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74

POSTAL  SAVINGS

capita  deposits.  Figures  for  ten  of  these  cities
are  given  in  the  table  on  page  73.
It  is  obviously  to  the  small  mining  and  industrial ­
  towns  with  their  large  foreign  bom  populations ­
  that  the  postal  savings  system  is  rendering
its  greatest  service.
Sizes  of  Individual  Deposits  and  Deposit  Balances ­
  and  Sources  from  Which  Drawn
It  has  already  been  mentioned  that  the  Postal
Savings  act  of  1910  limited  the  balance  that  any
depositor  could  have  (exclusive  of  interest)  to
$500,  and  limited  the  amount  which  he  could  deposit ­
  in  any  one  calendar  month  to  $100.  With
these  restrictions  in  mind,  we  may  consider  the
sizes  of  individual  deposits  and  deposit  balances
and  the  sources  from  which  they  have  been  drawn.
The  Post  Office  Department  publishes  no  figures ­
  showing  the  grouping  of  deposit  balances
according  to  size—information  which  it  is  desirable ­
  that  the  official  statistics  should  furnish  ;  but
from  its  published  statements  a  small  amount  of
light  on  the  sizes  of  individual  balances  can  be
gained.  The  average  size  of  the  deposit  balances
at  the  end  of  each  of  the  six  fiscal  years  during
changes  in  their  population  figures  since  the  census  of  1910;
and  the  actual  population  figures  for  June  30,  1916,  if  available, ­
  would  show  in  some  cases  materially  different  per
capita  figures.