Part 11 (1/2)

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.