ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SYSTEM 
5 
of rural communities and redeposit the same 
while under government charge in the banks of 
Wall Street, thus depleting the circulating me 
dium of the producing regions and unjustly fa 
voring the speculative markets.” The Prohibi 
tion Party platform advocated “the establish 
ment of postal savings banks and the guaranty 
of deposits in banks”; the Populist platform 
demanded “that postal savings banks be insti 
tuted for the savings of the people”; and the 
Independence League platform declared, “Gov 
ernment postal savings banks should be estab 
lished where the people’s deposits will be secure, 
the money to be loaned to the people in the 
locality of the several banks at a rate of interest 
to be fixed by the Government.” With such 
unanimity of opinion in all the political parties, 
the question of postal savings banks did not figure 
prominently in the campaign. There was, how 
ever, considerable discussion of the proposal for 
guaranteeing bank deposits. 
After the election some of the leaders of the 
Republican party, particularly President Taft, 
who had for years been a believer in postal sav 
ings banks, 9 began to urge upon Congress com- 
0 It was by the direction of Mr. Taft, when he was Gov 
ernor of the Philippines, that the author drafted the bill 
which became the Philippine Postal Savings Bank act of 
1906.