fferent classes of people. Savings banks constitute the only group
to which the term bank can properly be applied and consequently the
only one to which attention will here be given.

In a book entitled, _Savings and Savings Institutions_, written by
Professor Hamilton of Syracuse University, the following definition is
given:[Pages 161 and 162.]

Savings banks are institutions established by public
authority, or by private persons, in order to encourage
habits of saving by affording special security to owners of
deposits, and by the payment of interest to the full extent
of the net earnings, less whatever reserve the management may
deem expedient for a safety fund; and in furtherance of this
purpose bank offices are located at places where they are
calculated to encourage savings among those persons who most
need such encouragement.

Professor Hamilton classifies these institutions as trustee,
cooperative, municipal, and postal savings banks. In the first group
he places institutions managed by boards of philanthropically inclined
persons who serve without pay; in the second, those managed
cooperatively by the people who make use of them; in the third, those
established and administered by municipalities; and in the fourth,
those connected with the post-office departments of governments. The
strength of trustee savings banks lies in the comparatively low costs
of their administration and in the fact that in their investments
they are likely to enjoy the advantages of the judgment and enthusiasm
of people skilled in the investment business; that of cooperative
savings banks, in their adaptability to the special needs of their
constituents and in the education which cooperative administration
involves; and that of municipal, and especially of postal savings
banks, in their capacity to place their services within the easy reach
of all who need them and in the confidence which their public
character inspires.

In the investment of the funds intrusted to savings banks, safety and
as large returns as are consistent with it, rather than ease of
liquidation, are the prime considerations, and hence they usually take
the form of high grade investment securities rather than of commercial
paper. Their deposits are usually subject to withdrawal only after due
notice, and, being savings deposits, their withdrawal usually follows
only after the lapse of a considerable period of time.

The pu