WANTED: A MODERN MONEY SYSTEM
Jauncey, Leslie C.
Wanted: A Modern Money System By LESLIE C. JAUNCEY IN the postwar era money and banking loom large as one of the problems to be faced in the economic structure of the nation. The huge national...
...9, 1933, stated that "President Roosevelt has ordered three members of the Cabinet to investigate the feasibility of using Postal Savings Banks for checking institutions as a part of the emergency banking program...
...The monetary system must cease to be a means for the few to control the many...
...He proposed that checking accounts up to $5,000 be allowed...
...Post offices, though, were not to deal in money orders on foreign countries...
...This prohibition was part of the plan to stop gold being shipped abroad...
...This Bank has been a safe depository for the savings of the people for 35 years...
...During the Bank Holiday in 1933 it was the only bank that did not close...
...Deposits have gradually climbed during the years until at the end of June, 1944, they reached $2,034,136,-507, with the number of depositors being 3,493,073...
...The Postal Savings Bank received from these depository banks two and one-half per cent interest...
...The report continued, "It was learned in authoritative circles tonight that Secretary of Treasury Woodin, Postmaster General Farley, and Secretary of Commerce Roper are working on the problem...
...Abroad, steps are being taken already in Britain and France and Australia toward increased public control of banking...
...The Government was to guarantee these checking accounts...
...7, 1933, quoted the man in the street as saying that it "was the only bank in town now...
...During the Bank Holiday, deposits and deposition in the Postal Savings Bank increased...
...The New York Times on Mar...
...In 1933 Sen...
...The Postal Savings Bank developed during the economic storm, while private banks, including savings banks, were in an extremely precarious position...
...The funds of the Postal Savings Bank for many years were placed to a considerable extent in the Federal Reserve member banks in the community where the deposits were made...
...Government savings banks can be made the right hand of Government, commercial and agricultural banks, providing them with capital, and these banks can provide the people with security for their business accounts just as the Postal Savings Bank has so successfully served the American people in making their savings secure...
...A news item from Washington, D. C. on Mar...
...Dill of the state of Washington introduced in Congress a bill to extend the Postal Savings Bank by permitting it to establish checking accounts for its depositors...
...At the head of the financial system the Federal Reserve Banks, in line with current trends, should be made into entirely Government-owned concerns...
...During the past few years cash in the privately-owned depository banks has fallen from the high in the fiscal year of 1933 of $976,377,142 to $8,685,412 at the end of June, 1944, the vast amount of the remainder of the more than $2,000,000,000 at the later date deposited at the Bank being invested in Government securities...
...Dill was unable to get any favorable action on his bill...
...Anyone who is at least ten^ears old can open an account by depositing one dollar, or a multiple of one dollar, in the Bank...
...AT the other end of the monetary system is the Postal Savings Bank...
...It is true that on the first morning of the Bank Holiday there was some confusion because the Presidential Proclamation included savings banks, but during the day word came from Washington that the Postal Savings Bank was to remain open and to transact business as usual...
...The huge national debt and the need for facilitating the flow of goods from producer to consumer will call for changes in the monetary system of the nation...
...It was established to encourage thrift...
...Money and banking must undergo an orderly transition from being an institution primarily for private profit to one for public welfare...
...Financial institutions must change into an agency for the extension rather than the limitation of democracy...
...The Treasurer of the United States has the custody of the five per cent reserve fund required by law...
...No interest was to be paid on these accounts and a charge of two cents a check was to be made to cover the cost of service rendered...
...For the fiscal year 1933 deposits rose from $784,820,623 to $1,187,186,200, while the number of depositors rose from 1,545,190 to 2,342,133...
...The word has merely gone around that the Postal Savings Bank is a safe depository for funds...
...The limit for any one depositor is $2,500 and the interest on savings is two per cent, except in New Jersey and in Mississippi, where in conformity with state regulations interest is one per cent...
...Unfortunately, nothing came from this reported investigation, and Sen...
...A bill to allow checking accounts in the Post Office should again be brought forward arid this time adopted...
...The first steps in this direction should be taken now...
...AS a step toward extending Government banking, the amount allowed to be deposited in the Postal Savings Bank should be raised...
...This remarkable growth occurred with practically no advertising...
...No one has ever lost a penny in the Postal Savings Bank...
Vol. 9 • December 1945 • No. 52
