118

POSTAL  SAVINGS

amount  thus  fixed  will  be  deposited  by  the  postmaster ­
  to  bis  official  credit  in  one  of  the  depository ­
  banks  especially  designated  for  the  purpose,
to  be  subject  to  his  official  check  as  postmaster
for  the  purpose  mentioned  only,  and  will  be
maintained  by  the  postmaster  at  the  amount
specified  by  the  Board  of  Trustees,  by  means  of
deposits  from  his  daily  postal  savings  receipts.
.  .  .  The  amount  of  emergency  credit  may  be
added  to  the  regular  quota  assigned  to  a  depository ­
  bank,  .  .  .  and  shall  be  subject  to  interest
payment.  .  .  .” 19
That  the  creation  of  such  an  emergency  credit
account  in  the  name  of  each  postmaster  at  whose
office  there  was  a  postal  savings  bank  was  making ­
  a  system  already  complex  doubly  so  is  evident. ­
  It  gave  rise  to  about  13,000  extra  accounts
and  involved  “endless  correspondence,  bookkeeping, ­
  and  interest  computing  details.” 20
The  “emergency  credit”  and  all  the  individual
postal  savings  accounts  with  banks  in  the  names
of  postmasters  were  done  away  with  by  the  new
regulations  put  in  force  July  1,  1913.  In  place
thereof  the  expedient  was  adopted  of  designating
19  Regulations  for  the  Guidance  of  Banks  Qualifying  as
Depositories  of  Postal  Savings  Funds,  etc.,  issued  by  authority ­
  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  1911,  p.  6.
20  Carter  B.  Keene,  The  Postal  Savings  System,  Com.  &
Fin.  Chron.,  A.  B.  A.  Conv.  Suppl.,  Oct.  18,  1918,  p.  196.