Life Insurance^ Savings Banks, Etc. 25 



were spruced up. by their thrift, with white paint and green 

 blinds. 



■ If savings banks teach people to save (which is very doubt- 

 ful), they still are an evil in that they paralyze the very faculty 

 we most Deed to cultivate, and that \b the ahiliiij to manage savings. 



When representatives from half the families of a j^ieat city 

 abandon the use of their own intellect by delegating to others 

 (and these others, all told, numbering no more than a score) 

 problems they themselves ought to solve, they ought not to be 

 greatly surprised if the end of the transaction is catastrophe. 



There are moral evi's which demand consideration. The moral 

 element plays an important part in finance. And by moral or 

 morals in this discussion I refer to general intent, purpose, quality 

 of life. 



We substantially tell the poor by the savings bank system that 

 they need take no care, on the sc ire of morals, relative to their 

 finances. The bank stands as a moral insurance company and 

 takes the risk in that department. We say the difficulty of the 

 times is want of confidence. But that want of confidence arises 

 fully as much from fear of the moral meaning of men as from 

 dis'rust of their intellectual ability or executive encgy. 



Whom to trust is the great question, and the ictus of it falls on 

 the moral realm. But morality is strictly an individual matter. 

 You cannot create a moral corporation. 



Yet respectably intelligent people, by tens of thousands, have 

 acted as though they supposed this had been done. They have 

 gone like birds to the snare of the fowler to put their earnings in 

 a savings bank, unsuspecting and without inquisition as to the 

 morals of the men who were to handle their funds. A bank was 

 a bank, and a bank was safe — a savings bank was safety itself come 

 down to dwell among men, incarnated and apotheosized. 



When you come to consider the question of safety it will be 

 found that you cannot solve that matter until you have resolved 

 moral elements. There the basis of safety will be found to rest 

 in the good sense and honesty of the individual man — a man who 

 can explain himself and his whole financial situation to the'lender 

 of money. 



