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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. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE Twelve months ... — — > 75c Six months ... - -40c Three months — * 25c The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes for early delivery. It contains news from all over the world, brought by special leased wires into our office. It has a stafr of distinguished contributors, with strong departments of special value to the home and the farm. Agents wanted at every postoffice. Liberal com mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R. BRAD- LEY. Circulation Manager. The only traveling representatives we have are J. A. Bryan, B. F. Bolton, C. C. Coyle, L. H. Kim brough, W. W. Blackburn and J. W. Brooks. We will be responsible only for money paid to the above named traveling representatives. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. The label used for addressing your paper shows the time your subscription expires. By renewing at least two weeks before the date on this label, you Insure regular service. In ordering paper changed, be sure to mention your old, as well as your new address. If on a route please give the route number. We cannot enter subscriptions to begin with b’ack numbers. Remittances should be sent by postal order or registered mail. Address all orders and notices for this de partment to THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, 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.