PREFATORY NOTE 
The financial uncertainties growing out of the 
European War, the widespread thrift campaign 
which has been undertaken under the pressure of 
war conditions, and the resulting great increase 
in the public’s patronage of the postal savings 
banks have given rise to an unusual public inter 
est in our American postal savings system. This 
unusual public interest and the fact that there 
exists nowhere a comprehensive account of the 
development and present day workings of our 
American postal savings system furnish the ex 
cuse for this volume. 
The material here presented is to a substantial 
extent a revision and integration of material con 
tained in two magazine articles previously pub 
lished by the author. It is used here with the 
consent of the magazines’ publishers, for which 
grateful acknowledgment is made. The articles 
were: "The United States Postal Savings 
Bank,” published in the Political Science Quar 
terly, volume XXVI (1911) ; and "Six Years of 
Postal Savings in the United States,” published 
in the American Economic Review, volume VII 
(1917).