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 estab 
lish 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 fun 
damental 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 dis 
cussions of the postal savings bank proposition 
in this country no one questioned the desirability 
of encouraging habits of economy and thrift on