ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  SYSTEM

5

of  rural  communities  and  redeposit  the  same
while  under  government  charge  in  the  banks  of
Wall  Street,  thus  depleting  the  circulating  medium ­
  of  the  producing  regions  and  unjustly  favoring ­
  the  speculative  markets.”  The  Prohibition ­
  Party  platform  advocated  “the  establishment ­
  of  postal  savings  banks  and  the  guaranty
of  deposits  in  banks”;  the  Populist  platform
demanded  “that  postal  savings  banks  be  instituted ­
  for  the  savings  of  the  people”;  and  the
Independence  League  platform  declared,  “Government ­
  postal  savings  banks  should  be  established ­
  where  the  people’s  deposits  will  be  secure,
the  money  to  be  loaned  to  the  people  in  the
locality  of  the  several  banks  at  a  rate  of  interest
to  be  fixed  by  the  Government.”  With  such
unanimity  of  opinion  in  all  the  political  parties,
the  question  of  postal  savings  banks  did  not  figure
prominently  in  the  campaign.  There  was,  however, ­
  considerable  discussion  of  the  proposal  for
guaranteeing  bank  deposits.
After  the  election  some  of  the  leaders  of  the
Republican  party,  particularly  President  Taft,
who  had  for  years  been  a  believer  in  postal  savings ­
  banks, 9  began  to  urge  upon  Congress  com-0
  It  was  by  the  direction  of  Mr.  Taft,  when  he  was  Governor ­
  of  the  Philippines,  that  the  author  drafted  the  bill
which  became  the  Philippine  Postal  Savings  Bank  act  of
1906.