DEPOSITORS AND DEPOSITS 
63 
ural to ask : ( 1 ) How has the plan appealed to 
persons of different ages, and particularly how 
has it appealed to children who represent the part 
of our population whose education in thrift would 
appear to be the most important? and (2) How 
has it appealed to our negro population, which, 
as a whole, and allowing for numerous worthy 
exceptions, is our most thriftless class? 
Age Grouping of Depositors 
No recent figures are available for the age 
grouping of depositors. An investigation of this 
subject, however, was made as of June 30, 1912, 
after the postal savings system had been in oper 
ation a year and a half. The result of that in 
vestigation has been furnished the writer by the 
Third Assistant Postmaster-General, and is 
summarized in the following table, the last two 
columns of which have been added by the writer. 
The table shows that children from 10 to 14 
years of age constitute about four-fifths as large 
a percentage of the depositors as they do of the 
country’s total population 10 years of age or over; 
while persons from 15 to 19 years of age consti 
tute about two-thirds as large a percentage. The 
facts are considerably more favorable to children 
depositors than the figures show. This is true, 
first, because of the fact previously noted that