DEPOSITORS  AND  DEPOSITS

79

positors  are  at  first  more  concerned  for  the  security ­
  of  their  savings  than  in  what  they  may
earn.  They  are  thinking  of  the  principal  not  the
interest,  and  it  is  only  after  they  have  learned  the
rudiments  of  saving  that  the  interest  feature  attracts ­
  them.  .  .  .  The  banks  then  get  the  accounts.” ­
 19
Concerning  the  inroads  made  by  the  postal
savings  system  into  the  former  expensive  practice ­
  of  buying  money  orders  payable  to  one’s  self
as  a  means  of  securing  Government  custody  for
savings,  Third  Assistant  Postmaster-General
Dockery  said  in  his  annual  report  for  1915  :  “The
use  of  the  postal  money  order  service  for  savings
purposes,  in  the  absence  of  a  postal  savings  system ­
  in  this  country,  was  quite  general  in  the
years  preceding  1911,  it  having  been  ascertained
that  the  value  of  money  orders  so  purchased  at
first  and  second  class  offices  during  12  months
prior  to  March  1,  1908,  was  in  excess  of  $8,000,-900.
  These  investments  were  made  solely  because
of  the  security  afforded  moneys  so  intrusted  to
the  Government.  With  the  establishment  of  the
postal  savings  system  .  .  .  the  money  orders
purchased  for  savings  purposes  were  gradually
cashed  and  the  use  of  the  money  order  service  for
this  purpose  thereafter  was  negligible.” 20
10  Com.  &  Fin.  'Chron.,  A.  B.  A.  Conv.  Suppl.,  Oct.  18,
1913,  p.  195.
20  Report,  p.  15.