116
THE IMMIGRATION PROBLEM
are often ignorant and without any conception of the
responsibility imposed. Methods employed by bank
ers of this class are often very loose and unbusiness
like, and many advertise in a manner that is at least
misleading, if not actually fraudulent.
6. Immigrant banks are radically different from
other financial institutions. Their chief functions are
the safekeeping of deposits and the transmitting of
money abroad, and methods have arisen which should
be corrected by proper governmental control.
The United States Government through the postal
savings system has done a great deal as a competitor
of these unregulated banks. Postal savings has been
especially successful in the manufacturing and mining
centers, where are found nearly all our immigrant pop
ulation. Thrift has been stimulated, money has been
kept in this country, and at the beginning of 1916 our
Government had 540,000 depositors with a total credit
of sixty-eight million dollars, of which foreign-born
depositors owned 72 per cent. This huge sum shows
the need and the value of definite action on the part of
the Government. The advantages of close connections
with the savings of their nationals in this country has
recently been recognized by Russia, Austro-Hungary,
and Italy. These three countries, through banks closely
connected with their Government, have established
branch banks in this country, which have made special
appeals to their own immigrants. These governments
were quick to see the possibilities in immigrant
savings.*
* Further information on the question of immigrant savings can be se
cured from the excellent articles by Mr. Joseph Mayper, Executive Secre
tary of the National Americanization Committee in the Journal of the
American Bankers’ Association, December, 1915, and the March, 1915, issue
of the Immigrants in America Review.