IMMIGRANT INSTITUTIONS 
107 
necting link with the fatherland. As the representa 
tive of well-known lines, he ascribes to the agent a 
standing and responsibility such as he has no cause 
to assign to any American banking institution. Noth 
ing is more natural than that the immigrant should 
take his savings to the agent and ask that the agent 
send them home for him. Having made the start, it 
is natural that he should continue to leave with the 
agent for safe-keeping his weekly or monthly surplus, 
so that he may accumulate a sufficient amount for 
another remittance or for the purpose of buying a 
steamship ticket to bring his family to this country 
or for his own return to Europe. It is not long be 
fore the agent has a nucleus for a banking business, 
and his assumption of banking functions quickly fol 
lows. 
Those proprietors who confine their operations to 
banking and steamship agencies, as distinguished from 
those who conduct such in connection with some other 
business, are usually the most intelligent men of the 
immigrant population of any colony or locality. They 
are always possest of considerable influence, and may 
be political leaders in the older and more established 
immigrant communities. Almost without exception, 
they are able to speak English and have some degree 
°f education. Frequently they have reached their po 
sition of prominence through successful mercantile en 
terprise. Not a few got their start as day laborers. 
In most cases the basis of their success lies in a native 
ability which is by no means necessarily the product 
°f business experience or financial training. 
Native ability is not, however, the source of the suc 
cess of the great number of those bankers who, in a 
purely personal way, are acting as custodians of their