uthern philanthropist, can be of invaluable help. It
would be well if a few such friends would become interested in the
work of assisting in the establishment of such banks, to be conducted
by competent colored men in such cities as offer favorable conditions
for institutions of the character mentioned. They could form
themselves into a board for the general supervision of the work, and
then engage the services of an experienced and thoroughly competent
man to give personal attention to it. This man should comprehend every
detail of the banking business, and he should be willing to meet and
advise with those who are to have in hand the conduct of the
institution and instruct them in all the details of its proper
management before the doors are thrown open to the public. He should
then give daily attention to the operation of the bank for two or
three months, or until the officers are able to proceed safely without
him. By this time a similar work should await him in another locality.
He should, however, keep in constant communication with the president
of the newly established bank and so arrange his engagements as to be
able to return to it from time to time, as the work elsewhere will
permit, in order that he may oversee the management and give such
helpful counsel as the situation may demand. With the right kind of
men at the helm, educated, popular with their people and possessing
unquestioned integrity, it would not be unsafe at this stage to trust
the management to their hands for a few days at a time, after it has
been ascertained that all departments of the business are being
conducted intelligently and without friction.

So that instead of having only three or four communities in the
country reaping the good results of such forceful agencies for the
moral and material elevation of their citizens, we will have at least
a few more to assist in spreading the gospel of economy and thrift.
The expense attached to such an undertaking would be represented in
the salary paid the organiser, and perhaps a stenographer, and the
traveling and other necessary expenses of both. Their services would
not be required for a longer period than five years, at most, and the
real good accomplished would be incalculable.

The plan is not impracticable. The few savings banks now being
operated by colored men had no such help. They overcame the
difficulties under which they necessarily began, and they have
succeeded admirably. Cannot