o overcome this obstacle by
loaning the funds to national banks within the State where the
deposits are made. The objection to this course lies in the objection
to the national banks themselves, as heretofore stated. To give them
disposition over such a vast amount--it is estimated that the deposits
in the postal savings-banks would soon reach $500,000,000--would be to
increase vastly their power for harm.

Mr. Wanamaker's alternative proposition, to utilize the funds in the
direction of greater and much needed expenditures for public
buildings, particularly post-office structures, is, on the other hand,
a sound one. They might also be employed to advantage in providing the
means for the much needed extension of the postal service now so
widely demanded, as in the adoption of a parcels post equal to that of
Germany, England, and other countries, and in nationalizing the
telegraph and telephone and incorporating them into the postal
department.

The deposits in the proposed check and clearing department would place
an enormous amount at the disposal of the government, in addition to
the postal savings-bank funds. Paying no interest on these deposits,
the government might utilize the money in its own expenditures, and
thus to a considerable extent reduce taxation. Or, just as the
ordinary banks loan their deposits, the government might loan this
money for mortgages on land and on staple products, somewhat as
demanded in recent agitations.

A person so eminent in the discussion of these questions as Mr. Edward
Atkinson has recently stated, in substance, that, increase the volume
of the currency as we may, still it would not be adequate to certain
exigencies of regular recurrence, like the annual moving of the crops.
He thus practically concedes the justice of the farmers' demand, as
formulated in their "sub-treasury project," but he would supply this
want through private banking institutions organized expressly to loan
money for this purpose.

Such institutions would, however, naturally take advantage of the
necessities of the farmers by obtaining the highest rates of interest
possible, while the underlying purpose of the other plan would be that
of making the loans at the lowest rates consistent with the expense of
the transactions. Is it not better, it may be asked, and more in
accordance with the principles of true self-help, for the people thus
to supply their own financial needs in the cheapest way possible
thro