As a supplementary help to collecting by human agents, I
have recently recommended to foreign co-operators a very con-
venient collecting box, which comes from the United States
and appears to be in common use there — though there em-
ployed mainly by business banks, as a means of attracting
depositors. In Europe it has already found its way into provid-
ent institutions in the United Kingdom and in the Scandinavian
countries. In the latter, more particularly, among a population
strongly disposed to thrift by nature, it has already become
decidedly popular. It is known as the "Home Bank," and
consists of a small iron box, or diminutive "safe," with an
aperture in the side, through which coins may be slipped,
dropping into an inner compartment, which is firmly secured
by a catch. The box is served out locked, and the bank retains
the key. The idea is, that people will slip in money when
they have got it, and will then be prevented by the secure
closing of the box from taking it out again. After a time they
carry the box bodily to the bank (it is very small) to have the
contents taken out and credited to their account. It says
something for the thrifty instincts of human nature that very
considerable sums are reported to have been collected in
deposits in this way. In America it is calculated that a
"Home Bank" collects annually, on an average, about i?20,
which, with hundreds of thousands in the hands of the public,
means a good deal of money laid by. And it would be rash
to assume that what is so saved is taken away from other
saving. For the experience of savings banks is, that every
new facility offered for thrift taps fresh sources. This applies
more specifically to the thrift work of co-operative banks. In
Italy, as elsewhere, I have questioned the directors of savings



134 CO-OPERATIVE BANKING

banks respecting the effect upon their institutions of the opening of
People's banks, with their large savings lodgments. And these
gentlemen have shown me from their books that the People's banks
have not in any way trenched upon their-own takings. The latter
have continued to grow without diminution at the accustomed rate.
