34 
POSTAL SAVINGS 
high at first, as it had been in Canada, 17 it would 
be difficult to reduce the rate because of political 
pressure ; if, on the other hand, experience should 
prove the rate to be too low, as was discovered to 
be the case in the Philippines some years ago, 18 
it could readily be raised. These considerations 
led to the selection of the rate of 2 per cent, “the 
same to be computed on such basis and under 
such rules and regulations as the Board of Trus 
tees may prescribe.” 19 This rate is a low one as 
compared with that paid in other countries. It 
was in fact then, and is still, the lowest rate paid 
on savings deposits by any postal savings bank 
in the world. 20 The United Kingdom paid 2.5 
per cent, Canada 3 per cent, France 2.5 per cent, 
Japan 4.2 per cent, Austria 3 per cent, Hungary 
3 per cent, Sweden 3.6 per cent, and the Philip 
pine Islands 2.5 per cent. When it is remem 
bered that the prevailing rate of interest was nor 
mally higher in the United States than in most 
countries of Europe, it is clear that Congress did 
not err in the direction of too high a rate. 
17 Hamilton, Savings and Savings Institutions, pp. 415- 
419. 
18 Report of the Chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, 
1910, p. 6. 
19 Sec. 7 of act. 
20 See tables following p. 128, Sen. Doc. No. 658, 61 
Cong., 3 Sess.