-one and the opposition
forty-five, including Republican Progressives . . .
Later came Hoke Smith, of Georgia, who had
smashed the railroad machine into little bits in his
campaign for governor before his election to the
senate. . . . Hoke Smith, during the presiden
tial contest, was mainly concerned with the elec
tion of Democratic legislatures which would''elect
Democratic senators. Naturally, he kept In close
touch with the candidates for the senate, and
practically all-who were elected were Progressives.
. . So the recognition proceeded on this
wise: The caucus made Hoke Smith chairman of
a nominating committee, making report to the
caucus. . . . The important committees were
literally packed with Progressive members. The
chairmen were further controlled by the rule that
a meeting shall be called to consider any bill at
thg request of a majority of the Democratic mem
bership of that committee. This prevents smoth
ering good measures in pigeonholes. . . . a
steering corrimittee, with Kern as chairman, and
Progressive Democrats in control, are given the
duty of watching and furthering legislation in the
public interest. So the senate of the United States
has become Progressive. It is a converted senate.’’
The people of Georgia should be conscious of an
honest pride in having as tneir representatives in the
senate two men so able and distinguished as Senators
Smith and Bacon. The fact that the latter should
attain such eminence in so short a time—having been
in the senate only two years—is especially significant,
and is gratifying to his thousands of admirers and
supporters.
(ouMtry
r|OME~
timely
T0PIC5
Cotwaa Br.rra'tfHjrELTOrt
LOVE AND GOOD CHARACTER MAKES THE HOME.
HOME.
I turned an ancient poet’s book.
And found upon the page, \
“Stone walls do not a prison make
Nor iron bars a cage.”
Yes, that is true,
And something more:
You’ll find where’er you roam
That gilded w^lls
And marbled halls
\ Will never make a home.
But every house where Love abides
And tTiendship is a guest
Is i truly Home,
And Home, Sweet Home,
For there the Heart can rest.
^ —Author Unknown.
I add self respect to Love, because we all understand
that home folks sometimes love people who are in
their homes and oblig-ed to stay with them when thy
are not love-worthy people at all, and their presence
may be very hard to put up with when they are con
trary, self-willed and disagreeable and wicKed. The
Love is there along with patience, self-sacrifice and
earnest prayers to help along with the burden that
they are bearing so bravely.
But it is only the home which has self-respecting
people for inmates as well as loving hearts for eacn
other, that constitutes a real home, those who bear
mutual burdens, and whose jc^ys are mutual and who
feel assured that each and every one feels an abiding
interest in the welfare of the other and who will truly
mourn for any one of them who is called away into the
Great Beyond. A mother will loVe an erring child
when that erring child has brought a deep and abiding
sorrow into her life, a grief that never ends until she
lays her burden down when the breath leaves her body.
A parent will impoverish himself or herself to pro
tect an erring son from criminal punishment, because
of this parental affection, and there will be a flood or
pity and patience and forbearance in this grief-stricken
home, but there can be no real home without each
member has self-respect, and there' must be confidence,
based on self-respect, on thr inside will be full of anxiety
and apprehension and death of hope. There will still
be an abqndance of loving pity, but there will be lack
of happiness, for there can be no happiness without
character.
A TURKEY TROT-TANGO DANCE.
A turkey bird a farmer raised,
’Twas tender, sweet and fat;
A fowl collector came along,
Said he: “I'll purchase that.”
He carted off the turkey bird
And put it in a crate,
And shipped it by express which charged
A most excessive rate.
I
’Twas a commission merchant who
Received it at liis store;
The retail butcher gof it next,
Along with many more.
Then came the poor ednsumer man
And took the fowl away,
But he put up an awful kick
At what he had to pay.
For he was soaked the farmer's price
And th4 collector’s due,
Express charge and commission fee
And butcher’s profit, too.
He could have written to the farm:
“Send me a bird to roast,”
And saved three-quarters of the price
By way of parcel^ post.
r
I have seen but one farm' stocked with turkeys this
fall, and there were fifteen fine ones strutting around
in fine style. I passed a dozen farms where turkeys
might have been raised, but not a turkey to be seen.
The gang I saw belonged to the most active and pro
gressive farmer in my section of the country, and per
haps that is sufficient explanation. In my younger
days we calculated to raise turkeys as well as other
sorts of poultry; just as we raised some sheep as well
as some hogs for family use and home consumption.
We fully expected to raise enough turkeys for
birthday dinners as well as Christmas holidays. We
had no Thanksgiving dinners in those days. They prei
vailed up in Yankeeland until the war was over. But
we expected to raise enough turkeys to invite kinfolks
and neighbors to a turkey dinner, and leave enough to
raise from and to give an occasional pair to any young
bridal couple or to any «ood neighbor who was buying
land and settling near us, so that they might get an
early start, and feel kindly to us. But then we ha<jl no
tango ranees or turkey trots in those “befo’ do wai
times.”
MY FIFTEENTH CHRISTMAS GREETING TO JOUR
NAL READERS.
Fifteen years pass away rapidly, but they count
largely if you are receiving interest on a fifteen-year
note, or fifteen years on $1,000 salary, or fifteen years
IVhy “Beat Hofae Smith?”
of domestic happiness (or, perhaps, fifteen years in a
prison cell pass slowly), but you and I, meeting in tne
Country Home Journal, have had more than fourteen
i (Savannah Press.)
The Savannah Pressf cordially indorses the predic
tion made in a recent issue of the Albany Herald that
the Hon. Hoke Smith, junior senator from Georgia, will
not have any serious opposition when the time comes.
And it is right in our opinion that he should be re
turned with unanimous vote. It is the consensus or
opinion that the state of Georgia is probably the best
represented of any commonwealth in the upper house.
Both men are leaders in different fields of activity. The
Savannah Press treated this idea at length last year at
the opening of President Wilson's administration when
the peculiar abilities and fitness of the Georgia sena
tors were abundantly and immediately proven. The
one soon became a leader in the tariff debates, and In
the long summer fight had charge of the some of the
most important schedules of the reform bill. He was
a new member, but he was recognized at once as a
strong floor leader and was a power on committees as
well. The other and elder senator, by long service
and broad training, with great legal learning and abili
ty, went at once to the front as chairman of the com
mittee on foreign relations and during all complica
tions abroad, for there have been many, he has been a
stand-by of the administration—the constant ally or
the president and the secretary of state. Boh men
shone out in their special work and reflected luster
upon the state.
And yet at the very outset there were rash partisans
in Georgia who tried to estrange these men and to di
vide the state with the factions lined up to weaken the
influence of Georgia and to pjunge the state into a
bitter fight. There never was a more short-slghtea
policy, and we regret to see in some sore spots now
this same spirit cropping out. But as the Albany Her
ald remarks:
The papers and politicians who are still "sore”
toward Senator Smith may succeed in bringing out
an opposition candidate, but they will find they
have a mighty hard job on their hands when it
comes to mustering a formidable following.
We believe it true, as that sound and sensible paper,
the Albany Herald, remarks, “No change that Georgia
could make in ner representation in the senate could
result in any improvement of her standing In the
'most august body of the world.’ ”
There will not be any serious opposition when the
time comes and the people who read delphic rumors of
this or that candidate being brought to “heat Hoke
Smith” may dismiss the reports as the product or
space writers or he emanations of sore-heads and sen
sation mongers. That’s all.
years of pleasure that has been without trouble or anx
iety or apprenhension, etc.
Twice a week we have come together in peace and
comfort, and this is my fifteenth Christmas greeting,
and I am so glad we are at peace with ail the world
and comfortable around our own firesides.
God has been inexpressibly gracious to us. that we
are alive, to thus congratulate each other, that we are
not afflicted beyond our ability to commune with each (
other, and that our rural districts to which The Semi-
Weekly is particularly devoted have been blessed in
barns and cotton fields, and that there will he good
cheer even if the fare is plain in tens of thousands
of country homes, and that there will be seed for the
sower in the coming year, and there will be hay and
corn for the useful dumb beasts that serve us so
faithfully, and that you and I can love each other as
of yore, and try to do our whole duty in the sphere of
human action which has been fixed for us.
May the kind Heavenly Father continue His loving
kindness. May the sun shine and the dews fall on our
gardens and fields in 1914. May we appreciate our op
portunities for usefulness, and may our next Christ
mas find us as well, as busy and as happy as this
blessed Christmas of 1913.
Editorials in Brief
The House deserves the congratulations of the
country on the overwhelming vote by which it passed
the Hensley resolution indorsing the principle of a
year’s international naval holiday. Public sentiment
is undoubtedly reflected in the vdte of 317 to 11.
There is no hope that war is going to cease at once,
or that there will be immediately a universal beating
of swords into plowshares and of spears into pruning
hooks, nor even any sudden arrest of military Ex
penditure and equipment. But if both civilization
and religion are not to prove a failure there must
come a time whenV international questions will be
settled by the weight of reason and justice, and not
by the weight of bat»eships and battalions. The cost
of war makes peace a\erpetual war for existence, and
great armaments, apart from the immorality of the
method of force which-they involve, are out of date
as business propositions*—Baltimore Sun.
THE POSTAL SERVICE
VI.—Postal Savings Banks Abroad.
BY FREDFRIC j. RASKIN.
The use of the postoffice as a place where the peo
ple of small means could deposit their money for safe
keeping was first suggested in England in 1807, when a
member of parliament introduced a bill to encourage
saving among the small wage earners. His proposition
was practically ridiculed out, of existence, and the idea
did not receive serious consideration until 1860 when
Charles Sikes, a bank bookkeeper of Yorkshire, drafted
a plan and presented it to Gladstone, who was then the
chancellor of the exchequer. In doing so he pointed
out that existing financial institutions were unable,
even if willing, to reach the working classes, while the
postoffice, with an office in every community, came
into daily contact with them.
• * •
The idea appealed to the great British statesman,
and he immediate.y lent it all the powerful force or
his leadership and enthusiasm. The result was that
in 1861 the English Postofifce Savings bank c&me inlo
being under appropriate parliamentary legislation. And
before Gladstone laid down the care: of statesmanship,
in a summary of the things that had been accom
plished by him he announced that he considered the
postoffice savings bank the most important institution
that had been created In the half century under review,
for the welfare of the people and of the state; and he
declared further that he regarded the act creating the
postoffice savings banks the most useful and fruitful
of his long career.
• • e
The British have a way of fittingly honoring those
who perform a notable service for the people—as wit
ness the honors and the material things that came to
Lister for his discovery of aseptic .surgery, and to Jen-
ner, who discovered the principle of vaccination. And
the case of Sikes was no exception. He was knighted
In 1881, given a high government position, and was the
recipient of a valuable public testimonial of apprecia
tion of his services to England in devising so whole
some an engine of finance for the wage earners.
* « •
From the day the British Postoffice Savings bank
opened its doors down to the present it has been a
success, growing from year to year, being copied by
other nations, and standing today with a total deposit
account of not fat from 81,000,000,000, and an average
deposit of seventylodd dollars for each of the 12,000,000
or more depositors:
• • •
The British idea is a very simple one. Any person
over the age of seven years may deposit his savings in
the postoffice, get interest on them while there, and
draw them out whenever he needs them. Aimed to en
courage thrift, special facilities are provided for chil
dren. Depositors also have special opportunities for
making investments In government stock, for purchas
ing annuities, and for securing life insurance. Deposits
may be made In the name of children under seven
years old, but they cannot be withdrawn until the child
reaches the age of seven and then by his own signa
ture only. .
• • •
Ih 1 opening accounts the full name of the deposi
tor, his occupation, and his place of residence must be
given, and he must ahertv that he is not a party to any
other Individual account. Married woman may keep
their accounts without any oontrol of their husbands.
A.OY sum from a shilling upward may be deposited, sub
ject to a limit of 3900 In any ons year and 31,000 all
told. Exceptions to thesd limits are mads In favor of
charitable and co-operative Institutions. Children who
can save only a ha’penny or so at a time—a ha’penny
beig equivalent to our 1-oent piece—may buy stamps
and paste them on forms provided by the postoffice,
,and when they have a shilling’s worth the poatofflce
opens an account and Issues a pass book. The deposi
tor does not have to go to his airn poatofflce to get
his money when he needs It. If be happens to be In
Dublin* while his account Is with his own poatofflce at
Malden, he can get his money there. Notice of Inten
tion to withdraw has to be given* for all sums of 35 and|
upward, however. This may be given on the day of
withdrawal by telegraph, the depositor paying the cost
of the telegram, while longer notice is carried free in
the malls. AH accounts are kept secret by the govern
ment and are not subject to attachment. All corre
spondence between depositors and the government with
reference to savings bank business is carried free In
the malls. Liberal Interest is paid on the deposits.
• • •
The French postal savings bank system Is somewhat
woven in with the ordinary commercial savings bank
establishment. It is under the minister of posts and
telegraphs. The minimum deposit accepted is 1 franc,
approximately 20 cents, although the stamp card forms
used in England are copied, so that children may fill
up their cards with stamps and thus get 20 cents to
gether at one time. An individual may deposit 1,500
francs and an institution 16,000 francs. Government bonds
of 60-franc denomination may be bought through the
savings banks without any commissions on the trans
action. The rate of interest, calculated on the basis of
income upon securities deposited with the treasury, av
erages about 2 1-2 per cent per annum. The affairs
of the banks are under the supervisory oversight of a
commission of twenty prominent government officials.
The money deposited must be well employed by the
government, not more than 10 per cent of it being al
lowed to lie Idle at any time.
« • *
All full postoffices In France handle postal savings,
and an agreement exists between France and Belgium,
whereby the depositors in the banks of one coup try
may transfer their deposits to the hanks of the other
country. It has been suggested that there might be a
run on the French banks some time, but protection
against this is afforded in two ways—the requirement
of notice of withdrawal of funds, the provision that no
depositor can, where the government wishes it, with
draw more than $10 every two weeks. However, no
occasion for the exercise of these banking safeguards
has ever arise in France.
• • •
Austria 1 has a postal savings bank modeled after
the British bank. It goes a step further, however, and
makes depositaries of rural letter carriers. They are
authorized to receive deposits up to 360 and to take
them to the postoffice for the depositors. The war
ships carry savings banks when in foreign waters for
more than three months at a time, and the usual
stamps are issued In which depositors can Invest their
pennies until they get 20 cents together to make a reg
ular deposit. Money can be withdrawn at any postal
savings bank irrespective of the place where it was
deposited. A checking system has also been devised,
permitting depositors to draw checks on their accounts
upon the payment of a very small fee for each check
so drawn.
• • •
Germany has no postal savings bank system, hut
it$ co-operative banks and its regular savings banks
are laid QUt in such a way that the needs of the people
who ordinarily deposit in postal savings banks are
rather well met. Switzerland and almost all the other
progressive countries of Europe have postal savings
systems, and it has been demonstrated without excep
tion that they teach thrift.
The general experience has been that the deposits
grow from year to year after a system has been estab
lished, until they reach a certain level, and that there
they remain stationary. This is taken to prove that
the money they deposit is money that would never
reach the ordinary bank, and that as soon as depositors
reach a certain amount of savings they begin to see
the earning power of money when invested at good in
terest, and so withdraw it and put it to work at a
higher rate than it will command in a postal savings
bank.
When foreigners of the humbler classes come to
America they are usually very cautious about the way
they trust their savings in alien hands, and before we
had postal savings system hundreds of them utilized
money orders for the purpose of protecting their sav
ings. They would buy money orders payable to them
selves and hold them until such time as tney got ready
to convert them into cash again. During the panlo of
1907 thousands of Italians, Greeks ana otner newly
arrived immigrants bought money orders with their
savings rather than to entrust them to the banks. They
always welcome a chance to place their savings where
they think the government Itself Im back of them.