Mrs. Wakefield's plan (1799) was a sick and aid society rather than a banlc. The members paid a certain sum per month, according to age, and received a pension after 60 years of age. Sick and funeral benefits were also paid. There was the °Sunday Bank° (1808) at Hereford, which was also in the nature of a charity and open Sunday mornings only. Jer emy Bentham established his °Frugality Bank° in 1797.
It is obvious that none of these plans had in them the true savings bank idea. They were all essentially charities, which the savings bank is not. The first man to conceive the proper idea and work it out to a practical conclusion was the Rev. Henry Duncan, a Scottish clergy man, who in 1810, at Ruthwell, Scotland, estab lished the first savings bank that operated along business-like lines and depended upon the earning power of the money received on deposit to carry on the bank. It was his con clusion that from the earnings of the bardc the depositors should receive their interest and the banlc should pay its expenses, the correct savings bank plan. The result of Duncan's practical plan was the Edinburgh Savings Bank, organized in 1814, which is still a prosperous institution. Following Duncan's plan, savings banlcs soon sprang up all over Europe.
The savings bank movement in this country naturally followed the movement in England and Scotland. It .is admitted that during the early part of 1816, almost simultaneously, the movement began in New York, Boston and Philadelphia. Sometime during that year a letter reached Thomas Eddy of New York from a London magistrate named Patrick Col quhoun in which he outlined the English plan of savings banks. The idea also came to the attention of James Savage of Boston and Condy Raguet of F'hiladelphia. The result of this simultaneous information was the estab lishment of the Philadelphia Saving Fund So ciety, which opened for business 2 Dec. 1816, being the first bank of its kind to receive deposits in this country; the Provident Insti tution for Savings in the Town of Boston, which incorporated 13 Dec. 1816, being the first to receive legislative sanction; and the Bank for Savings in New York, being, it is highly probable, the first to be conceived but the last to open for business owing to the antipathy of the New York legislature toward banks in general. It was chartered 26 March
1819 and opened for business 3 July 1819. The historical sequence is, therefore: New York the first to conceive, Philadelphia the first to receive money on deposit, and Boston the first to becotne a legal entity.
Organization.— The organization of a mu tual savings bank consists of a body of trus tees, named in the original articles of incorpo ration, the charter being in former days issued by special act of the State legislatures; but under the free banking idea, the statutes now prescribe the process necessary to organize a savings bank, and any body of men who may care to do so may form a savings bank by complying with the statutory requirements and obtaining the sanction of the State official in charge of banks, usually termed 'Tanking Su perintendent,* ((Banking Commissioners State Auditor,* °State Bank Examiner,* etc., the dis tinction being in the title and not in the official duties.
Trustees.— The trustees are a self-perpet uating body, vacancies being filled by their own votes, and the qualifications are moral rather than financial. Unlike a bank of discount, where stock ownership carries voting power, money power carries no weight with savings bank elections, the trustee being elected for life, the vacancy caused by his death being filled by vote of the survivors.
As a rule these trustees serve without com pensation, even the attendance at board meet ings being without remuneration except in a few States where the fee is limited to about three dollars. They are permitted to receive fees as appraisers of real estate in making mortgage loans, and as examining members of the board and for other special services, but these fees are in lieu of service and not in payment of their trusteeship.
The duty of the trustee consists in attend ance at board meetings, service on committees, such as real estate valuation committees, ex amining committees, and finance committees, the latter having charge of the investments of the bank. In the early days of the savings bank the trustees also acted as tellers, clerks, etc.