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The Commoner.
E FEBRUARY 19, 1909
5
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EDUCATIONAL SERIES
EDUCATIONAL CLUBS
Tho Commoner has received a number of let
ters of which the following from Niotaze, Kan.,
Is a sample:
"I have talked with a few friends on tho
proposition of organizing a club to discuss the
articles in the Educational Series. They seem
to think it would be good policy to do so, as
we might draw some fair-minded republicans
into it and convince them of the error of their
way. I don't know just how to go about organiz
ing. If you could find time and opportunity to
give me a few pointers as to how to go about it
I think I could make it go."
The work of organizing such a" club need not
be complicated. Let some one invite several
others to a preliminary meeting. The club may
be organized at that meeting or arrangements
may be made for a later meeting to which others
will be Invited and at which organization may
be affected.
The officers of the club may be a president,
secretary and treasurer.
It might be a good plan to designate for each
Bubject under discussion a leader whose business
it would bo to read to tho club the article ap
pearing in tho Educational Series, supplement
ed by other matter on tho same subject selected
by tho leader. Then might follow a general dis
cussion of the subject by the other members of
the club.
It should be remembered that the organiza
tion of such a club need not depend upon a large
number of persons. It might well be organized
with say two members whore a larger number
could not be persuaded to join in the work. It
is not difficult to believe that in any coramu .ity
whore two or three persons meet for the pur
pose of improving their mind? through tho study
of public questions there will be many others
who will want to avail themselves of tho oppor
tunity for study thus afforded.
As soon as one of these clubs Is organized
the fact of its organization, its name and tho
names of its officers, should be communicated
to The Commoner.
Postal Savings Banks
With the increasing interest in the banking
question the postal savings bank proposition is
now a pertinent subject for investigation and
discussion by American citizens and particularly
by young men and women upon whose success
ful education, along governmental lines, the
permanency of popular government must de
pend. So important is this question that both of the
great political parties took cognizance ' of it In
their national platforms for 1908.
The republican national platform for 1908
declared: "We favor the establishment of a
postal savings banks system for the convenience
of the people and the encouragement of thrift."
The democratic platform dealt more exten
sively with the subject. The following is the
plank in the democratic national platform for
1908:
"The panic of 1907, coming without any
legitimate excuse when the republican party had
for a decade been in complete control of the
federal government furnishes additional proof
that it is either unwilling or incompetent to
protect the interests of the general public. It
has so linked the country to Wall Street that
the sins of the speculators are visited upon the
whole people. While refusing to rescue the
wealth producers from spoliation at the hands
of the stock gamblers, and speculators in farm
products, it has deposited treasury funds, with
out interest and without competition, in favor
of banks. It has used an emergency for which
it is largely responsible to force through con
gress a bill changing the basis of bank currency
and inviting market manipulation, and has
failed to give to the fifteen million depositors
of the country protection in their savings.
"We believe that insofar as the needs of com
merce require an emergency currency, such cur
rency should be issued and controlled by the
federal government and loaned on adequate se
curity to national and state banks. We pledge
ourselves to legislation under which the national
banks shall be required to establish a guarantee
fund for the prompt payment of the depositors
of any insolvent national bank, under an
equitable system which shall.be available to all
state banking institutions wishing to use it.
"We favor a postal savings bank if the guar
anteed bank can not be secured, and believe
that it should be so constituted as to keep the
deposited money in the communities where the
depositors live. But we condemn the policy of
the republican party in proposing postal savings
banks under a plan of conduct by which they
will aggregate the deposits of the rural commu
nities and redeposit the same while under gov
ernment charge in the banks of Wall Street, thus
depleting the circulating medium of the produc
ing regions and unjustly favoring the specula
tive markets."
In an article relating to postal savings banks
and printed in the Woman's World of Chicago,
Mr. Meyer, the postmaster general, declures that
the adoption of this system will bring into cir
culation fully half a billion dollars now hidden
away; owing to lack of confidence or facility.
Mr. Meyer says:
"As an evidence of tho demand for postal
savings banks we have reports from postmasters
that they have been compelled to refuse to ac
cept deposits offered by foreigners for safe, keep
ing, and also that our own people, haye bought'
postal money orders during the last year pay
able to themselves to the extent of $8,104,447,
on which amount fees of $25,000 were paid.
These money orders were bought to tho great
est extent in Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Mis
souri, Montana, Nebraska', Nevada, Oklahoma,
Ohio, Oregon, Texas and Washington.
"A postofflce Inspector has reported that one
family residing near a small postofflce In the
state of Washington has $11,000 on deposit in
the postal banks of British Columbia.
"In some parts of the United States the need
of postal savings banks Is not as urgently felt
as in others. In New England tho average dis
tance of the savings bank from the postofflce is
about fifteen miles; in the middle and western
states it is about twenty-five miles; in the south
ern states thirty-three miles, and in the Pacific
slope states fifty-five miles. The postal savings
bank would reach every community.
"While the money in savings banks amounts
to $3,660,653,945, only 1.6 per cent or $70,
308,543, is in thirty-two states. The fourteen
other states are fortunate in possessing savings
bank deposits to the amount of $3,590,245,402,
98.4 per cent. This is of great advantage to
the latter states, as It Increases their financial
resources and thus aids in their development.
"In the thirty-two states referred to there are
many localities where there are no savings banks
and in some cases no banks of any kind. It Is
there that considerable money is held in hiding,
which -is neither absolutely safe nor in circula
tion for the benefit of the community. It has
been estimated that altogether fully half a bil
lion dollars not today placed in any bank, due
to want of opportunity or lack of confidence
might be brought back into circulation through
the agency of postal savings banks.
"The additional opportunities for saving that
can be afforded the people by postal savings
banks In this country are made apparent by the
fact that there are 60,624 postofflces, 40,000
of which are money-order postofflces.
"The foreigner should be encouraged to de
posit his earnings, because after he has accumu
lated a few I irhdred dollars he will not be con
tent to receive merely a two per cent interest,
but will seek to purchase a home. The rate
of interest which '.he department has recom
mended, two per cent per annum, is evidence
that It is not the Intention to go into the bank
ing business or to compete with existing sav
ings institutions, which pay, In a great many In
stances, four per cent per annum. On tho con
trary, it is proposod to redeposit tho' money
which Is brought to tho postofflces In national
banks in tho locality where it is first roceived,
thus making it immediately available for tho
financial and business transactions of tho com
munity in which it properly belongs.
"The expense to tho government in connec
tion with tho operation of postal savings banks
would not bo great. In Canada, whero $465,
000,000 has been received and returned to de
positors in tho last thirty-nine years, and where
at present $50,000,000 is on doposit, tho total
expense to the central establishment at Toronto
is given as $60,000 annually. Outside of that
city the work incident to tho system is Included
in tho duties of rogular postal employes. In tho
United States the work could be performed In
money order offices by the dorks handling such
orders, and it Is not belloved that additional
employes would bo needed."
THE CARNEGIE PENSION
Macon, Mo., February 8. Editor Commoner:
I am reading, with care, your educational series.
As one of those who asked you to wrlto theso
articles, I reserved tho right to comment thore
on, approvingly or. otherwise, and I will do so
as each article appears, rather than try to re
view several at once. You are exactly right as
to tho Carnegie fund for teachors, and your
logic is good, but you fail to touch tho keynote,
when speaking on tho subject of pensions to
teachers. The only pension in America that
can, consistently, with our American form of
free government, bo granted, is to tho citizen
who Is forced or called to take up his gun in de
fense of tho government, and he, only on con
dition that such forced service results in his
physical injury, so that when returning to pri
vate citizenship his ability to earn a living ha
been impaired by such service.
A professor or teacher is no more entitled to,
and there is no more authority for giving him, or
her a pension, than to their washerwoman. I
have a supreme and irrepressible contempt for
men who, claiming to be democrats, urge the
pensioning of ex-presldonts on the ground that
they were too honorable to work, after having
been elected to the high office of president.
Such sentiment is abhorrent to a man. who has
a drop of American blood in hfm, or wIioao heart
ever throbs in sympathy with that deop sense
of liberty for which our fathers gave their lives,
and established a government upon tho theory
that all men are equal before the law, and In
Which there are no born kings, and one which
creates every citizen dopendent upon his own
energies for his support, and which guarantees
to him all the fruits of his labor, save only his
proportional part In support of the government
which protests him; or in support of objects of
charity.
Theso advocates of this pension business are
admirers of hereditary rulers of tho people. This
admiration for monarchical theori. j is a viper
at whose head you should strike a deadly blow
whenever it appears. -Yours truly,
WEB M. RUBY.
INTERESTED IN THE WORK
Flatwood, Ala., February 11, 1909. Editor.
The Commoner: I note that In Tho Commoner
of the 5th inst. you inform William R. Kemp of
St. Clair, Mich (my boyhood home county) that
you will discuss the Des Moines plan of city
government In the educational series. I hope
you will also give an article on proportional rep
resentation and the preferential ballot. Also,
on what is known, and what would be the prob
able result of direct taxation of land values and
the exemption of persons poll tax and per
sonal property from taxation. I note what you
have written In this educational series regard
ing tho Carnegie pension for teachers. I con
sider the reasons you give why the gift (?)
should be declined as being based on high moral
ground and good judgment. I trust your legis
lators will see this matter in the light that you
do and that they will reject the proffered fund,
thereby setting a good example to less fortunate
democratic states, especially to those that are
yet suffering from the blight of chattel slavery.
My home was In Nebraska for a number of years
and I still have a lively interest in what is be
ing done in the state. . Yours truly,
M. M. COPE.
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