of "motion-picture" houses is largely in cities and towns devoted to factory industries, and they furnish amusement to classes of workers whose means debar them from theaters of the higher class, except on rare occasions. It is worthy of note that wherever the "motionpicture" houses are opened, the patronage of the liquor saloons in the neighborhood shows a falling off;)... But, when all possible allowance has been made on these grounds, it is clear that the enormous increase of the number of theaters and amusement places and of the attendance during recent years marks an abnormal development of the appetite for amusements, and represents a considerable squandering of income. . .

It is impossible to estimate the amount wasted on amusements; the line between economic and uneconomic expenditure on this score is so vague that a curve of waste cannot be plotted. . . . That a deal of waste is now taking place in the form of excessive and demoralizing expenditure for amusements we believe, however, to be a fact patent to any impartial observer. This waste is twofold. It involves the unprofitable spending of money which might otherwise have been devoted to forms of consumption that would heighten efficiency, or to assistance in the production of useful commodities, and it diminishes the industrial efficiency and consequently the output of the working population. . . .

D. Domestic Waste

Domestic waste may be either destruction without profitable result, or misuse, the latter taking the form of extravagance. Families with incomes below $800 a year waste very little food material. They may suffer from illness due to poor food, and thus waste income. United States government investigations show waste of edible material amounting to not more than 3 or 4 per cent. in this class. In the case of families with incomes between $1,000 and $3,000 a year, all investigations show frequent wastes of 10 to 25 per cent. of foods purchased, and extravagance in buying to an equal amount. Such families spend from $300 to $800 a year for food. If 20,000 families in Boston spend needlessly and to their own detriment $200 a year, the sum of $4,000,000 annually is involved, besides the cost of caring for garbage and loss through illness.

Food waste occurs in three principal ways:

1. Waste in marketing, including purchase of inedible material, purchase in small quantities, purchase for flavor and tenderness instead of nutrition, and sheer extravagance.

2. Waste in preparation, including preparation of too large quantity for the meal or day, food made inedible by poor cooking, and food unwholesome by wrong cooking.

3. Waste in supplies and cooked food, including garbage pure and simple, and loss in moving and closing the house for the summer, when whole packages are thrown away, etc.

IV. SAVING AND THRIFT

A. Savings in the United States, 1863-19131

The greatest channel for saving is undoubtedly the banks, and in the following extract figures are given of the total deposits in all banks, and in those which are especially used by the wage-earners. The statistics of the savings banks are particularly encouraging as giving evidence of a growing spirit of thrift as well as of the existence of a disposable surplus. This is the bright side of the picture.

NUMBER OF BANKS AND OF DEPOSITS OF STATE, SAVINGS, AND PRIVATE BANKS, LOAN AND TRUST COMPANIES, AND NATIONAL BANKS, FROM 1863 TO 1913

Savings deposits are supposed to represent chiefly the accumulations of wage earners and other people of moderate means, and by reason of this fact statistics relating to such deposits are of special

1 Annual Report of the Comptroller of the Currency. (Washington, 1914), 43-77, passim.

interest. Savings deposits in all banks of the country increased from $6,496,192,707 in June, 1912, to $6,972,069,227 in June last, the increase during the year being $475,876,520, or over 7 per cent. The aggregate deposits in all banks on June 4, 1913, roundly stated, were $17,475,700,000; of this amount $6,972,000,000, as stated, was savings deposits, exclusive of $211,445,687 held by savings banks subject to check without notice. Statistics showing the number of savings depositors in all banks for the current year are not available, but the information obtained upon this subject in 1911 showed that there were on June 7 of that year over 17,600,000 savings accounts on the books of the various banks of the country.

BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES

Statistics relating to the building and loan associations in the United States for the year 1912 have been obtained through the courtesy of Mr. H. F. Cellarius, secretary of the United States League of Local Building and Loan Associations.

There were in 1912 in the United States 6,273 associations, with

a total membership of 2,516,936, and having assets amounting to $1,137,600,648. The total resources increased $106,913,627, or a little over 10 per cent for the year, and the membership increased 184,107, or a little less than 8 per cent., during the same period. The average amount due each member is $451.98, an increase of $10.17 per member for the year. . . .

SCHOOL SAVINGS BANKS

Through the courtesy of Mrs. S. L. Oberholtzer, who has undertaken the work of collecting statistics relating to this class of banks, the Comptroller is enabled to present the latest statistical data showing the growth of the school savings bank system in this country. Much interest is now being manifested in this method of accumulating small savings, and recently the American Bankers' Association provided for a school savings section, in charge of a capable secretary, for the purpose of studying the growth of this movement and compiling statistics relating thereto.

From reports received and compiled it appears that there are about 1,200 schools in 201 cities and towns having school savings banks. The pupils registered at these schools number 1,492,789, and the number of pupils with savings accounts are 210,320. The total amount deposited was $4,305,018.83, withdrawn $3,143,551.22, the balance on deposit being $1,161,467.61. . . .

B. Building and Loan Associations, 18931

A characteristic and important savings and investment institution in the United States is the building and loan association, whose purpose is to assist the person of small means to acquire a home by loaning him the necessary capital on the security of a mortgage on the property. The following extract shows something of the financial and social importance of these associations.

1 Ninth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor. (Washington, 1894), II,

Building and loan associations have existed in this country since about 1840, although the first organization of the kind of which there is any record was organized at Frankford, a suburb of Philadelphia, January 3, 1831, under the title of the Oxford Provident Building Association; but the decade from 1840 to 1850 can be considered as being the real period for the permanent inception of such associations. . .

The growth of these associations in the United States has been very rapid since 1840, and their accumulated assets have increased to an enormous amount. These private corporations, doing a semibanking business, conducted by men not trained as bankers, offer a study in finance not equalled by any other institutions. England, France, and some other countries have kindred institutions, but nowhere have they grown to such vast proportions as in the United States.

The investigation, the results of which are now under consideration, comprehends practically all building and loan associations in the United States. An effort was made to secure the facts for these associations as they existed at the end of their respective fiscal years nearest to January 1, 1893. . .

The number of associations considered in the preparation of the tabular statements in this report was 5,838, of which 5,598 were local and 240 national. . .

The total dues paid in on instalment shares in force plus the profits on the same of the building and loan associations of the country, as stated, amount to $450,667,594. A business represented by this great sum, conducted quietly, with little or no advertising, and, as stated, without the experienced banker in charge, shows that the common people, in their own ways, are quite competent to take care of their savings, especially when it is known that but 35 of the associations now in existence showed a net loss at the end of their last fiscal year and that this loss amounted to only $23,332.20.

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