Herald And Tribune

SOUTH NEEDS POSTAL BANKS.
Would Be of Especial Benefit to the Colored Race.

Ernest G. De Long, of Tarpon Springs, Fla., writes to the Chicago Record as follows:

"Should postal savings banks be established I fully believe that twenty per cent of the negro women of the south would become depositors within a year. This would have a better effect upon the character of the African race than all other reforms thus far spoken of. It would give them an aim in life in which all could take part. It would protect them from unprincipled sharpers, both white and black. My experience is that the colored people have implicit confidence in the Government, and none whatever in anything else, when it comes to money matters. One with a savings bank account, no matter how small, would be a better citizen in every respect. It would start depositors on a road to usefulness in a right direction, encourage industry and discourage gambling. Above all else would be the moral effect. It would do more than the most stringent laws to prevent crime, because it would be a great incentive for the preserving of their identity. As it is now, one name and one locality is just the same as another, and it is very common for the negroes to change their names every time they change their location and that makes it very easy for them to dodge the law; much more so than for the white man, because it takes years of experience of a northern man to tell one negro from another and the south is fast filling up with northern people, of whom I am one. It behooves us all in our own interest, as well as that of humanity, to improve the condition of the blacks, and I know of nothing that would do it so well as a moneyed interest in the Government."