receipt book prepared for that purpose, containing six or more blank receipts on the same page, and kept on a revolving desk so that it can be easily handled. When the receipt is filled out and signed the bank then has an order or authority for paying the money, and it is paid over. This is the simplest method, and the one in vogue in small banks.

If a bank has a paying teller, the depositor makes out a check which is handed to the teller with the depositor's pass book, who counts out the money, enters the amount, and putting it between the leaves returns it to the depositor.

10. Identification. Of course, the treasurer or paying teller must assure himself that he is paying to the proper person, and this is often a question of no small difficulty. To aid in identification and insure paying to the rightful persons, the rule is very rigid that the depositor's pass book must be presented, in which the amount withdrawn is entered. In the case of banks of discount and deposit, checks, as we have seen, are generally given to others to present for payment. Even in depositing money in such banks it is not essential for the depositor to present his pass book; it may be received without making such an entry.

11. Payment by Check. Sometimes a depositor prefers to receive a check on another bank in payment instead of money, especially when he wishes to send the sum drawn away. As savings banks keep one or more accounts with a bank of discount, a depositor is sometimes accommodated.

12. Death of Depositors. One peculiarity of the business of savings banks is, depositors die, or go away, and the bank loses sight of them. If they die, their chil

dren perhaps do not know that they have any money in the bank, and thus the deposit in one sense becomes dead. There is a law in every state providing that property escheats to the state when the individual ownership of it ceases, but the state rarely comes into possession of any. Within a few years the state of New York has passed an excellent law, providing that when a savings-bank depositor has not appeared for three years, either to make or withdraw a deposit, or have the interest entered in his book, the bank must advertise his name in the daily newspapers. The effect of this law is to diminish the number of doubtful or unknown depositors. It is true that the law causes no inconsiderable amount of work to determine whether claimants are honest or not. In many cases they do not know whether their claim is rightful or not; in other cases they try to get what they know does not belong to them; so that a bank must scrutinize very carefully all the demands of individuals who appear in response to such notices.

13. Growth of Deposits. In 1821 several persons made a deposit of $5 at the Bank for Savings, New York City, in favor of one of their number. The account had remained unchanged, except for the interest, which was periodically added, until 1901, when the bank advertised for information concerning the heirs of the depositor's family. The card was published in the New York City newspapers, where it was seen by a person who knew the depositor. She was still living, and when the matter was told her recalled the circumstance of the deposit. Having proved her identity, the bank paid her $202.04, to which the original balance had grown. Many of the larger city savings banks have had similar cases. Within a reasonable limit every effort is made by them to close accounts

that have not been disturbed for a long period. But the aggregate of the sums thus lying in a dormant condition is small compared with the amount of the active accounts. There are a few depositors who, having once made a good beginning at saving their surplus earnings, but failed to continue, let the account rest year after year, content that they do not need the money. There are a few accounts in New York savings banks which were opened by men who afterward joined the federal army in 1861, and have never appeared. There are sailors, too, lost at sea, who will never come back to claim their savings. Every now and then an account of this kind is paid over to the heirs of the original owner.

14. Calling in Pass Books. In some states also depositors are required to present their books as often as once in three years, not only to be assured of their existence, but for the purpose of comparing the amounts with those on the books of the bank. A large defalcation in Massachusetts was the origin of this law. Less than the amounts were entered on the books of the many depositors, and through such intentionally wrong entries a large amount was taken. The law entails a great deal of work on bank officials, but no one accustomed to its operation will question its utility.

XXIII. THE LAW RELATING TO THE

PAYMENT OF DEPOSITS

1. Regulations for paying Deposits. In paying savings-bank depositors numerous questions have arisen, and the answers to the more important will now be given. Savings banks make rules or by-laws for the double purpose of informing their depositors and protecting themselves. These are printed in the pass book issued to depositors and, unless they are unreasonable, form a contract between the two parties. Says Justice Folger: "We hold that in the absence of any rules assented to by its customers, a savings bank is to be governed by the same legal principles which apply to other moneyed institutions. When it has prescribed rules, and its depositor has assented to them, they are the agreement, and each party must keep it to preserve rights against the other. The extent of the duty which the savings bank is under will, in some degree, be measured by the strictness or extent of the rules it has put on itself. Ordinarily, it is bound to the exercise of reasonable care and diligence."

2. Depositors should know the By-laws. The bank when giving a book to a depositor should call his attention to the by-laws printed in them, especially if he is not familiar with the language in which they are printed. His ignorance of the language, however, is no excuse for not learning what the by-laws are. It would be strange, indeed, if these simply bound one party to the contract — 1 Allen v. Williamsburgh Savings Bank, 69 N. Y. 321.

the bank. They are equally binding on both parties. In a Pennsylvania case the Supreme Court made short work of this contention, on the part of a depositor's counsel, by declaring that if he was illiterate and could not read the rules in the bank book this "made no difference. He ought to have requested it to read the rules to him. Common prudence required this precaution." 1 3. Effect of changing a By-law. Sometimes a by-law is changed. When this is done after a depositor has opened his account and he is not notified of the change, he is not bound thereby. He is regarded as assenting to those by-laws only that were in force at the time of becoming a depositor, unless the subsequent by-laws were made known to him and his assent was given in a formal manner. Should he learn through a newspaper or another depositor that a by-law had been amended or adopted, in short, should he understand the change, and make no objection within a reasonable time, doubtless he would be regarded as assenting thereto. But from a permissive statute, authorizing a bank to change its mode of business, a dépositor derives no binding inference that his bank has put it into operation. A positive or compulsory statute would have a different effect. A depositor would be bound by this as clearly as by any other statute.2

4. Withdrawing Deposits. - Savings banks provide several ways or rules for withdrawing deposits which will now be considered. One rule is that no money can be withdrawn except by the depositor and on the presenta

1 Burrill v. Dollar Savings Bank, 92 Pa. 134.

2 More recently savings banks have adopted a by-law declaring that any by-law that may be hereafter adopted shall be as effective as existing ones. As this has received judicial sanction, it ought to be incorporated in the code of every savings bank.