the  postal  savings  bank  ACT  27

the  second  place,  he  had  an  elastic  “emergency
credit”  at  a  neighboring  bank;  in  the  third  place,
there  was  a  five  per  cent  cash  reserve  kept  in  the
i  reasury  of  the  United  States  ;  and,  in  the  fourth
place,  there  was  the  provision  that  payment  to
depositors  might  be  deferred.  These  safeguards
(interpreted  in  connection  with  the  provisions
for  the  investment  of  funds  to  be  referred  to
later 0 )  were  more  than  ample  to  meet  any  proba
 ble  emergency.  In  England  there  is  no  special
reserve  requirement  for  postal  savings  bank  deposits, ­
  and  the  amount  of  cash  kept  on  hand  is
Ver y  small. 10  This  appears  to  be  the  rule  in
Biost  other  countries.  If  we  consider  the  practice
ln  the  United  States  in  the  matter  of  savings
hank  reserves  and  select  for  comparison  the  most
conservative  class  of  savings  banks,  mutual  savln
 gs  banks,  in  the  two  States  where  they  are
oiost  numerous,  we  find  that  in  1910—the  year
ln  which  the  Postal  Savings  Bank  act  was  passed
lhe  loo  mutual  savings  banks  of  Massachusetts, ­
  with  over  three-quarters  of  a  billion  dollars

„Cf.  infra,  pp.  106  et  seq.
ion  it  was  0.12  of  one  per  cent  of  liabilities;  in
'  4,  0.23;  in  1905,  0.32;  and  in  1913,  0.40.  The  Econop
 Is b  * n  criticizing  the  postal  and  trustee  savings  banks  of
n gland,  said  a  generation  ago:  “Neither  of  them  keeps
^ ny  reserve  of  ready  cash  and  both  of  them  are  entirely
ependent  on  the  sufficiency  or  insufficiency  of  the  banking
department  of  the  Bank  of  England.”  XXXIII,  p.  633.