nd money at
fixed charges and thus bring profit to the institution. The former
opens its doors to savers, the latter to borrowers. One serves by
receiving and keeping and the other by lending. The savings bank aims
at making men savers as well as producers. It offers the aid of the
strong, who can manage well, to the weak and inexperienced. If the
5,000,000 depositors of savings in the United States were to hide
away their own savings nearly $2,000,000,000 would be withdrawn from
circulation. The savings bank invests its money. Its managers are as a
rule intelligent men, competent to make safe investments in solid
securities. The best savings banks are conservative and do not
encourage speculation.

The rules and regulations of savings banks differ largely. In some
institutions deposits of a dime at a time are accepted; in others a
dollar is the limit. Deposits usually begin to draw interest on the
first day of each quarter, but they are entitled to it only if they
remain until the end of the half-year. Thus money deposited on the 1st
of January is entitled to six months' interest on the 1st of July,
though it is not entitled to any interest if withdrawn in June. Some
few banks allow interest to begin on the 1st of each month. Most
savings banks do not permit money to be withdrawn short of thirty
days' notice. Students of this course who are interested in securing
definite information upon this subject regarding any particular bank
should apply to that bank for a set of its rules and regulations for
the information of depositors.

TRUST COMPANIES

There has grown up in this country a class of financial institutions
which take a sort of middle ground between the commercial bank and the
savings bank, so far as their service to the public is concerned.
These are what are known as trust companies. National banks are
prohibited by law from making loans on real estate, and though State
banks are not hedged in this way, as a matter of good banking they
usually avoid loans of this character. The policy of commercial banks
is to make a great many comparatively small loans on short-time paper,
while that of the trust company is to make large loans on long-time
securities. The deposits of trust companies consist largely of
undisturbed sums such as might be set aside by administrators,
executors, trustees, committees, societies, or from private estates.
They are such as are not likely to fluctuate greatly in amount. From
the v