116 
THE IMMIGRATION PROBLEM 
are often ignorant and without any conception of the 
responsibility imposed. Methods employed by bank 
ers of this class are often very loose and unbusiness 
like, and many advertise in a manner that is at least 
misleading, if not actually fraudulent. 
6. Immigrant banks are radically different from 
other financial institutions. Their chief functions are 
the safekeeping of deposits and the transmitting of 
money abroad, and methods have arisen which should 
be corrected by proper governmental control. 
The United States Government through the postal 
savings system has done a great deal as a competitor 
of these unregulated banks. Postal savings has been 
especially successful in the manufacturing and mining 
centers, where are found nearly all our immigrant pop 
ulation. Thrift has been stimulated, money has been 
kept in this country, and at the beginning of 1916 our 
Government had 540,000 depositors with a total credit 
of sixty-eight million dollars, of which foreign-born 
depositors owned 72 per cent. This huge sum shows 
the need and the value of definite action on the part of 
the Government. The advantages of close connections 
with the savings of their nationals in this country has 
recently been recognized by Russia, Austro-Hungary, 
and Italy. These three countries, through banks closely 
connected with their Government, have established 
branch banks in this country, which have made special 
appeals to their own immigrants. These governments 
were quick to see the possibilities in immigrant 
savings.* 
* Further information on the question of immigrant savings can be se 
cured from the excellent articles by Mr. Joseph Mayper, Executive Secre 
tary of the National Americanization Committee in the Journal of the 
American Bankers’ Association, December, 1915, and the March, 1915, issue 
of the Immigrants in America Review.