18

POSTAL  SAVINGS

troller  of  the  Currency 31  showed  that  during  the
eighteen  years  1892-1909  inclusive  there  were  in
the  United  States  1523  bank  failures  (exclusive
of  national  banks),  with  total  assets  of  $457,-640,000,
  and  total  liabilities  of  $565,345,000.
In  these  figures  are  included  153  failures  of
banks  which  were  strictly  savings  banks,  with  assets ­
  of  $47,717,000  and  liabilities  of  $51,786,000.
Within  the  same  period  344  national  banks  failed
(exclusive  of  those  restored  to  solvency  and  permitted ­
  to  resume  business  within  a  year  of  report). ­
  In  these  national  bank  failures  the  net
loss  to  depositors  reported  was  $16,806,062. 32
Doubtless  a  considerable  percentage  of  this  sum
represented  small  accounts  of  a  saving  or  “semisaving” ­
  character—how  much  is  not  known.
After  all,  such  figures  give  us  no  adequate
measure  for  losses  of  this  kind.  “Among  the  experiences ­
  of  working  people  none  is  more  demoralizing ­
  and  few  are  more  cruel  than  loss  of
savings  through  failure  of  banks  or  absconding
of  individuals  intrusted  with  funds.” 33  To  such
people  there  is  cold  comfort  in  the  assurance
worthy  data  as  to  the  extent  of  these  losses  year  by  year.”
Charities,  XXI,  p.  718.
31  Rep.,  1909,  p.  69.
32  National  Monetary  Commission,  Statistics  for  the
United  States,  1867-1909,  pp.  40-41.
33  Florence  Kelly,  Charities,  XXI,  p.  717.