Security And Chance

The instinct to lay by stores for :i "raiuy day" is llic iustimit of eelf-preservarion and-of civilizatioii. it lias led to the developiiient of ltfe-iiisurance companies and banks and pavings iustitutions of all soFís. It Icatls the well-todo to forego Ifigli rates oí int Test in order tliat the income froni their wealth muy be as certain and secure as possible. It is this same instinct that leads careful persons of limited nieans to turn to the government for their sniall savings. In establishing postal savings banks a ïiation carries its people forward a step in civilizatiou, inasmuch as it is giviug to thein an additional security agaiust niisfortune. A person who puts his savings into the post-office bank will know tbat when hardship and want overtake him, whether bccause of ïuisforttine or declining years, his money will be fórthcoming. The fact that there is such a safe place of deposit will induce inany to make provisión against future want who otherwise would permit themselves to become charges upon society when uiisfortune overtakes them or when old age fiuds theui unprepared to earn a support by their labor. To the persons for whom the postal savings bank is intended the rate of interest paid on deposita is 'of minor importauce. What sueh persons want above everything else is absolute security against loss. They waut to elimínate from life the danger that in tueir declining years the}' may find themselves without the means of sustaiuing existence. Congressshould establish a system of postal savings banks for the people of the United States without further delay.