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The Freedman's Savings Bank. The Inter- Occan gives the following history of the Freedman's Savings Bank: The tedman's Bank was proposed as a purely charitable enterprise to encourage frugality and thrift among the newly liberated blacks. Mr. Summer reported the chartering the bank, I ebruary 17, 1865, and on the 3d of March, following, it became a law. The bank was established in Washington, and bran h banks to the number of thirty-four were (afterward) located in different parts of the Union. The institution was authorized to receive the deposits of negroes, and invest the same in the stocks, bonds, Treasury notes, or other securities of the United States. It was not intended to be a money-making corce.n, either for bankers or depositors, but to provide for the safe-keeping of the Freedman's savings. The government did not guarantee the safety of the bank-though the negroes were generally made to believe that it had done so-nor did it take the proper precautions to secure honest management. As a consequence, a number of the trustees, who were also implicated in many other financial irregularities, were enabled to take complete control of the bank, and manage it to suit their own interests. During the nine years of the bank's existence. it handled no less than $56,000,000 of deposits. Then it suspended payment, and a committee of Congress was appointed to invvestgate matters. It found that the bank had been scandalously mismanaged, its charter regulations ignored, and its funds dissipated by loaning on inadequate security. By law, the investments of the bank were confined to government securities, but this law was ignored, and the funds used to aid the wild-cat schemes of the "ring" and their friends. Unimproved real e tate, unsalable stocks (such as that of the Maryland Freestore Mining and Manufacturing Company, alias the "Zeneca Stone Company"), and personal notes, were among the assets of the bank. Deficits and embezzlements at the branch banks also produced many losses. The unsecured debts owed by the bank to depositors July 13, 1874, amounted to $2,900,000. The assets, which realized more than was expected, yielded nearly $1,700,000. Dividends have been paid at various times, but many small depositors, through ignorance and despair, forfeited their dividends by not calling for them. In all 77,000 dividends, amounting to $112,000, were thus forfeited. The cost of "windup" this bank was $475,000. For some years three bank commissioners were employed at a salary of $3,000 each. But in February, 1881, the affairs of the bank were all turned over to the Comptroller of the currency, at a great saving of expenses.
