58

POSTAL  SAVINGS

number  of  depositors,  were  born  outside  of  the
United  States,  and  that  this  60  per  cent  owned
three  quarters  of  all  the  deposits. 2  Moreover,  the
proportion  of  foreign  born  among  the  depositors
is  increasing.  About  three  years  before,  only  36
per  cent  of  the  depositors  were  foreign  born  and
this  36  per  cent  owned  51  per  cent  of  the  amount
on  deposit. 3
Analyzing  the  situation  portrayed  by  these
summary  figures,  one  notices  that  some  nationalities ­
  patronize  the  postal  savings  system  much
more  extensively  than  others.  The  figures  for
the  close  of  the  fiscal  year  1915  concerning  the
nativity  of  postal  savings  depositors 4  are  shown
in  column  1  of  the  following  table,  of  which
columns  2  and  3  based  upon  the  census  figures
for  1910—the  latest  available—have  been  added
by  the  writer.
The  last  two  per  capita  figures  in  column  3
show  that  in  proportion  to  population  the  deposits ­
  of  the  foreign  born  are  about  15  times  as
large  as  those  of  the  native  born.  This  comparison, ­
  however,  involves  the  fallacy  of  an  "age  se-2
  Com.  &  Fin.  Chron.,  Am.  Bankers  Assoc.  Conv.  Suppl.,
Oct.  14,  1916,  p.  192.
3  Ibid.,  1913,  p.  195.
4  The  figures  are  given,  along  with  a  large  amount  of
other  postal  savings  information,  in  a  pamphlet  issued  by
the  Post  Office  Department  in  1916,  entitled  The  United
States  Postal  Savings  System,  p.  6.