SAVINGS BANKS.
"I wish I could write all across the sky, in letters of gold, the one
word SAVINGS BANK."--_Rev. Win. Marsh_.
"The only true secret of assisting the poor is to make them agents in
bettering their own condition."--_Archbishop Sumner_.
"Qui à vingt ne sait, à trente ne peut, à quarante n'a,--jamais ne
saura, ne pourra, n'aura."--_French Proverb_.
"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: which
having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer,
and gathereth her food in the harvest."--_Proverbs_ vi. 6.
It is said that there is a skeleton in every household. The skeleton is
locked up--put away in a cupboard--- and rarely seen. Only the people
inside the house know of its existence. But the skeleton, nevertheless,
cannot long be concealed. It comes to light in some way or another. The
most common skeleton is Poverty. Poverty, says Douglas Jerrold, is the
great secret, kept at any pains by one-half the world from the other
half. When there is nothing laid by--nothing saved to relieve sickness
when it comes--nothing to alleviate the wants of old age,--this is the
skeleton hid away in many a cupboard.
In a country such as this, where business is often brought to a
standstill by over-trading and over-speculation, many masters, clerks,
and workpeople are thrown out of employment. They must wait until better
times come round. But in the meantime, how are they to live? If they
have accumulated no savings, and have nothing laid by, they are
comparatively destitute.
Even the Co-operative Cotton-mills, or Co-operative Banks, which are
nothing more than Joint-stock Companies, Limited,[1] may become
bankrupt. They may not be able, as was the case during the cotton
famine, to compete with large capitalists in the purchase of cotton, or
in the production of cotton twist. Co-operative companies established
for the purpose of manufacturing, are probably of too speculative a
character to afford much lasting benefit to the working classes; and it
seems that by far the safer course for them to pursue, in times such as
the present, is by means of simple, direct saving. There may be less
chance of gain, but there is less risk of loss. What is laid by is not
locked up and contingent for its productiveness upon times and trade,
but is steadily accumulating, and is always ready at hand for use when
the pinch of adversity occurs.
[Footnote 1: "The new cotton factories which have been called
co-operative, and which, under that name, have brought together large
numbers of shareholders of the wage classes, are all now in reality
common joint-stock companies, with limited liability. The so-called
co-operative shareholders in the leading establishments decided, as I am
informed, by large majorities, that the workers should only be paid
wages in the ordinary manner, and should not divide profits. The wages
being for piecework, it was held that the payment was in accordance with
communistic principle, 'each according to his capacity, each according
to his work.' The common spinner had had no share in the work of the
general direction, nor had he evinced any of the capacity of thrift or
foresight of the capitalist, and why should he share profits as if he
had? The wage class, in their capacity of shareholders, decided that it
was an unjust claim upon their profits, and kept them undivided to
themselves."--_Edwin Chadwick, C.B._]
Mr. Bright stated in the House of Commons, in 1860,[2] that the income
of the working classes was "understated at three hundred and twelve
millions a year." Looking at the increase of wages which has taken place
during the last fifteen years, their income must now amount to at least
four hundred millions.
[Footnote 2: Speech on the Representation of the People Bill.]
Surely, out of this large fund of earnings, the working classes might
easily save from thirty to forty millions yearly. At all events, they
might save such an amount as, if properly used and duly economized,
could not fail to establish large numbers of them in circumstances of
comfort and even of comparative wealth.
The instances which we have already cited of persons in the humbler
ranks of life having by prudential forethought accumulated a
considerable store of savings for the benefit of their families, and as
a stay for their old age, need not by any means be the comparatively
exceptional cases that they are now. What one well-regulated person is
able to do, others, influenced by similar self-reliant motives, and
practising like sobriety and frugality, might with equal ease and in one
way or another accomplish. A man who has more money about him than he
requires for current purposes, is tempted to spend it. To use the common
phrase, it is apt to "burn a hole in his pocket." He may be easily
entrapped into company; and where his home provides but small comfort,
the public-house, with its bright fire, is always ready to welcome him.
It often happens that workmen lose their employment in "bad times."
Mercantile concerns become bankrupt, clerks are paid off, and servants
are dismissed when their masters can no longer employ them. If the
disemployed people have been in the habit of regularly consuming all
their salaries and wages, without laying anything by, their case is
about the most pitiable that can be imagined. But if they have saved
something, at home or in the savings bank, they will be enabled to break
their fall. They will obtain some breathing-time, before they again fall
into employment. Suppose they have as much as ten pounds saved. It may
seem a very little sum, yet in distress it amounts to much. It may even
prove a man's passport to future independence.
With ten pounds a workman might remove from one district to another
where employment is more abundant. With ten pounds, he might emigrate to
Canada or the United States, where his labour might be in request.
Without this little store of savings, he might be rooted to his native
spot, like a limpet to the rock. If a married man with a family, his ten
pounds would save his home from wreckage, and his household from
destitution. His ten pounds would keep the wolf from the door until
better times came round. Ten pounds would keep many a servant-girl from
ruin, give her time to recruit her health, perhaps wasted by hard work,
and enable her to look about for a suitable place, instead of rushing
into the first that offered.
We do not value money for its own sake, and we should be the last to
encourage a miserly desire to hoard amongst any class; but we cannot
help recognizing in money the means of life, the means of comfort, the
means of maintaining an honest independence. We would therefore
recommend every young man and every young woman to begin life by
learning to save; to lay up for the future a certain portion of every
week's earnings, be it little or much; to avoid consuming every week or
every year the earnings of that week or year; and we counsel them to do
this, as they would avoid the horrors of dependence, destitution, or
beggary. We would have men and women of every class able to help
themselves--relying upon their own resources--upon their own savings;
for it is a true saying that "a penny in the purse is better than a
friend at court." The first penny saved is a step in the world. The fact
of its being saved and laid by, indicates self-denial, forethought,
prudence, wisdom. It may be the germ of future happiness. It may be the
beginning of independence.
Cobbett was accustomed to scoff at the "bubble" of Savings Banks,
alleging that it was an insult to people to tell them that they had
anything to save. Yet the extent to which savings banks _have_ been
used, even by the humblest classes, proves that he was as much mistaken
in this as he was in many of the views which he maintained. There are
thousands of persons who would probably never have thought of laying by
a penny, but for the facility of the savings bank: it would have seemed
so useless to try. The small hoard in the cupboard was too ready at
hand, and would have become dissipated before it accumulated to any
amount; but no sooner was a place of deposit provided, where sums as
small as a shilling could be put away, than people hastened to take
advantage of it.
The first savings bank was started by Miss Priscilla Wakefield, in the
parish of Tottenham, Middlesex, towards the close of last century,--her
object being mainly to stimulate the frugality of poor children. The
experiment proved so successful that in 1799 the Rev. Joseph Smith, of
Wendon, commenced a plan of receiving small sums from his parishioners
during summer, and returning them at Christmas, with the addition of
one-third as a stimulus to prudence and forethought. Miss Wakefield, in
her turn, followed Mr. Smith's example, and in 1804 extended the plan of
her charitable bank, so as to include adult labourers, female servants,
and others. A similar institution was formed at Bath, in 1808, by
several ladies of that city; and about the same time Mr. Whitbread
proposed to Parliament the formation of a national institution, "in the
nature of a bank, for the use and advantage of the labouring classes
alone;" but nothing came of his proposal.
It was not until the Rev. Henry Duncan, the minister of Ruthwell, a poor
parish in Dumfriesshire, took up the subject, that the savings-bank
system may be said to have become fairly inaugurated. The inhabitants of
that parish were mostly poor cottagers, whose average wages did not
amount to more than eight shillings a week. There were no manufactures
in the district, nor any means of subsistence for the population, except
what was derived from the land under cultivation; and the landowners
were for the most part non-resident. It seemed a very unlikely place in
which to establish a bank for savings, where the poor people were
already obliged to strain every nerve to earn a bare living, to provide
the means of educating their children (for, however small his income,
the Scottish peasant almost invariably contrives to save something
wherewith to send his children to school), and to pay their little
contributions to the friendly society of the parish. Nevertheless, the
minister resolved, as a help to his spiritual instructions, to try the
experiment.
Not many labouring men may apprehend the deep arguments of the religious
teacher, but the least intelligent can appreciate a bit of practical
advice that tells on the well-being of his household as well as on the
labourer's own daily comfort and self-respect. Dr. Duncan knew that,
even in the poorest family, there were odds and ends of income apt to be
frittered away in unnecessary expenditure. He saw some thrifty cottagers
using the expedient of a cow, or a pig, or a bit of garden-ground, as a
savings bank,--finding their return of interest in the shape of butter
and milk, winter's bacon, or garden produce; and it occurred to him that
there were other villagers, single men and young women, for whom some
analogous mode of storing away their summer's savings might be provided,
and a fair rate of interest returned upon their little investments.
Hence originated the parish savings bank of Ruthwell, the first
self-supporting institution of the kind established in this country.
That the minister was not wrong in his anticipations, was proved by the
fact that, in the course of four years, the funds of his savings bank
amounted to nearly a thousand pounds. And if poor villagers out of eight
shillings a week, and female labourers and servants out of much less,
could lay aside this sum,--what might not mechanics, artizans, miners,
and iron-workers accomplish, who earn from thirty to fifty shillings a
week all the year round?
The example set by Dr. Duncan was followed in many towns and districts
in England and Scotland. In every instance the model of the Ruthwell
parish bank was followed; and the self-sustaining principle was adopted.
The savings banks thus instituted, were not eleemosynary institutions,
nor dependent upon anybody's charity or patronage; but their success
rested entirely with the depositors themselves. They encouraged the
industrious classes to rely upon their own resources, to exercise
forethought and economy in the conduct of life, to cherish self-respect
and self-dependence, and to provide for their comfort and maintenance in
old age, by the careful use of the products of their industry, instead
of having to rely for aid upon the thankless dole of a begrudged
poor-rate.
The establishment of savings banks with these objects, at length began
to be recognized as a matter of national concern; and in 1817 an Act was
passed which served to increase their number and extend their
usefulness. Various measures have since been adopted with the object of
increasing their efficiency and security. But notwithstanding the great
good which these institutions have accomplished, it is still obvious
that the better-paid classes of workpeople avail themselves of them to
only a very limited extent. A very small portion of the four hundred
millions estimated to be annually earned by the working classes finds
its way to the savings bank, while at least twenty times the amount is
spent annually at the beershop and the public-house.
It is not the highly-paid class of working men and women who invest
money in the savings banks; but those who earn comparatively moderate
incomes. Thus the most numerous class of depositors in the Manchester
and Salford Savings Bank is that of domestic servants. After them rank
clerks, shopmen, porters, and miners. Only about a third part of the
deposits belong to the operatives, artizans, and mechanics. It is the
same in manufacturing districts generally. A few years since, it was
found that of the numerous female depositors at Dundee, only one was a
factory worker: the rest were for the most part servants.
There is another fact that is remarkable. The habit of saving does not
so much prevail in those counties where wages are the highest, as in
those counties where wages are the lowest. Previous to the era of Post
Office Savings Banks, the inhabitants of Wilts and Dorset--where wages
are about the lowest in England--deposited more money in the savings
banks, per head of the population, than they did in Lancashire and
Yorkshire, where wages are about the highest in England. Taking
Yorkshire itself, and dividing it into manufacturing and
agricultural,--the manufacturing inhabitants of the West Riding of York
invested about twenty-five shillings per head of the population in the
savings banks; whilst the agricultural population of the East Riding
invested about three times that amount.
Private soldiers are paid much less wages per week than the lowest-paid
workmen, and yet they put more money in the savings banks than workmen
who are paid from thirty to forty shillings a week. Soldiers are
generally supposed to be a particularly thoughtless class. Indeed, they
are sometimes held up to odium as reckless and dissolute; but the
Military Savings Bank Returns refute the vilification, and prove that
the British soldier is as sober, well-disciplined, and frugal, as we
already know him to be brave. Most people forget that the soldier must
be obedient, sober, and honest. If he is a drunkard, he is punished; if
he is dishonest, he is drummed out of the regiment.
Wonderful is the magic of Drill! Drill means discipline, training,
education. The first drill of every people is military. It has been the
first education of nations. The duty of obedience is thus taught on a
large scale,--submission to authority; united action under a common
head. These soldiers,--who are ready to march steadily against vollied
fire, against belching cannon, up fortress heights, or to beat their
heads against bristling bayonets, as they did at Badajos,--were once
tailors, shoemakers, mechanics, delvers, weavers, and ploughmen; with
mouths gaping, shoulders stooping, feet straggling, arms and hands like
great fins hanging by their sides; but now their gait is firm and
martial, their figures are erect, and they march along, to the sound of
music, with a tread that makes the earth shake. Such is the wonderful
power of drill.
Nations, as they become civilized, adopt other methods of discipline.
The drill becomes industrial. Conquest and destruction give place to
production in many forms. And what trophies Industry has won, what skill
has it exercised, what labours has it performed! Every industrial
process is performed by drilled bands of artizans. Go into Yorkshire and
Lancashire, and you will find armies of drilled labourers at work, where
the discipline is perfect, and the results, as regards the amount of
manufactured productions turned out of hand, are prodigious.
On efficient drilling and discipline, men's success as individuals, and
as societies entirely depends. The most self-dependent man is under
discipline,--and the more perfect the discipline, the more complete his
condition. A man must drill his desires, and keep them under
subjection,--he must obey the word of command, otherwise he is the sport
of passion and impulse. The religions man's life is full of discipline
and self-restraint. The man of business is entirely subject to system
and rule. The happiest home is that where the discipline is the most
perfect, and yet where it is the least felt. We at length become subject
to it as to a law of Nature, and while it binds us firmly, yet we feel
it not. The force of Habit is but the force of Drill.
One dare scarcely hint, in these days, at the necessity for compulsory
conscription; and yet, were the people at large compelled to pass
through the discipline of the army, the country would be stronger, the
people would be soberer, and thrift would become much more habitual than
it is at present.
Military savings banks were first suggested by Paymaster Fairfowl in
1816; and about ten years later the question was again raised by Colonel
Oglander, of the 26th Foot (Cameronians). The subject was brought under
the notice of the late Duke of Wellington, and negatived; the Duke
making the following memorandum on the subject: "There is nothing that I
know of to prevent a soldier, equally with others of His Majesty's
subjects, from investing his money in savings banks. If there be any
impediment, it should be taken away; but I doubt the expediency of going
further."
The idea, however, seems to have occurred to the Duke, that the proposal
to facilitate the saving of money by private soldiers might be turned to
account in the way of a reduction in the army expenditure, and he
characteristically added: "Has a soldier more pay than he requires? If
he has, it should be lowered, not to those now in the service, but to
those enlisted hereafter." No one, however, could allege that the pay of
the private soldier was excessive, and it was not likely that any
proposal to lower it would be entertained.
The subject of savings banks for the army was allowed to rest for a
time, but by the assistance of Sir James McGregor and Lord Howick a
scheme was at length approved and finally established in 1842. The
result has proved satisfactory in an eminent degree, and speaks well for
the character of the British soldier. It appears from a paper presented
to the House of Commons some years ago,--giving the details of the
savings effected by the respective corps,--that the men of the Royal
Artillery had saved over twenty-three thousand pounds, or an average of
sixteen pounds to each depositor. These savings were made out of a daily
pay of one and threepence and a penny for beer-money, or equal to about
nine and sixpence a week, subject to sundry deductions for extra
clothing. Again, the men of the Royal Engineers--mostly drawn from the
skilled mechanical class--had saved nearly twelve thousand pounds, or an
average of about twenty pounds for each depositor. The Twenty-sixth
regiment of the line (Cameronians), whose pay was a shilling a day and a
penny for beer, saved over four thousand pounds. Two hundred and fifty
men of the first battalion, or one-third of the corps, were depositors
in the savings bank, and their savings amounted to about seventeen
pounds per man.
But this is not all. Private soldiers, out of their small earnings, are
accustomed to remit considerable sums through the post office, to their
poor relations at home. In one year, twenty-two thousand pounds were
thus sent from Aldershot,--the average amount of each money order being
twenty-one shillings and fourpence. And if men with seven shillings and
seven-pence a week can do so much, what might not skilled workmen do,
whose earnings amount to from two to three pounds a week?
Soldiers serving abroad during arduous campaigns have proved themselves
to be equally thoughtful and provident. During the war in the Crimea,
the soldiers and seamen sent home through the money order office
seventy-one thousand pounds, and the army works corps thirty-five
thousand pounds. More than a year before the money order system was
introduced at Scutari, Miss Nightingale took charge of the soldiers'
savings. She found them most willing to abridge their own comforts or
indulgences, for the sake of others dear to them, as well as for their
own future well-being; and she devoted an afternoon in every week to
receiving and forwarding their savings to England. She remitted many
thousand pounds in this manner, and it was distributed by a friend in
London,--much of it to the remotest corners of Scotland and Ireland. And
it afforded some evidence that the seed fell in good places (as well as
of the punctuality of the post office), that of the whole number of
remittances, all but one were duly acknowledged.
Again, there is not a regiment returning from India but brings home with
it a store of savings. In the year 1860, after the Indian mutiny, more
than twenty thousand pounds were remitted on account of invalided men
sent back to England; besides which there were eight regiments which
brought home balances to their credits in the regimental banks amounting
to £40.499.[1] The highest was the Eighty-fourth, whose savings amounted
to £9,718. The Seventy-Eighth (Ross-shire Buffs), the heroes who
followed Havelock in his march on Lucknow, saved £6,480; and the gallant
Thirty-second, who held Lucknow under Inglis, saved £5,263. The
Eighty-sixth, the first battalion of the Tenth, and the Ninth Dragoons,
all brought home an amount of savings indicative of providence and
forethought, which reflected the highest honour upon them as men as well
as soldiers.[2]
[Footnote 1: The sum sent home by soldiers serving in India for the
benefit of friends and relatives are not included in these amounts, the
remittances being made direct by the paymasters of regiments, and not
through the savings banks.]
[Footnote 2: The amount of the Fund for Military Savings Banks on the
5th of January, 1876, was £338,350.]
And yet the private soldiers do not deposit all their savings in the
military savings banks,--especially when they can obtain access to an
ordinary savings bank. We are informed that many of the household troops
stationed in London deposit their spare money in the savings banks
rather than in the regimental banks; and when the question was on a
recent occasion asked as to the cause, the answer given was, "I would
not have my sergeant know that I was saving money." But in addition to
this, the private soldier would rather that his comrades did not know
that he was saving money; for the thriftless soldier, like the
thriftless workman, when he has spent everything of his own, is very apt
to set up a kind of right to borrow from the fund of his more thrifty
comrade.
The same feeling of suspicion frequently prevents workmen depositing
money in the ordinary savings bank. They do not like it to be known to
their employers that they are saving money, being under the impression
that it might lead to attempts to lower their wages. A working man in a
town in Yorkshire, who had determined to make a deposit in the savings
bank, of which his master was a director, went repeatedly to watch at
the door of the bank before he could ascertain that his master was
absent; and he only paid in his money, after several weeks' waiting,
when ne had assured himself of this fact.
The miners at Bilston, at least such of them as put money in the savings
bank, were accustomed to deposit it in other names than their own. Nor
were they without reason. For some of their employers were actually
opposed to the institution of savings banks,--fearing lest the workmen
might apply their savings to their maintenance during a turn-out; not
reflecting that they have the best guarantee of the steadiness of this
class of men, in their deposits at the savings bank. Mr. Baker,
Inspector of Factories, has said that "the supreme folly of a strike is
shown by the fact that there is seldom or never a rich workman at the
head of it."
A magistrate at Bilston, not connected with the employment of workmen,
has mentioned the following case. "I prevailed," he says, "upon a
workman to begin a deposit in the savings bank. He came most
unwillingly. His deposits were small, although I knew his gains to be
great. I encouraged him by expressing satisfaction at the course he was
taking. His deposits became greater; and at the end of five years he
drew out the fund he had accumulated, bought a piece of land, and has
built a house upon it. I think if I had not spoken to him, the whole
amount would have been spent in feasting or clubs, or contributions to
the trades unions. That man's eyes are now open--his social position is
raised--he sees and feels as we do, and will influence others to follow
his example."
From what we have said, it will be obvious that there can be no doubt as
to the ability of a large proportion of the better-paid classes of
working men to lay by a store of savings. When they set their minds upon
any object, they have no difficulty in finding the requisite money. A
single town in Lancashire contributed thirty thousand pounds to support
their fellow-workmen when on strike in an adjoining town. At a time when
there are no strikes, why should they not save as much money on their
own account, for their own permanent comfort? Many workmen already save
with this object; and what they do, all might do. We know of one large
mechanical establishment,--situated in an agricultural district, where
the temptations to useless expenditure are few,--in which nearly all the
men are habitual economists, and have saved sums varying from two
hundred to five hundred pounds each.
Many factory operatives, with their families, might easily lay by from
five to ten shillings a week, which in a few years would amount to
considerable sums. At Darwen, only a short time ago, an operative drew
his savings out of the bank to purchase a row of cottages, now become
his property. Many others, in the same place, and in the neighbouring
towns, are engaged in building cottages for themselves, some by means of
their contributions to building societies, and others by means of their
savings accumulated in the bank.
A respectably dressed working man, when making a payment one day at the
Bradford savings bank, which brought his account up to nearly eighty
pounds, informed the manager how it was that he had been induced to
become a depositor. He had been a drinker; but one day accidentally
finding his wife's savings bank deposit book, from which he learnt that
she had laid by about twenty pounds, he said to himself, "Well now, if
this can be done while I am spending, what might we do if both were
saving?" The man gave up his drinking, and became one of the most
respectable persons of his class. "I owe it all," he said, "to my wife
and the savings bank."
When well-paid workmen such as these are able to accumulate a sufficient
store of savings, they ought gradually to give up hard work, and remove
from the field of competition as old age comes upon them. They ought
also to give place to younger men; and prevent themselves being beaten
down into the lower-paid ranks of labour. After sixty a man's physical
powers fail him; and by that time he ought to have made provision for
his independent maintenance. Nor are the instances by any means
uncommon, of workmen laying by money with this object, and thereby
proving what the whole class might, to a greater or less extent,
accomplish in the same direction.
The extent to which Penny Banks have been used by the very poorest
classes, wherever started, affords a striking illustration how much may
be done by merely providing increased opportunities for the practice of
thrift. The first Penny Bank was started in Greenock, about thirty years
since, as an auxiliary to the savings bank. The object of the projector
(Mr. J.M. Scott) was to enable poor persons, whose savings amounted to
less than a shilling (the savings bank minimum) to deposit them in a
safe place. In one year about five thousand depositors placed £1,580
with the Greenock institution. The estimable Mr. Queckett, a curate in
the east end of London, next opened a Penny Bank, and the results were
very remarkable. In one year as many as 14,513 deposits were made in the
bank. The number of depositors was limited to 2,000; and the demand for
admission was so great that there were usually many waiting until
vacancies occurred.
"Some save for their rent," said Mr. Queckett, "others for clothes and
apprenticing their children; and various are the little objects to which
the savings are to be applied. Every repayment passes through my own
hands, which gives an opportunity of hearing of sickness, or sorrow, or
any other cause which compels the withdrawal of the little fund. It is,
besides, a feeder to the larger savings banks, to which many are turned
over when the weekly payments tendered exceed the usual sum. Many of
those who could at first scarcely advance beyond a penny a week, can now
deposit a silver coin of some kind."
Never was the moral influence of the parish clergyman more wisely
employed than in this case. Not many of those whom Mr. Queckett thus
laboured to serve were amongst the church-going class; but by helping
them to be frugal, and improving their physical condition, he was
enabled gradually to elevate their social tastes, and to awaken in them
a religious life to which the greater number of them had before been
strangers.
A powerful influence was next given to the movement by Mr. Charles W.
Sikes, cashier of the Huddersfield Banking Company, who advocated their
establishment in connection with the extensive organization of
mechanics' institutes. It appeared to him that to train working people
when young in habits of economy, was of more practical value to
themselves, and of greater importance to society, than to fill their
minds with the contents of many books. He pointed to the perverted use
of money by the working class as one of the greatest practical evils of
the time. "In many cases," he said, "the higher the workmen's wages, the
poorer are their families; and these are they who really form the
discontented and the dangerous classes. How _can_ such persons take any
interest in pure and elevating knowledge?"
To show the thriftlessness of the people, Mr. Sikes mentioned the
following instance. "An eminent employer in the West Riding," he said,
"whose mills for a quarter of a century have scarcely run short time for
a single week, has within a few days examined the rate of wages now paid
to his men, and compared it with that of a few years ago. He had the
pleasure of finding that improvements in machinery had led to
improvement in wages. His spinners and weavers are making about
twenty-seven shillings a week. In many instances some of their children
work at the same mill, and in a few instances their wives, and often the
family income reaches from a hundred to a hundred and fifty pounds per
annum. Visiting the homes of some of these men, he has seen with
feelings of disappointment the air of utter discomfort and squalor with
which many are pervaded. Increase of income has led only to increase of
improvidence. The savings bank and the building society are equally
neglected, although at the same mill there are some with no higher
wages, whose homes have every comfort, and who have quite a little
competency laid by. In Bradford, I believe, a munificent employer on one
occasion opened seven hundred accounts with the savings bank for his
operatives, paying in a small deposit for each. The result was not
encouraging. Rapidly was a small portion of the sums drawn out, and very
few remained as the nucleus of further deposits."[1]
[Footnote 1: From Mr. Sikes's excellent little handbook entitled "Good
Times, or the Savings Bank and the Fireside."]
Mr. Sikes suggested that each mechanics' institute should appoint a
preliminary savings bank committee, to attend once a week for the
purpose of receiving deposits from the members and others.
"If a committee at each institution," he said, "were to adopt this
course, taking an interest in their humble circumstances, and in a
sympathizing and kindly spirit, to suggest, invite, nay win them over,
not only by reading the lesson, but forming the habit of true economy
and self-reliance (the noblest lessons for which classes could be
formed), how cheering would be the results! Once established in better
habits, their feet firmly set in the path of self-reliance, how
generally would young men grow up with the practical conviction that to
their own advancing intelligence and virtues must they mainly look to
work out their own social welfare!"
This admirable advice was not lost. One institution after another
embraced the plan, and preliminary savings banks were, shortly
established in connection with the principal mechanics' institutes
throughout Yorkshire. Those established at Huddersfield, Halifax,
Bradford, Leeds, and York, were exceedingly successful. The Penny Banks
established at Halifax consisted of a central bank and seven subordinate
branches. The number of members, and the average amount of the sums
deposited with them, continued to increase from year to year. Fourteen
Penny Banks were established at Bradford; and after the depositors had
formed the habit of saving in the smaller banks, they transferred them
in bulk to the ordinary Savings Bank.
Thirty-six Penny Banks were established in and around Glasgow. The
committee, in their Report, stated they were calculated "to check that
reckless expenditure of little sums which so often leads to a confirmed
habit of wastefulness and improvidence;" and they urged the support of
the Penny Banks as the best means of extending the usefulness of the
savings banks. The Penny Bank established at the small country town of
Farnham is estimated to have contributed within a few years a hundred
and fifty regular depositors to the savings bank of the same place. The
fact that as large a proportion as two-thirds of the whole amount
deposited is drawn out within the year, shows that Penny Banks are
principally used as places of safe deposit for very small sums of money,
until they are wanted for some special object, such as rent, clothes,
furniture, the doctor's bill, and such-like purposes.
Thus the Penny Bank is emphatically the poor man's purse. The great mass
of the deposits are paid in sums not exceeding sixpence, and the average
of the whole does not exceed a shilling. The depositors consist of the
very humblest members of the working class, and by far the greatest
number of them have never before been accustomed to lay by any portion
of their earnings. The Rev. Mr. Clarke, of Derby, who took an active
interest in the extension of these useful institutions, has stated that
one-tenth of the whole amount received by the Derby Penny Bank was
deposited in copper money, and a large portion of the remainder in
threepenny and fourpenny pieces.
It is clear, therefore, that the Penny Bank reaches a class of persons
of very small means, whose ability to save is much less than that of the
highly-paid workman, and who, if the money were left in their pockets,
would in most cases spend it in the nearest public-house. Hence, when a
Penny Bank was established at Putney, and the deposits were added up at
the end of the first year, a brewer, who was on the committee, made the
remark, "Well, that represents thirty thousand pints of beer _not
drunk_."
At one of the Penny Banks in Yorkshire, an old man in receipt of parish
outdoor relief was found using the Penny Bank as a place of deposit for
his pennies until he had accumulated enough to buy a coat. Others save,
to buy an eight-day clock, or a musical instrument, or for a railway
trip.
But the principal supporters of the Penny Banks are boys, and this is
their most hopeful feature; for it is out of boys that men are made. At
Huddersfield many of the lads go in bands from the mills to the Penny
Banks; emulation as well as example urging them on. They save for
various purposes--one to buy a chest of tools, another a watch, a third
a grammar or a dictionary.
One evening a boy presented himself to draw £l 10. According to the
rules of the Penny Bank a week's notice must be given before any sum
exceeding 20s. can be withdrawn, and the cashier demurred to making the
payment. "Well," said the boy, "the reason's this--mother can't pay her
rent; I'm goin' to pay it, for, as long as I have owt, she shall hev'
it." In another case, a youth drew £20 to buy off his brother who had
enlisted. "Mother frets so," said the lad, "that, she'll break her heart
if he isn't bought off, and I cannot bear that."
Thus these institutions give help and strength in many ways, and,
besides enabling young people to keep out of debt and honestly to pay
their way, furnish them with the means of performing kindly and generous
acts in times of family trial and emergency. It is an admirable feature
of the Ragged Schools that almost every one of them has a Penny Bank
connected with it for the purpose of training the scholars in good
habits, which they most need; and it is a remarkable fact that in one
year not less than £8,880 were deposited, in 25,637 sums, by the
scholars connected with the Ragged School Union. And when, this can be
done by the poor boys of the ragged schools, what might not be
accomplished by the highly-paid operatives and mechanics of England?
But another capital feature in the working of Penny Banks, as regards
the cultivation of prudent habits among the people, is the circumstance
that the example of boys and girls depositing their spare weekly
pennies, has often the effect of drawing their parents after them. A boy
goes on for weeks paying his pence, and taking home his pass-book. The
book shows that he has a "leger folio" at the bank expressly devoted to
him--that his pennies are all duly entered, together with the respective
dates of their deposits--that these savings are not lying idle, but bear
interest at 2-1/2 per cent. per annum--and that he can have them
restored to him at any time,--if under 20s., without notice; and it
above 20s., then after a week's notice has been given.
The book is a little history in itself, and cannot fail to be
interesting to the boy's brothers and sisters, as well as to his
parents. They call him "good lad," and they see he is a well-conducted
lad. The father, if he be a sensible man, naturally bethinks him that,
if his boy can do so creditable a thing, worthy of praise, so might he
himself. Accordingly, on the next Saturday night, when the boy goes to
deposit his threepence at the Penny Bank, the father often sends his
shilling.
Thus a good beginning is often made, and a habit initiated, which, if
persevered in, very shortly exercises a most salutary influence on the
entire domestic condition of the family. The observant mother is quick
to observe the effects of this new practice upon the happiness of the
home, and in course of time, as the younger children grow up and earn
money, she encourages them to follow the elder boy's example. She
herself takes them by the hand, leads them to the Penny Bank, and
accustoms them to invest their savings there. Women have even more
influence in such matters than men, and where they do exercise it, the
beneficial effects are much more lasting.
One evening a strong, muscular mechanic appeared at the Bradford savings
bank in his working dress, bringing with him three children, one of them
in his arms. He placed on the counter their deposit books, which his
wife had previously been accustomed to present, together with ten
shillings, to be equally apportioned amongst the three. Pressing to his
bosom the child in his arms, the man said, "Poor things! they have lost
their mother since they were here last; but I must do the best I can for
them." And he continued the good lesson to his children which his wife
had begun, bringing them with him each time to see their little deposits
made.
There is an old English proverb which says, "He that would thrive must
first ask his wife;" but the wife must not only let her husband thrive,
but help him, otherwise she is not the "help meet" which is as needful
for the domestic comfort and satisfaction of the working man, as of
every other man who undertakes the responsibility of a family. Women
form the moral atmosphere in which we grow when children, and they have
a great deal to do with the life we lead when we become men. It is true
that the men may hold the reins; but it is generally the women who tell
them which way to drive. What Rousseau said is very near the truth--"Men
will always be what women make them."
Not long ago, Mr. Sikes encountered, in a second-class carriage, a
well-dressed workman travelling from Sheffield to Glasgow, during
holiday times, to see his mother. "I am glad," said Mr. Sikes, "to find
a workman travelling so great a distance, for a purpose like that."
"Yes," said the man, "and I am glad to say that I can afford to do it."
"And do many of the workmen employed in your workshop save money?" asked
Mr. Sikes. "No," said the other, "not more than about two in the
hundred. The spare earnings of the others go, not to the savings banks,
but to the drink-shops." "And when did you begin to save?" "When I was
no bigger than _that_," indicating the height of a little boy: "the
first money I saved was in a Penny Bank, and I have gone on saving ever
since."
Such being the influence of early practice and example, we are glad to
find that Economy is now being taught at public schools. The Rev. Mr.
Crallan, of the Sussex County Asylum, has long taught lessons of thrift
to poor boys and girls. He urges the establishment of Penny Banks in
connection with Savings Banks, in all elementary schools. He wisely
contends that simple lessons on money, its nature, its value, and its
uses, together with the various duties of giving, spending, and saving,
would have a vast influence on the rising generation.
The practice of teaching children provident habits has been adopted for
about eight years in the National Schools of Belgium. The School Board
of Ghent is convinced of the favourable influence that saving has upon
the moral and material well-being of the working classes, and believes
that the best means of causing the spirit of economy to penetrate their
habits is to teach it to the children under tuition, and to make them
practise it.
It is always very difficult to teach anything new to adults,--and
especially lessons of thrift to men who are thriftless. Their method of
living is fixed. Traditional and inveterate habits of expenditure exist
among them. With men, it is the drinking-shop; with women, it is dress.
They spend what they earn, and think nothing of to-morrow. When reduced
to a state of distress, they feel no shame in begging; for the feeling
of human dignity has not yet been sufficiently developed in them.
With children it is very different. They have no inveterate habits to
get rid of. They will, for the most part, do as they are taught. And
they can be taught economy, just as they can be taught arithmetic. They
can, at all events, be inspired by a clever teacher with habits of
economy and thrift. Every child has a few pence at times. The master may
induce them to save these for some worthy purpose. At Ghent, a savings
bank has been introduced in every school, and the children deposit their
pennies there. It is introduced into the paying schools as well as the
free schools; for habits of thrift are as useful to men and women of the
richer as of the poorer classes. The results of the lessons on Economy
have been highly satisfactory.[1] The children belonging to the schools
of Ghent have accumulated eighteen thousand pounds, which is deposited
in the State Savings Bank at three per cent. interest. This system is
spreading into Holland, France, and Italy. It has also, to a certain
extent, been adopted in this country. Thus Glasgow, Liverpool,
Birmingham, Great Ilford, and the London Orphan Asylum, all show
specimens of School Banks; and we trust that, before long, they will be
established in every school throughout the kingdom.
[Footnote 1: A pamphlet published at Ghent says of the paying schools:
"The spirit of economy is introduced there under the form of charity.
The young girls buy with their pocket money, firstly materials, say
cotton or linen, of which they afterwards make articles of dress during
the hours set aside for manual work: afterwards the shirts, stockings,
dresses, handkerchiefs, or aprons, are distributed to the poorer
children of the free schools. The distribution Becomes the object of a
little holiday: we know of nothing that can be more touching. The poor
children are assembled in the Collier school; our young ladies go were
also; one of them says a few words feelingly to her sisters in the
poorer classes; one of the girls of the free schools replies. Then the
pretty and useful things which have been made during the last year are
distributed. It is the donors themselves who present the fruits of their
labour to the poorest among the poor. The distribution is intermingled
with singing. Need we reiterate the blessings of this blessed economy?"]
It will be obvious, from what has been said, that the practice of
economy depends very much upon the facilities provided for the laying by
of small sums of money. Let a convenient savings bank be provided, and
deposits gradually flow into it. Let a military savings bank be
established, and private soldiers contrive to save something out of
their small pay. Let penny banks be opened, and crowds of depositors
immediately present themselves; even the boys of the ragged schools
being able to put into them considerable sums of money. It is the same
with school banks, as we have seen from the example of the
school-children of Ghent.
Now, fifteen years ago, this country was very insufficiently provided
with savings banks for the people. There were then many large towns and
villages altogether unprovided with them. Lancashire had only thirty
savings banks for upwards of two millions of people. The East Riding of
Yorkshire had only four savings banks. There were fifteen counties in
the United Kingdom which had not a single savings bank. There were only
about six hundred savings banks for about thirty millions of people.
These were open only for two or three hours in the week; some were open
for only four hours in the month. The workman who had money to save, had
to carry his spare shillings in his pocket for some time before he could
lay them by; and in the meantime he might be exposed to constant
temptations to spend them. To keep his shillings safe, he must have
acquired the _habit_ of saving, which it was the object of savings banks
to train and establish.
Dr. Guthrie, in his book on Ragged Schools, published in 1860, said:
"How are our manufacturing and handicraft youth situated? By
public-houses and spirit-shops they are surrounded with innumerable
temptations; while to many of them savings banks are hardly known by
name. Dissipation has her nets drawn across every street. In many of our
towns, sobriety has to run the gauntlet of half-a-dozen spirit-shops in
the space of a bow-shot. These are near at hand--open by day, and
blazing by night, both on Sabbath and Saturday. Drunkenness finds
immediate gratification; while economy has to travel a mile, it may be,
for her savings bank; and that opens its door to thrift but once or
twice a week."[1]
[Footnote 1: Seed-Time and Harvest of Ragged Schools, or a Third Plea,
with new editions of the First and Second Plea, p. 99.]
Many suggestions had been made by friends of the poorer classes, whether
it might not be possible to establish a more extended system of savings
banks throughout the country. As long ago as 1807, Mr. Whitbread
introduced a Bill into Parliament for the purpose of enabling small
deposits to be made at an office to be established in London; the money
to be remitted by the postmasters of the districts in which the deposits
were made. The Bill further contemplated the establishment of a National
Assurance Society, by means of which working people were to be enabled
to effect assurances to an extent not exceeding two hundred pounds, and
to secure annuities to an amount not exceeding twenty pounds. Mr.
Whitbread's bill was rejected, and nothing came of his suggestions.
The exertions of Sir Rowland Hill having given great vitality to the
Post Office system, and extended its usefulness as a public institution
in all directions, it was next suggested that the money-order offices
(which were established in 1838) might be applied for the purpose of
depositing as well as for transmitting money. Professor Hancock
published a pamphlet on the subject in 1852. In November, 1856, Mr. John
Bullar, the eminent counsel--whose attention had been directed to the
subject by the working of the Putney Penny Bank--suggested to the Post
Office authorities the employment of money-order offices as a means of
extending the savings-bank system; but his suggestion did not meet with
approval at the time, and nothing came of it. Similar suggestions were
made by other gentlemen--by Mr. Hume, by Mr. M'Corquodale, by Captain
Strong, by Mr. Ray Smee, and others.
But it was not until Mr. Sikes, of Huddersfield, took up the question,
that these various suggestions became embodied in facts. Suggestions are
always useful. They arouse thinking. The most valuable are never lost,
but at length work themselves into facts. Most inventions are the result
of original suggestions. Some one attempts to apply the idea. Failures
occur at first; but with greater knowledge, greater experience, and
greater determination, the suggestion at last succeeds.
Post Office Savings Banks owe their success, in the first place, to the
numerous suggestions made by Mr. Whitbread and others; next to Sir
Rowland Hill who by establishing the Branch Post Offices for the
transmission of money, made the suggestions practicable; next to Mr.
Sikes, who took up the question in 1850, pushed it, persevered with it,
and brought it under the notice of successive Chancellors of the
Exchequer; and lastly to Mr. Gladstone, who, having clearly foreseen the
immense benefits of Post Office Savings Banks, brought in a Bill and
carried it through Parliament in 1861.
The money-order department of the Post Office had suggested to Mr.
Sikes, as it had already done to other observers, that the organization
already existed for making Post Office Savings Banks practicable
throughout the kingdom. Wherever the local inspector found that as many
as five money-orders were required in a week, the practice was to make
that branch of the Post Office a money-order office. It was estimated
that such an office was established on an average within three miles of
every working man's door in the kingdom. The offices were open daily.
They received money from all comers, and gave vouchers for the amounts
transmitted through them. They held the money until it was drawn, and
paid it out on a proper voucher being presented. The Post Office was, in
fact, a bank for the transmission of money, holding it for periods of
from twenty-four hours to weeks and months. By enabling it to receive
more money from more depositors, and by increasing the time of holding
it, allowing the usual interest, it became to all intents and purposes a
National bank of deposit.
The results of the Post Office Savings Banks Act have proved entirely
satisfactory. The money-order offices have been largely extended. They
are now about four thousand in number; consequently the facilities for
saving have been nearly doubled since the banks were established. The
number in the London district is now about four hundred and sixty, so
that from any point in the thickly populated parts of the metropolis, a
Savings Bank may be found within a distance of a few hundred yards. The
number of the depositors at the end of 1873 amounted to more than a
million and a half; while the amount of deposits reached over twenty-one
millions sterling.[1] At the same time the amount deposited with the
original Savings Banks remained about the same.
[Footnote 1: The amount reached £23,157,469 at the end of 1874.]
Post Office Savings Banks possess several great advantages which ought
to be generally known. The banks are very widely diffused, and are open
from nine in the morning until six in the evening, and on Saturdays
until nine at night. Persons may make a deposit of a shilling, or of any
number of shillings, provided more than thirty pounds is not deposited
in any one year. The Post Office officers furnish the book in which the
several deposits are entered. The book also contains the regulations of
the Post Office Savings Banks. Interest is allowed at the rate of two
pounds ten shillings per cent, per annum.
Another most important point is, the Security. Government is responsible
for the full amount paid in; so that the money deposited with the Post
Office Savings Bank is as safe as if it were in the Bank of England. The
money saved may also be transferred from place to place, without
expense, and may be easily paid to the depositor when required, no
matter where it was originally deposited. All that is done, is done in
perfect secrecy between the depositor and the postmaster, who is
forbidden to disclose the names of the depositors.
We have frequently alluded to Mr. Charles William Sikes in connection
with Penny Banks and Post Office Savings Banks. His name must always
hold a distinguished place in connection with those valuable
institutions. He is the son of a private banker in Huddersfield. When at
school he was presented, as a prize, with a copy of Dr. Franklin's
Essays and Letters. He perused the book with avidity. It implanted in
his mind the germs of many useful thoughts, and exercised a powerful
influence in giving a practical character to his life. Huddersfield is a
busy manufacturing town. Although workmen were well paid for their
labour, there were many ups and downs in their business. When trade
became slack, and they had spent all that they had earned, numbers of
them were accustomed to apply for charity in the streets or by the
wayside. Young Sikes often wondered whether these people had ever heard
of Dr. Franklin, and of his method of avoiding beggary or bad times by
saving their money when trade was brisk and they were well off.
Early in 1833, Mr. Sikes entered the service of the Huddersfield Banking
Company. It was the second joint stock bank that had been established in
England. The prudence and success with which the Scotch banking
companies had been conducted induced the directors to select a Scotch
manager. One of the first resolutions the directors adopted, was to give
deposit receipts for sums of ten pounds and upwards, for the purpose of
encouraging the working classes in habits of providence and thrift. Mr.
Sikes, being somewhat of a favourite with the manager, often heard from
his lips most interesting accounts of the provident habits of the Scotch
peasantry, and was informed by him of the fact that one of the banks at
Perth paid not less than twenty thousand pounds a year as interest on
deposits varying from ten to two hundred pounds each.
In 1837, Mr. Sikes became one of the cashiers of the company. This
brought him into direct contact and intercourse with the very class
which, from the direction his mind was taking, he so much wished to
understand,--namely, the thrifty portion of the industrious classes. A
considerable number of them had sums lying at interest. As years rolled
on, Mr. Sikes often witnessed the depositor commencing with ten or
twenty pounds, then make permanent additions to his little store, until
at length the amount would reach one, two, or, in a few instances, even
three hundred pounds. Mr. Sikes would often imagine the marvellous
improvement that would be effected on the condition of the working
classes, if every one of them became influenced by the same frugality
and forethought, which induced these exceptional operatives to deposit
their savings at his bank.
About that time, trade was in a wretched condition. The handloom weavers
were almost entirely without employment. Privation and suffering
prevailed on every side, and these were often borne with silent and
noble heroism. Various remedies were proposed for the existing evils.
Socialism, chartism, and free trade, were the favourites. Theories of
the wildest and most impracticable character abounded, and yet even in
those dark days there were instances of men who had to some degree made
the future predominate over the present, who could fall back upon their
reserve in the Joint Stock or Savings Bank to tide them over into better
times. Believing in the beneficent results of free trade, Mr. Sikes was
equally convinced that national prosperity, as well as national
adversity, might be attended with great evils, unless the masses were
endowed with habits of providence and thrift, and prepared by previous
education for the "good time coming" so eloquently predicted by the
orators of the League.
Many discussions with working men, in his homeward evening walks,
convinced Mr. Sikes that there were social problems with which
legislation would be almost powerless to grapple, and of these the
thriftlessness of the masses of the people was one. An employer of five
hundred handloom weavers had told Mr. Sikes that in a previous period of
prosperity, when work was abundant and wages were very high, he could
not, had he begged on bended knee, have induced his men to save a single
penny, or to lay by anything for a rainy day. The fancy waistcoating
trade had uniformly had its cycles of alternate briskness and
depression; but experience, however stern its teachings, could not teach
unwilling learners. It was at this period that Mr. Sikes was reading the
late Archbishop Sumner's "Records of Creation," and met with the
following passage: "The only true secret of assisting the poor, is to
make them agents in bettering their own condition."
Simple as are the words, they shed light into Mr. Sikes's mind, and
became the keynote and the test to which he brought the various views
and theories which he had previously met with. Doles and charities,
though founded frequently on the most benevolent motives, were too often
deteriorating to their recipients. On the other hand, if self-reliance
and self-help--the columns of true majesty in man--could only be made
characteristics of the working classes generally, nothing could retard
their onward and upward progress. Mr. Sikes observed that until the
working classes had more of the money power in their hands, they would
still be periodically in poverty and distress. He saw that if provident
habits could only he generally pursued by them, the face of society
would immediately be transformed; and he resolved, in so far as lay in
his power, to give every aid to this good work.
In 1850, Savings Banks were only open a very few hours in each week. In
Huddersfield, where more than £400,000 a year was paid in wages, the
savings bank, after having been established over thirty years, had only
accumulated £74,332. In 1850, Mr. Sikes addressed an anonymous letter to
the editors of the _Leeds Mercury_, to which, by their request, he
afterwards attached his name. In that letter he recommended the
formation of Penny Savings Banks in connection with Mechanics' and
similar institutes. In simple words, but with many telling facts, he
showed how the young men and the young women of the working classes were
growing up deprived of almost every opportunity of forming habits of
thrift, and of becoming depositors in savings hanks.
The letter was received with general approbation. The committee of the
Yorkshire Union of Mechanics' Institutes gave their cordial sanction to
it; and Penny Banks were established in connection with nearly every
Mechanics' Institute in Yorkshire. Mr. Sikes personally conducted one at
Huddersfield; and down to the present time, it has received and repaid
about thirty thousand pounds. In fact, the working people of
Huddersfield, doubtless owing in a great measure to the practical
example of Mr. Sikes,--have become most provident and thrifty,--the
deposits in their savings bank having increased from seventy-four
thousand pounds in 1850, to three hundred and thirty thousand pounds in
1874.
In 1854, Mr. Sikes published his excellent pamphlet on "Good Times, or
the Savings Bank and the Fireside," to which we have already referred.
The success which it met with induced him to give his attention to the
subject of savings banks generally. He was surprised to find that they
were so utterly inadequate to meet the requirements of the country. He
sought an interview with Sir Cornewall Lewis, then Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and brought the subject under his consideration. The
Chancellor requested Mr. Sikes to embody his views in a letter, and in
the course of a few months there appeared a pamphlet addressed to Sir
Cornewall Lewis, entitled "Savings Banks Reforms." Mr. Sikes insisted on
the Government guarantee being given for deposits made in Savings Banks;
but this was refused.
Mr. Sikes next proceeded to ventilate the question of Post Office
Savings Banks. He was disappointed that no measure for the improvement
of Savings Banks had been adopted by Parliament. The day appeared very
distant when his cherished wish would be realized,--that the Savings
Bank should really become the Bank of the People. But the darkest hour
precedes the dawn. When he had almost given up the notion of improving
the existing Savings Banks, the idea suddenly struck him that in the
money-order office there was the very organization which might be made
the basis of a popular Savings Bank.
He communicated his plan in a letter to his friend Mr. Baines, then
member for Leeds. The plan was submitted to Sir Rowland Hill, who
approved of the suggestions, and considered the scheme "practicable so
far as the Post Office was concerned." The plan was then brought under
the notice of Mr. Gladstone, who afterwards carried the Bill through
Parliament for the establishment of Post Office Savings Banks throughout
the country.
To use the words of Mr. Sikes himself,--when predicting at the Social
Science Association the success of the Post Office Savings
Banks,--"Should the plan be carried out, it will soon be doing a
glorious work. Wherever a Bank is opened and deposits received,
self-reliance will to some extent be aroused, and, with many, a nobler
life will be begun. They will gradually discern how ruthless an enemy is
improvidence to working men; and how truly his friends are economy and
forethought. Under their guidance, household purchases could be made on
the most favourable terms--_for cash;_ any wished-for house taken at the
lowest rent _for punctual payment_; and the home enriched with comforts
until it is enjoyed and prized by all. From such firesides go forth
those inheriting the right spirit,--loving industry, loving thrift, and
loving home. Emulous of a good example, they in their day and generation
would nobly endeavour to lay by a portion of their income. Many a hard
winter and many a slack time would be comfortably got over by drawing on
the little fund, to be again replenished in better days. And if the plan
were adopted, remembering that it would virtually bring the Savings Bank
within less than an hour's walk of the fireside of every working man in
the United Kingdom, I trust that it is not taking too sanguine a view to
anticipate that it would render aid in ultimately winning over the rank
and file of the industrial classes of the kingdom to those habits of
forethought and self-denial which bring enduring reward to the
individual, and materially add to the safety of the State."
The working classes have not yet, however, taken full advantage of the
facilities for saving afforded them by the Post Office Savings Banks.
Take Birmingham for instance, where the artizans are among the best-paid
workmen of the town. In the list of depositors in the Post Office
Savings Banks, we find that the artizans rank after the domestic
servants, after the married and unmarried women, and after the miners.
They only constitute about one-tenth of the entire depositors, though it
is possible that they may deposit their savings in some other
investments.
Then take the returns for the entire United Kingdom. Out of every ten
thousand depositors in the Post Office Savings Banks, we find that the
domestic servants are again the first; next, the women, married and
single; next, persons of "no occupation" and "occupations not given;"
next, the artizans, and after them, the labourers, miners, tradesmen,
soldiers and sailors, clerks, milliners and dressmakers, professional
men, and public officials, in the order stated. We must, however, regard
the institution as still too young to have fully taken root. We believe
that the living generation must pass away before the full fruits of the
Post Office Savings Banks can be gathered in.
The inhabitants of Preston have exhibited a strong disposition to save
their earnings during the last few years,--more especially since the
conclusion of the last great strike. There is no town in England,
excepting perhaps Huddersfield, where the people have proved themselves
so provident and so thrifty. Fifty years ago, only one person in thirty
of the population of Preston deposited money in the Savings Bank; twenty
years ago, the depositors increased to one in eleven; and last year they
had increased to one in five. In 1834, the sum of a hundred and
sixty-five thousand pounds had been accumulated in the Savings Bank by
5,942 depositors; and in 1874, four hundred and seventy-two thousand
pounds had been accumulated by 14,792 depositors, out of a total
population of 85,428. Is there any other town or city that can show a
more satisfactory result of the teaching, the experience, and the
prosperity of the last twenty years?