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Show ITALIANS THRIFTY PEOPLE Majority Have Small Means, but Live Within Their Incomes Many Depositors De-positors In Savings Banks. The axiom, "Necessity is the mother of invention" is fully taken advantage of by the Italian people. Generally speaking, they are a people of small means, but they live within their incomes. in-comes. Their ideas are summed up In what an Italian laborer recently said to an Eastern banker: "I get a dollar a day; spend a dollar and one cent; some time I have nothing. I get a dollar a day; spend ninety-nine cents; some time I have something." No reliable statistical dpta concerning concern-ing the number of deposits are available, avail-able, but It Is thought that the number num-ber of large depositors is small, whereas where-as the bulk of deposits consists of very moderate amounts. Approximately $100,000,000 In deposits is owned by 6,295,797 depositors. If one takes into account the long struggles undergone by Italy and the-many the-many hardships encountered and th fact that the national wealth Is not so large as that of other countries where agricultural, manufacturing and commercial development has been fostered fos-tered by more favorable circumstances, these figures will serve to indicate the degree of thrift on the part o( the Italian people. There are two institutions in Italy which encourage the people to save, the ordinary savings banks known as Casse di Risparmio, and the Banco Popolari (People's Bank). The latter lat-ter class has come Into considerable prominence through the efforts ol Luigi Lufczatti. The Banco Popolari of Naples, of which Slgnor Luzzatt.l is the head, serves the public in every possible way. A board of managers consisting of 100 prominent men, meets once a year when the troubles, domestic and otherwise, of depositors are presented and settled. In case a man dies, his widow Is financially assisted as-sisted by a loan of money from tho bank equal to the amount deposited. If the Italian people can attain such, a high degree of saving, there Is a much greater possibility for the American Amer-ican with better advantages and a higher scale of wages to cultivate the. habit of thrift, it is urged. |