POSTAL SAVINGS-BAN-KS. 165 



tributed as to be easily accessible to most of the people ; in others 

 there are many communities which are inconveniently remote from 

 any savings institution. Outside of New England, none of the States 

 are well supplied. Even New York, with its one hundred and twenty- 

 seven banks, contains large sections of populous country in which 

 there is not a single savings-bank. The other States are still worse 

 off. In 1882 there were in the Southern States only nine, and in the 

 "Western States, outside of Ohio, Indiana, and California, only twenty- 

 one savings-banks. Pennsylvania, with its great manufacturing and 

 mining industries, employing regularly several hundred thousand 

 laborers, is very badly supplied. A few years ago there were a num- 

 ber of savings-banks doing a large business in various parts of the 

 State. Many of these were loosely or dishonestly managed, and their 

 affairs were wound up, sometimes with loss to depositors or stockhold- 

 ers, or both. There still exist a few old and perfectly sound savings 

 institutions, and there are, besides, many private banking concerns 

 which receive large sums of working-men's earnings, but, on the whole, 

 the lack of facilities for the secure investment of small savings is de- 

 plorable. 



Where the population is dense and conveniently grouped about a 

 number of centers, as is the case in some parts of New England, the 

 ordinary savings-banks may be made to furnish adequate facilities for 

 the small savings of the people. Most sections of this country are, 

 however, rather sparsely populated, and it would not be possible to 

 maintain a good savings-bank in every small town. Some of the sav- 

 ings-banks have been so well managed and are so strong that it would 

 be hard to find better security than that which they offer. In general, 

 the savings-banks of New England have been well managed. Occa- 

 sionally there has been bad management, and general financial depres- 

 sion has brought disaster upon some of them. Three out of every 

 eight of the savings-banks of Maine suspended between 1872 and 1879. 

 While the losses to depositors were probably less, as a rule, than those 

 sustained by men who had invested their money in land or other secu- 

 rities, the value of which shrank greatly during those years, still these 

 suspensions greatly impaired the confidence of the people in the 

 stability of savings-banks. New York has some very solid savings 

 institutions. The losses, however, to depositors from the failures 

 of twenty-two savings-banks in that State between 1872 and 1879 

 amounted to $4,475,061. These losses have led many people to dis- 

 trust perfectly sound institutions. In some parts of New York, New 

 Jersey, and Pennsylvania great hardship and suffering have been 

 caused by savings-bank failures, and great distrust and discourage- 

 ment have followed. 



None of these organizations or institutions, excellent as they may 

 be, furnish the masses of the people throughout the country with con- 

 venient facilities for depositing their savings, nor do they, as a rule, 



