CAPITALISTS BY THRIFT

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 70, 19 September 1936, Page 8

CAPITALISTS BY THRIFT

A "debtor mentality" is so much in evidence, especially among politicians, that creditor mentality is sometimes looked upon as an abnormal thing pertaining to a' , few rich and grasping people. The fact is, however, that every Englishspeaking country' has little creditors, little capitalists, and little landlords; and the little capitalists are by far the most numerous of the capitalist iclass. In Britain, with forty-odd [million people, there are now ten [million depositors in the Post Office Savings Bank, which was seventy-five 1 years of age on Wednesday. The average deposit, £4l, shows the stantial stake possessed by the proletariat in the interest return on capital. An analysis of bank deposits, shareholdings, debentures, etc., would indicate that an enormous proportion of the capital of the country is held by the; small mail; and if the financial institutions are undesirable things, the small man must take his share of the blame, just as he takes his share of the profit. When financial institutions prosper, millions of small shareholders and depositors prosper with them—swim with them and sink with them. That section of small investors which seeks non-speculative, fixed-return investments is part of the backbone of the State. Without its savings no country could maintain high speed. Though contract-breaking legislation, and attacks on interest, rent, and banking, are sometimes regarded merely as attacks on the rich, they are in greater measure attacks on the thrifty poor. And if the result is to drive the small investor from mortgages to speculative stocks or motorcars, the responsible Government is a Government of reaction.