6

POSTAL  SAVINGS

pliance  with  the  Republican  platform  pledge  to
establish  a  postal  savings  bank  system,  and  the
subject  received  the  attention  of  the  Sixty-first
Congress,  in  its  second  session.
Before  considering,  however,  the  legislative
history  of  the  so-called  Carter  bill  (named  after
its  sponsor  in  the  Senate,  Thomas  H.  Carter  of
Montana),  which  eventually  became  law,  it  will
be  well  to  review  the  chief  arguments  advanced
for  and  against  the  general  proposition  to  establish ­
  in  the  United  States  a  postal  savings  system
of  any  kind.
The  Debate  Over  the  Desirability  of  a  Postal
Savings  System
In  spite  of  the  numerous  differences  in  the
postal  savings  bank  systems  of  the  forty-odd
countries  possessing  them,  there  are  certain  fundamental ­
  features  common  to  all.  Whatever
else  a  postal  savings  bank  may  be,  it  is  invariably
an  institution  working  through  the  post  offices,
with  the  primary  object  of  encouraging  thrift
among  the  poorer  classes  by  providing  safe  and
convenient  places  for  the  deposit  of  savings  at  a
comparatively  low  rate  of  interest.  In  the  discussions ­
  of  the  postal  savings  bank  proposition
in  this  country  no  one  questioned  the  desirability
of  encouraging  habits  of  economy  and  thrift  on