1. A Safe Place To Keep Money

- A bank is a safer place to keep money than one's store or house. This was a stronger reason perhaps centuries ago for using a bank as a depository than it is to-day. Yet it has not lost all force. One reason why stores and houses are not more often robbed is, thieves know that not much money is any longer kept in such places. Whatever else they may get, therefore, should they adventure, they know they are not likely to get much money. Nevertheless, there are those who have more faith in their own devices for defying thieves than in the devices of banks. One of these wise persons conceived the idea of putting his money in a tomato can and burying it beneath his dog's kennel. Bruno seemed to comprehend the gravity of his trust, and yet not long afterward, when the farmer wont to his depository for a few bills, he made the painful discovery that the entire amount was missing. On another occasion a farmer put his money in the bottom of a barrel, filled it with ashes, and at the top built a nest which he put in the custody of a sitting hen. She proved to be no better protector than Bruno A woman during the summer time used her disused stove for the same purpose. "Who would ever think," so she said to herself, "of looking in such a place for money?" No one ever did; but she for got the fireman. Unluckily, he built a fire in advance of her calculation.

2. The Payment Of Interest Is An Incentive To Save Money

Interest is often paid by banks on deposits which is an incentive for saving money. This applies especially to the small depositors in savings banks. Were there no such institutions, perhaps the larger portion of their deposits would not be saved. It is true that in some states, where savings banks are not numerous, building and loan societies take their place and perform an equally useful office. That savings banks have proved to be most useful places in encouraging thrift is a fact that no one will question.

3. A Useful Service Is Rendered To Those Engaged In Production. Transportation, And Exchange

Banks perform a highly useful service in the production, transportation, and exchange of goods by lending money to those who are engaged in these ways. Money or capital is the lifeblood of business, and it is the business of banks to furnish this to all worthy individuals and concerns. The credit or ability to borrow that some mercantile houses have is worth far more to them than the capital they actually possess.

4. A Useful Service Is Rendered By Furnishing Drafts To Their Customers

Banks render an important service in saving the transmission of money from one place to another by furnishing drafts to their customers, or by their use of checks on the banks wherein they keep their deposits. Not only is the risk of loss thus avoided, but also the expense of transmitting money by express, which is considerable, because the risk for performing the service is great. Millions of dollars in the form of drafts and checks are always passing through the mails and serving to discharge indebtedness somewhere in lieu of money.

5. Checks Are A Good Record Of One's Expenditures

Checks and drafts also serve as a good record of one's expenditure. If an individual deposits all his money in a bank, his pass books and check books tell the complete story of the money he has received and his disposition of it. 6. Money becomes more Effective when collected into a Large Sum. - A bank renders the use of money more effective by drawing it together into a larger amount. Even very wealthy men do not carry around large sums of money in their pockets, and therefore could not lend much to others if they had the disposition. They keep it in banks. Moreover, many of them do not keep large-sums, even on deposit, but make an investment as soon as it has attained sufficient size. These smaller deposits, however, make in the aggregate a large sum, large enough to lend to advantage to borrowers. A bank may be likened to a great reservoir which is filled by numerous little streamlets. Each of these, if pent up, would hardly supply enough power to run a coffee mill, while the united stream, issuing from the great reservoir, is powerful enough to keep the machinery of the largest factory in constant motion. As the water thus stored serves a more useful purpose, so money collected in banks serves a more useful purpose by such additional use, - a thing as impossible while the money is floating around in individual pockets as the utilizing of a little stream for a great motor purpose.