Thrift Part 11

Mr. Sikes suggested that each mechanics' inst.i.tute should appoint a preliminary savings bank committee, to attend once a week for the purpose of receiving deposits from the members and others.

"If a committee at each inst.i.tution," he said, "were to adopt this course, taking an interest in their humble circ.u.mstances, and in a sympathizing and kindly spirit, to suggest, invite, nay win them over, not only by reading the lesson, but forming the habit of true economy and self-reliance (the n.o.blest lessons for which cla.s.ses could be formed), how cheering would be the results! Once established in better habits, their feet firmly set in the path of self-reliance, how generally would young men grow up with the practical conviction that to their own advancing intelligence and virtues must they mainly look to work out their own social welfare!"

This admirable advice was not lost. One inst.i.tution after another embraced the plan, and preliminary savings banks were, shortly established in connection with the princ.i.p.al mechanics' inst.i.tutes throughout Yorks.h.i.+re. Those established at Huddersfield, Halifax, Bradford, Leeds, and York, were exceedingly successful. The Penny Banks established at Halifax consisted of a central bank and seven subordinate branches. The number of members, and the average amount of the sums deposited with them, continued to increase from year to year. Fourteen Penny Banks were established at Bradford; and after the depositors had formed the habit of saving in the smaller banks, they transferred them in bulk to the ordinary Savings Bank.

Thirty-six Penny Banks were established in and around Glasgow. The committee, in their Report, stated they were calculated "to check that reckless expenditure of little sums which so often leads to a confirmed habit of wastefulness and improvidence;" and they urged the support of the Penny Banks as the best means of extending the usefulness of the savings banks. The Penny Bank established at the small country town of Farnham is estimated to have contributed within a few years a hundred and fifty regular depositors to the savings bank of the same place. The fact that as large a proportion as two-thirds of the whole amount deposited is drawn out within the year, shows that Penny Banks are princ.i.p.ally used as places of safe deposit for very small sums of money, until they are wanted for some special object, such as rent, clothes, furniture, the doctor's bill, and such-like purposes.

Thus the Penny Bank is emphatically the poor man's purse. The great ma.s.s of the deposits are paid in sums not exceeding sixpence, and the average of the whole does not exceed a s.h.i.+lling. The depositors consist of the very humblest members of the working cla.s.s, and by far the greatest number of them have never before been accustomed to lay by any portion of their earnings. The Rev. Mr. Clarke, of Derby, who took an active interest in the extension of these useful inst.i.tutions, has stated that one-tenth of the whole amount received by the Derby Penny Bank was deposited in copper money, and a large portion of the remainder in threepenny and fourpenny pieces.

It is clear, therefore, that the Penny Bank reaches a cla.s.s of persons of very small means, whose ability to save is much less than that of the highly-paid workman, and who, if the money were left in their pockets, would in most cases spend it in the nearest public-house. Hence, when a Penny Bank was established at Putney, and the deposits were added up at the end of the first year, a brewer, who was on the committee, made the remark, "Well, that represents thirty thousand pints of beer _not drunk_."

At one of the Penny Banks in Yorks.h.i.+re, an old man in receipt of parish outdoor relief was found using the Penny Bank as a place of deposit for his pennies until he had acc.u.mulated enough to buy a coat. Others save, to buy an eight-day clock, or a musical instrument, or for a railway trip.

But the princ.i.p.al supporters of the Penny Banks are boys, and this is their most hopeful feature; for it is out of boys that men are made. At Huddersfield many of the lads go in bands from the mills to the Penny Banks; emulation as well as example urging them on. They save for various purposes--one to buy a chest of tools, another a watch, a third a grammar or a dictionary.

One evening a boy presented himself to draw l 10. According to the rules of the Penny Bank a week's notice must be given before any sum exceeding 20s. can be withdrawn, and the cas.h.i.+er demurred to making the payment. "Well," said the boy, "the reason's this--mother can't pay her rent; I'm goin' to pay it, for, as long as I have owt, she shall hev'

it." In another case, a youth drew 20 to buy off his brother who had enlisted. "Mother frets so," said the lad, "that, she'll break her heart if he isn't bought off, and I cannot bear that."

Thus these inst.i.tutions give help and strength in many ways, and, besides enabling young people to keep out of debt and honestly to pay their way, furnish them with the means of performing kindly and generous acts in times of family trial and emergency. It is an admirable feature of the Ragged Schools that almost every one of them has a Penny Bank connected with it for the purpose of training the scholars in good habits, which they most need; and it is a remarkable fact that in one year not less than 8,880 were deposited, in 25,637 sums, by the scholars connected with the Ragged School Union. And when, this can be done by the poor boys of the ragged schools, what might not be accomplished by the highly-paid operatives and mechanics of England?

But another capital feature in the working of Penny Banks, as regards the cultivation of prudent habits among the people, is the circ.u.mstance that the example of boys and girls depositing their spare weekly pennies, has often the effect of drawing their parents after them. A boy goes on for weeks paying his pence, and taking home his pa.s.s-book. The book shows that he has a "leger folio" at the bank expressly devoted to him--that his pennies are all duly entered, together with the respective dates of their deposits--that these savings are not lying idle, but bear interest at 2-1/2 per cent. per annum--and that he can have them restored to him at any time,--if under 20s., without notice; and it above 20s., then after a week's notice has been given.

The book is a little history in itself, and cannot fail to be interesting to the boy's brothers and sisters, as well as to his parents. They call him "good lad," and they see he is a well-conducted lad. The father, if he be a sensible man, naturally bethinks him that, if his boy can do so creditable a thing, worthy of praise, so might he himself. Accordingly, on the next Sat.u.r.day night, when the boy goes to deposit his threepence at the Penny Bank, the father often sends his s.h.i.+lling.

Thus a good beginning is often made, and a habit initiated, which, if persevered in, very shortly exercises a most salutary influence on the entire domestic condition of the family. The observant mother is quick to observe the effects of this new practice upon the happiness of the home, and in course of time, as the younger children grow up and earn money, she encourages them to follow the elder boy's example. She herself takes them by the hand, leads them to the Penny Bank, and accustoms them to invest their savings there. Women have even more influence in such matters than men, and where they do exercise it, the beneficial effects are much more lasting.

One evening a strong, muscular mechanic appeared at the Bradford savings bank in his working dress, bringing with him three children, one of them in his arms. He placed on the counter their deposit books, which his wife had previously been accustomed to present, together with ten s.h.i.+llings, to be equally apportioned amongst the three. Pressing to his bosom the child in his arms, the man said, "Poor things! they have lost their mother since they were here last; but I must do the best I can for them." And he continued the good lesson to his children which his wife had begun, bringing them with him each time to see their little deposits made.

There is an old English proverb which says, "He that would thrive must first ask his wife;" but the wife must not only let her husband thrive, but help him, otherwise she is not the "help meet" which is as needful for the domestic comfort and satisfaction of the working man, as of every other man who undertakes the responsibility of a family. Women form the moral atmosphere in which we grow when children, and they have a great deal to do with the life we lead when we become men. It is true that the men may hold the reins; but it is generally the women who tell them which way to drive. What Rousseau said is very near the truth--"Men will always be what women make them."

Not long ago, Mr. Sikes encountered, in a second-cla.s.s carriage, a well-dressed workman travelling from Sheffield to Glasgow, during holiday times, to see his mother. "I am glad," said Mr. Sikes, "to find a workman travelling so great a distance, for a purpose like that."

"Yes," said the man, "and I am glad to say that I can afford to do it."

"And do many of the workmen employed in your workshop save money?" asked Mr. Sikes. "No," said the other, "not more than about two in the hundred. The spare earnings of the others go, not to the savings banks, but to the drink-shops." "And when did you begin to save?" "When I was no bigger than _that_," indicating the height of a little boy: "the first money I saved was in a Penny Bank, and I have gone on saving ever since."

Such being the influence of early practice and example, we are glad to find that Economy is now being taught at public schools. The Rev. Mr.

Crallan, of the Suss.e.x County Asylum, has long taught lessons of thrift to poor boys and girls. He urges the establishment of Penny Banks in connection with Savings Banks, in all elementary schools. He wisely contends that simple lessons on money, its nature, its value, and its uses, together with the various duties of giving, spending, and saving, would have a vast influence on the rising generation.

The practice of teaching children provident habits has been adopted for about eight years in the National Schools of Belgium. The School Board of Ghent is convinced of the favourable influence that saving has upon the moral and material well-being of the working cla.s.ses, and believes that the best means of causing the spirit of economy to penetrate their habits is to teach it to the children under tuition, and to make them practise it.

It is always very difficult to teach anything new to adults,--and especially lessons of thrift to men who are thriftless. Their method of living is fixed. Traditional and inveterate habits of expenditure exist among them. With men, it is the drinking-shop; with women, it is dress.

They spend what they earn, and think nothing of to-morrow. When reduced to a state of distress, they feel no shame in begging; for the feeling of human dignity has not yet been sufficiently developed in them.

With children it is very different. They have no inveterate habits to get rid of. They will, for the most part, do as they are taught. And they can be taught economy, just as they can be taught arithmetic. They can, at all events, be inspired by a clever teacher with habits of economy and thrift. Every child has a few pence at times. The master may induce them to save these for some worthy purpose. At Ghent, a savings bank has been introduced in every school, and the children deposit their pennies there. It is introduced into the paying schools as well as the free schools; for habits of thrift are as useful to men and women of the richer as of the poorer cla.s.ses. The results of the lessons on Economy have been highly satisfactory.[1] The children belonging to the schools of Ghent have acc.u.mulated eighteen thousand pounds, which is deposited in the State Savings Bank at three per cent. interest. This system is spreading into Holland, France, and Italy. It has also, to a certain extent, been adopted in this country. Thus Glasgow, Liverpool, Birmingham, Great Ilford, and the London Orphan Asylum, all show specimens of School Banks; and we trust that, before long, they will be established in every school throughout the kingdom.

[Footnote 1: A pamphlet published at Ghent says of the paying schools: "The spirit of economy is introduced there under the form of charity.

The young girls buy with their pocket money, firstly materials, say cotton or linen, of which they afterwards make articles of dress during the hours set aside for manual work: afterwards the s.h.i.+rts, stockings, dresses, handkerchiefs, or ap.r.o.ns, are distributed to the poorer children of the free schools. The distribution Becomes the object of a little holiday: we know of nothing that can be more touching. The poor children are a.s.sembled in the Collier school; our young ladies go were also; one of them says a few words feelingly to her sisters in the poorer cla.s.ses; one of the girls of the free schools replies. Then the pretty and useful things which have been made during the last year are distributed. It is the donors themselves who present the fruits of their labour to the poorest among the poor. The distribution is intermingled with singing. Need we reiterate the blessings of this blessed economy?"]

It will be obvious, from what has been said, that the practice of economy depends very much upon the facilities provided for the laying by of small sums of money. Let a convenient savings bank be provided, and deposits gradually flow into it. Let a military savings bank be established, and private soldiers contrive to save something out of their small pay. Let penny banks be opened, and crowds of depositors immediately present themselves; even the boys of the ragged schools being able to put into them considerable sums of money. It is the same with school banks, as we have seen from the example of the school-children of Ghent.

Now, fifteen years ago, this country was very insufficiently provided with savings banks for the people. There were then many large towns and villages altogether unprovided with them. Lancas.h.i.+re had only thirty savings banks for upwards of two millions of people. The East Riding of Yorks.h.i.+re had only four savings banks. There were fifteen counties in the United Kingdom which had not a single savings bank. There were only about six hundred savings banks for about thirty millions of people.

These were open only for two or three hours in the week; some were open for only four hours in the month. The workman who had money to save, had to carry his spare s.h.i.+llings in his pocket for some time before he could lay them by; and in the meantime he might be exposed to constant temptations to spend them. To keep his s.h.i.+llings safe, he must have acquired the _habit_ of saving, which it was the object of savings banks to train and establish.

Dr. Guthrie, in his book on Ragged Schools, published in 1860, said: "How are our manufacturing and handicraft youth situated? By public-houses and spirit-shops they are surrounded with innumerable temptations; while to many of them savings banks are hardly known by name. Dissipation has her nets drawn across every street. In many of our towns, sobriety has to run the gauntlet of half-a-dozen spirit-shops in the s.p.a.ce of a bow-shot. These are near at hand--open by day, and blazing by night, both on Sabbath and Sat.u.r.day. Drunkenness finds immediate gratification; while economy has to travel a mile, it may be, for her savings bank; and that opens its door to thrift but once or twice a week."[1]

[Footnote 1: Seed-Time and Harvest of Ragged Schools, or a Third Plea, with new editions of the First and Second Plea, p. 99.]

Many suggestions had been made by friends of the poorer cla.s.ses, whether it might not be possible to establish a more extended system of savings banks throughout the country. As long ago as 1807, Mr. Whitbread introduced a Bill into Parliament for the purpose of enabling small deposits to be made at an office to be established in London; the money to be remitted by the postmasters of the districts in which the deposits were made. The Bill further contemplated the establishment of a National a.s.surance Society, by means of which working people were to be enabled to effect a.s.surances to an extent not exceeding two hundred pounds, and to secure annuities to an amount not exceeding twenty pounds. Mr.

Whitbread's bill was rejected, and nothing came of his suggestions.

The exertions of Sir Rowland Hill having given great vitality to the Post Office system, and extended its usefulness as a public inst.i.tution in all directions, it was next suggested that the money-order offices (which were established in 1838) might be applied for the purpose of depositing as well as for transmitting money. Professor Hanc.o.c.k published a pamphlet on the subject in 1852. In November, 1856, Mr. John Bullar, the eminent counsel--whose attention had been directed to the subject by the working of the Putney Penny Bank--suggested to the Post Office authorities the employment of money-order offices as a means of extending the savings-bank system; but his suggestion did not meet with approval at the time, and nothing came of it. Similar suggestions were made by other gentlemen--by Mr. Hume, by Mr. M'Corquodale, by Captain Strong, by Mr. Ray Smee, and others.

But it was not until Mr. Sikes, of Huddersfield, took up the question, that these various suggestions became embodied in facts. Suggestions are always useful. They arouse thinking. The most valuable are never lost, but at length work themselves into facts. Most inventions are the result of original suggestions. Some one attempts to apply the idea. Failures occur at first; but with greater knowledge, greater experience, and greater determination, the suggestion at last succeeds.

Post Office Savings Banks owe their success, in the first place, to the numerous suggestions made by Mr. Whitbread and others; next to Sir Rowland Hill who by establis.h.i.+ng the Branch Post Offices for the transmission of money, made the suggestions practicable; next to Mr.

Sikes, who took up the question in 1850, pushed it, persevered with it, and brought it under the notice of successive Chancellors of the Exchequer; and lastly to Mr. Gladstone, who, having clearly foreseen the immense benefits of Post Office Savings Banks, brought in a Bill and carried it through Parliament in 1861.

The money-order department of the Post Office had suggested to Mr.

Sikes, as it had already done to other observers, that the organization already existed for making Post Office Savings Banks practicable throughout the kingdom. Wherever the local inspector found that as many as five money-orders were required in a week, the practice was to make that branch of the Post Office a money-order office. It was estimated that such an office was established on an average within three miles of every working man's door in the kingdom. The offices were open daily.

They received money from all comers, and gave vouchers for the amounts transmitted through them. They held the money until it was drawn, and paid it out on a proper voucher being presented. The Post Office was, in fact, a bank for the transmission of money, holding it for periods of from twenty-four hours to weeks and months. By enabling it to receive more money from more depositors, and by increasing the time of holding it, allowing the usual interest, it became to all intents and purposes a National bank of deposit.

The results of the Post Office Savings Banks Act have proved entirely satisfactory. The money-order offices have been largely extended. They are now about four thousand in number; consequently the facilities for saving have been nearly doubled since the banks were established. The number in the London district is now about four hundred and sixty, so that from any point in the thickly populated parts of the metropolis, a Savings Bank may be found within a distance of a few hundred yards. The number of the depositors at the end of 1873 amounted to more than a million and a half; while the amount of deposits reached over twenty-one millions sterling.[1] At the same time the amount deposited with the original Savings Banks remained about the same.

[Footnote 1: The amount reached 23,157,469 at the end of 1874.]

Post Office Savings Banks possess several great advantages which ought to be generally known. The banks are very widely diffused, and are open from nine in the morning until six in the evening, and on Sat.u.r.days until nine at night. Persons may make a deposit of a s.h.i.+lling, or of any number of s.h.i.+llings, provided more than thirty pounds is not deposited in any one year. The Post Office officers furnish the book in which the several deposits are entered. The book also contains the regulations of the Post Office Savings Banks. Interest is allowed at the rate of two pounds ten s.h.i.+llings per cent, per annum.

Another most important point is, the Security. Government is responsible for the full amount paid in; so that the money deposited with the Post Office Savings Bank is as safe as if it were in the Bank of England. The money saved may also be transferred from place to place, without expense, and may be easily paid to the depositor when required, no matter where it was originally deposited. All that is done, is done in perfect secrecy between the depositor and the postmaster, who is forbidden to disclose the names of the depositors.

We have frequently alluded to Mr. Charles William Sikes in connection with Penny Banks and Post Office Savings Banks. His name must always hold a distinguished place in connection with those valuable inst.i.tutions. He is the son of a private banker in Huddersfield. When at school he was presented, as a prize, with a copy of Dr. Franklin's Essays and Letters. He perused the book with avidity. It implanted in his mind the germs of many useful thoughts, and exercised a powerful influence in giving a practical character to his life. Huddersfield is a busy manufacturing town. Although workmen were well paid for their labour, there were many ups and downs in their business. When trade became slack, and they had spent all that they had earned, numbers of them were accustomed to apply for charity in the streets or by the wayside. Young Sikes often wondered whether these people had ever heard of Dr. Franklin, and of his method of avoiding beggary or bad times by saving their money when trade was brisk and they were well off.

Early in 1833, Mr. Sikes entered the service of the Huddersfield Banking Company. It was the second joint stock bank that had been established in England. The prudence and success with which the Scotch banking companies had been conducted induced the directors to select a Scotch manager. One of the first resolutions the directors adopted, was to give deposit receipts for sums of ten pounds and upwards, for the purpose of encouraging the working cla.s.ses in habits of providence and thrift. Mr.

Sikes, being somewhat of a favourite with the manager, often heard from his lips most interesting accounts of the provident habits of the Scotch peasantry, and was informed by him of the fact that one of the banks at Perth paid not less than twenty thousand pounds a year as interest on deposits varying from ten to two hundred pounds each.

In 1837, Mr. Sikes became one of the cas.h.i.+ers of the company. This brought him into direct contact and intercourse with the very cla.s.s which, from the direction his mind was taking, he so much wished to understand,--namely, the thrifty portion of the industrious cla.s.ses. A considerable number of them had sums lying at interest. As years rolled on, Mr. Sikes often witnessed the depositor commencing with ten or twenty pounds, then make permanent additions to his little store, until at length the amount would reach one, two, or, in a few instances, even three hundred pounds. Mr. Sikes would often imagine the marvellous improvement that would be effected on the condition of the working cla.s.ses, if every one of them became influenced by the same frugality and forethought, which induced these exceptional operatives to deposit their savings at his bank.

About that time, trade was in a wretched condition. The handloom weavers were almost entirely without employment. Privation and suffering prevailed on every side, and these were often borne with silent and n.o.ble heroism. Various remedies were proposed for the existing evils.

Socialism, chartism, and free trade, were the favourites. Theories of the wildest and most impracticable character abounded, and yet even in those dark days there were instances of men who had to some degree made the future predominate over the present, who could fall back upon their reserve in the Joint Stock or Savings Bank to tide them over into better times. Believing in the beneficent results of free trade, Mr. Sikes was equally convinced that national prosperity, as well as national adversity, might be attended with great evils, unless the ma.s.ses were endowed with habits of providence and thrift, and prepared by previous education for the "good time coming" so eloquently predicted by the orators of the League.

Many discussions with working men, in his homeward evening walks, convinced Mr. Sikes that there were social problems with which legislation would be almost powerless to grapple, and of these the thriftlessness of the ma.s.ses of the people was one. An employer of five hundred handloom weavers had told Mr. Sikes that in a previous period of prosperity, when work was abundant and wages were very high, he could not, had he begged on bended knee, have induced his men to save a single penny, or to lay by anything for a rainy day. The fancy waistcoating trade had uniformly had its cycles of alternate briskness and depression; but experience, however stern its teachings, could not teach unwilling learners. It was at this period that Mr. Sikes was reading the late Archbishop Sumner's "Records of Creation," and met with the following pa.s.sage: "The only true secret of a.s.sisting the poor, is to make them agents in bettering their own condition."

Simple as are the words, they shed light into Mr. Sikes's mind, and became the keynote and the test to which he brought the various views and theories which he had previously met with. Doles and charities, though founded frequently on the most benevolent motives, were too often deteriorating to their recipients. On the other hand, if self-reliance and self-help--the columns of true majesty in man--could only be made characteristics of the working cla.s.ses generally, nothing could r.e.t.a.r.d their onward and upward progress. Mr. Sikes observed that until the working cla.s.ses had more of the money power in their hands, they would still be periodically in poverty and distress. He saw that if provident habits could only he generally pursued by them, the face of society would immediately be transformed; and he resolved, in so far as lay in his power, to give every aid to this good work.

In 1850, Savings Banks were only open a very few hours in each week. In Huddersfield, where more than 400,000 a year was paid in wages, the savings bank, after having been established over thirty years, had only acc.u.mulated 74,332. In 1850, Mr. Sikes addressed an anonymous letter to the editors of the _Leeds Mercury_, to which, by their request, he afterwards attached his name. In that letter he recommended the formation of Penny Savings Banks in connection with Mechanics' and similar inst.i.tutes. In simple words, but with many telling facts, he showed how the young men and the young women of the working cla.s.ses were growing up deprived of almost every opportunity of forming habits of thrift, and of becoming depositors in savings hanks.

The letter was received with general approbation. The committee of the Yorks.h.i.+re Union of Mechanics' Inst.i.tutes gave their cordial sanction to it; and Penny Banks were established in connection with nearly every Mechanics' Inst.i.tute in Yorks.h.i.+re. Mr. Sikes personally conducted one at Huddersfield; and down to the present time, it has received and repaid about thirty thousand pounds. In fact, the working people of Huddersfield, doubtless owing in a great measure to the practical example of Mr. Sikes,--have become most provident and thrifty,--the deposits in their savings bank having increased from seventy-four thousand pounds in 1850, to three hundred and thirty thousand pounds in 1874.

In 1854, Mr. Sikes published his excellent pamphlet on "Good Times, or the Savings Bank and the Fireside," to which we have already referred.

The success which it met with induced him to give his attention to the subject of savings banks generally. He was surprised to find that they were so utterly inadequate to meet the requirements of the country. He sought an interview with Sir Cornewall Lewis, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, and brought the subject under his consideration. The Chancellor requested Mr. Sikes to embody his views in a letter, and in the course of a few months there appeared a pamphlet addressed to Sir Cornewall Lewis, ent.i.tled "Savings Banks Reforms." Mr. Sikes insisted on the Government guarantee being given for deposits made in Savings Banks; but this was refused.