12 
POSTAL SAVINGS 
Conclusions based upon averages of the kind 
above given must of course be drawn cautiously, 
for the figures are not complete and the possible 
“fallacy of averages” is well known. The figures, 
however, are sufficiently complete, and the “story 
of the averages” is sufficiently truthful, to justify 
the conclusion that the country was many times 
over better provided with post office facilities 
than with savings bank facilities, and that this 
was particularly true of the Southern States. 
Fear of Competition with Existing Banks 
An objection strongly urged against the es 
tablishment of a postal savings system was that 
it would prove a competitor to existing banks. 
Opponents of a postal savings system argued 
that postal savings banks would have an undue 
advantage over private institutions because of the 
great confidence in the Government held by 
working people; and they said that funds would 
be withdrawn from existing banks and deposited 
in the postal savings banks. In support of this 
contention the experience of England was re 
peatedly cited, where, in the early days of postal 
savings, there had been a “marked tendency” for 
the postal savings banks “to absorb the patron 
age built up by the trustee banks.” 20 
20 j H. Hamilton, Savings and Savings Institutions,