A THREAT TO THRIFT

Unintelligent and subversive is the recent proposal in the Massachusetts legislature for an assessment of 1% on all savings deposits. Such a regulation, if passed, would discourage on of the really sane, stable factors in our banking system. Saving accounts, although they average only $700, represent a definite effort on the part of some three million persons to set a portion of their earnings aside to accumulate a safe, certain interest rate, and to meet the unknown contingencies of the future.

By arbitrarily slashing the standing interest rate in Massachusetts from 2 1-2 to 1 1-2 percent, the revenue bill would defeat its purpose entirely, as savings banks would soon be put out of business. This additional 1 per cent, moreover, would increase present savings bank payments ten-fold, even though these institutions now pay a higher rate than any other source of state revenue.

Any state has reached a sorry pass when it must consider such a ridiculous proposal as this tax bill. With all the luxuries and semi-luxuries which its citizens enjoy, why must Massachusetts talk of imposing insane taxes on such vital institutions as its savings banks? Amusement, radio, gasoline, cigarette taxes, heavy as they are already, would provide adequate revenue, and prove infinitely more welcome than the imposition of exorbitant assessments on savings ascents, large and small.