OCR Text |
Show THRIFT MAKES SWISS GREAT High Standing of Little Mountain Republic Re-public Due Largely to Practical Habits of Its People. The practical and sound-minded people of the Alps, living in the midst of the war's great caldron, are accredited ac-credited as being the most thrifty people on earth. With the possible exception ex-ception of the Scotsman, it would be correct to assume that, individually, the Swiss takes the lead in this respect. re-spect. One hundred years of peace has contributed con-tributed to the present satisfactory condition of Switzerland. It doubtless has made possible the country's present pres-ent high standing in the family of nations, na-tions, politically, industrially and financially. The Impression that the Swiss are not an industrial people, hut a nation of hotel and inn keepers is not borne out by the facts. They are both. The popular mind has long associated the country with its hotels and nothing more, and little account has been taken of Switzerland's great textile, watch, food, metal, and dairying industries. indus-tries. All this has been made possible by the peaceful and thrifty nature ol the people. It is interesting to note the classification classifi-cation of Swiss savings banks. There are compulsory and noncompulsory institutions. in-stitutions. The compulsory are but three in number. There are in the country ordinary savings banks, school savings banks, factory savings banks, consumers' unions' savings banks, and savings banking against unemployment, unemploy-ment, in all, 1,047 institutions, with depositors and deposits, In 1908. as follows: Depositors, 2,025,491; deposits In francs, 1,596,975,114; deposits in dollars, dol-lars, $308,216,197. There are no postal savings banks in Switzerland, but the project is now being agitated in the country. Over 28 per cent of the depositors have from 100 to 500 francs ($19 30 to $96.50) on deposit; 23 per cent have from 1 to 50 francs ($0.19 to $9.65); 13 per cent have from 1,000 to 2 000 francs ($193 to $386); 40 per cent have from 50 to 100 francs ($9.65 to $19.30) ; 9 per cent have from 2 000 to ' 4 5,000 francs ($386 to $9G5), while 2 per cent have more than 5,000 francs ($965) on deposit. This great little country maintains the proportion of savers to population at 55.4 per cent, the largest of any nation na-tion on earth. |