the postal savings bank ACT 27 
the second place, he had an elastic “emergency 
credit” at a neighboring bank; in the third place, 
there was a five per cent cash reserve kept in the 
i reasury of the United States ; and, in the fourth 
place, there was the provision that payment to 
depositors might be deferred. These safeguards 
(interpreted in connection with the provisions 
for the investment of funds to be referred to 
later 0 ) were more than ample to meet any prob- 
a ble emergency. In England there is no special 
reserve requirement for postal savings bank de 
posits, and the amount of cash kept on hand is 
Ver y small. 10 This appears to be the rule in 
Biost other countries. If we consider the practice 
ln the United States in the matter of savings 
hank reserves and select for comparison the most 
conservative class of savings banks, mutual sav- 
ln gs banks, in the two States where they are 
oiost numerous, we find that in 1910—the year 
ln which the Postal Savings Bank act was passed 
lhe loo mutual savings banks of Massachu 
setts, with over three-quarters of a billion dollars 
„Cf. infra, pp. 106 et seq. 
ion it was 0.12 of one per cent of liabilities; in 
' 4, 0.23; in 1905, 0.32; and in 1913, 0.40. The Econo- 
p Is b * n criticizing the postal and trustee savings banks of 
n gland, said a generation ago: “Neither of them keeps 
^ ny reserve of ready cash and both of them are entirely 
ependent on the sufficiency or insufficiency of the banking 
department of the Bank of England.” XXXIII, p. 633.