DEPOSITORS AND DEPOSITS 
79 
positors are at first more concerned for the se 
curity of their savings than in what they may 
earn. They are thinking of the principal not the 
interest, and it is only after they have learned the 
rudiments of saving that the interest feature at 
tracts them. . . . The banks then get the ac 
counts.” 19 
Concerning the inroads made by the postal 
savings system into the former expensive prac 
tice of buying money orders payable to one’s self 
as a means of securing Government custody for 
savings, Third Assistant Postmaster-General 
Dockery said in his annual report for 1915 : “The 
use of the postal money order service for savings 
purposes, in the absence of a postal savings sys 
tem in this country, was quite general in the 
years preceding 1911, it having been ascertained 
that the value of money orders so purchased at 
first and second class offices during 12 months 
prior to March 1, 1908, was in excess of $8,000,- 
900. These investments were made solely because 
of the security afforded moneys so intrusted to 
the Government. With the establishment of the 
postal savings system . . . the money orders 
purchased for savings purposes were gradually 
cashed and the use of the money order service for 
this purpose thereafter was negligible.” 20 
10 Com. & Fin. 'Chron., A. B. A. Conv. Suppl., Oct. 18, 
1913, p. 195. 
20 Report, p. 15.