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York Service Follows

YORK
VAULTS

JORK

YORK service men are just as jealous of our repu-
tation as the president of the York Safe & Lock Co.
It is not very often that two letters complimenting
YORK on its service arrive in one mail. We quote
excerpts from the two letters. *

York Safe & Lock Co.

New York City.

Gentlemen:

Trenton, June 18, 1923.

"Since we are writing you, we take this opportunity of expressing to you our appreciation and satisfaction of the very nice way you took care of us during our moving. We had a number of favorable comments made by the police, and those who were in charge, especially as to the conduct of the men who made up the crew. The men were well supervised, efficient in their work and most gentlemanly in their conduct."

York Safe & Lock Co.
New York City.
Gentlemen:

Binghamton, June 18, 1923.

-"Both Mr. Kronenburg and Mr. Hoffman gave everything that was in them, and we are all set ready for business and locked up at 4:30 Sunday afternoon. The willingness and patience that they showed through all the confusion was a marvel to me, and you are to be congratulated on having that kind of people. It was particularly fortunate that Mr. Kronenburg happened to be here as it really needed a man at each end.

“Mr. Kronenburg also opened the old safe for us without any difficulty. The work has gone along very nicely in my absence and all customers are pleased."

*Names furnished upon request.

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46 Years of Fiduciary Experience in Massachusetts

In the forty-six years of its experience
this Company has handled hundreds
of Estates.

We have met and solved practically
every kind of Trust problem that may

arise.

Individuals and corporations requiring fiduciary service in this State are invited to correspond with the President or other officers of the Company.

We have over 850 Personal Trust Estates aggre-
gating $75,000,000, the result of our 46 years'
experience in managing Trust business.

BOSTON SAFE DEPOSIT &
TRUST COMPANY

100 FRANKLIN STREET

At ARCH and Devonshire Streets

Boston 6

HOW "THE MAN IN THE SHOP" IS ENROLLED IN THE

ARMY OF SAVINGS DEPOSITORS

SUCCESS OF PAYROLL DEDUCTION SYSTEM

D. K. SNOW

Of the Union Trust Company of Cleveland

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Because of lack of personal contact there are still millions of industrial workers who have not yet become converted to the advantages of maintaining savings accounts. At a time like the present when high wages and full employment are incentives to extravagance the banks and trust companies are in position to render genuine public service by making it easy for the man in the shop to open a savings account. The following article describes a plan which has been in successful operation for over two years.)

T is seldom indeed that the average bank or trust company has an opportunity for

who saves. As a rule, this contact is limited only to the all-too-brief conversation between the customer at the savings window and the savings teller.

"Good morning," says the teller to the savings depositor. The depositor presents his pass book and his money, and that is all there is to the occurrence. All that the bank knows is that this particular savings customer is depositing money or withdrawing it, as the case may be. He knows nothing of the depositor's motives, financial habits, ambitions, or disappointments.

Of course, by examining a man's savings record over a considerable period of years, the bank may be able to hypothecate an imaginary story of this particular saver's financial experiences. But there is no assurance that this imaginary story may come anywhere near the truth. In fact, banks are lamentably ignorant of the savings habits of their own customers. They do not know why people are saving, what percentage of their income they do save, or what motives prompt them to save. The savings depositors are viewed by banks in mass rather than as individuals.

A New Industrial Savings Plan The Union Trust Company, Cleveland, Ohio, has recently perfected and put into operation an industrial savings plan, whereby the bank has had an opportunity to gain a surprising intimate insight into the savings habits and financial ambitions of many thousands of Cleveland workmen and after all, it is the "boys in the shop" who form the great bulk of the savings clientele of most of our financial institutions. This industrial savings system is called the "Save at the Shop Plan." It was installed experimentally about two years ago in a number of large Cleveland factories. After it had proved to be a success, the "Save at the Shop Plan"

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was "sold," both through advertising and through personal solicitation, to a large number of other Cleveland factories, until at the present time many thousands of workmen in Cleveland have adopted the "Save at the Shop Plan."

The plan is a simple one. It is based upon a payroll deduction system, and in that, it is not far different from other industrial savings systems now in operation throughout the country. The "Save at the Shop Plan" is unique, however, in that it is not at all simply a matter of installation. The ground is pre

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"IT'S SURE MADE ME SOLID AT HOME" pared for the plan, the

plan is installed, and then the plan is followed up continually both in advertising and selling, until its future operation is successfully assured. In short, the Union Trust Company feels that no industrial savings plan will run itself. It must be organized, systematized, and followed through to the limit.

Method of Procedure

To illustrate the method by which this plan is inaugurated, installed and followed up, we will list briefly the steps which go to make up the course of procedure followed through by The Union Trust Company in obtaining maximum results from the "Save at the Shop Plan" in any factory:

1. Several days prior to the installation of the "Save at the Shop Plan," a letter written upon factory stationery and signed by an officer of the factory, is sent to every employee of the plant, explaining to him the nature of the "Save at the Shop Plan," and impressing upon him the desirability of "saving to get something"-a home, an automobile, a washing machine, a victrola, or any one of the hard, tangible, physical objects which make life better worth while living.

2. About three days prior to the installation of the plan, a letter is sent to every employee, upon the stationery of The Union Trust Company, signed by a Union Trust vice-president, still further explaining the "Save at the Shop Plan," and telling to what surprising amounts savings will accumulate if deposits are made regularly.

3. The actual installation of the plan is simple. Upon the payday when the plan is to be installed, signature cards and authorization cards are included in every pay envelope. The signature cards are the ordinary signature cards of the bank's savings department. The authorization cards are simply little slips upon which each employee may "sign up" for the plan-that is, each employee may authorize the paymaster to deduct a specified amount from his pay each week, and deposit it to his credit in The Union Trust Company.

4. Immediately following this payday, representatives of The Union Trust Company go into the factory and interview every employee in the plant, explaining the advantages of the "Save at the Shop Plan," and urging each employee to adopt the plan.

5. Very little additional bookkeeping is involved in the handling of this plan. The payma r. in making up his pay, makes out duplicat leposit slips covering each authorized dedt tion. The duplicate slips are put into the pay envelopes in place of the money deducted and act as a receipt for the money

deposited in the bank to the credit of the various workmen. The original deposit slips, together with the company's check in an amount equal to their total, go to The Union Trust Company, where the amount of each deposit is credited to its respective account.

6. This plan is now followed up by a continuons campaign of advertising, including posters displayed inside the factories, and inserts in pay envelopes each payday.

7. The plan is further followed up by a second solicitation by representatives of The Union Trust Company, if desired, at an interval of about six months after the first solicitation.

Establishing Personal Contact

In many cases, however, the second solicitation is entirely unnecessary, as the men in the shop, by their own enthusiasm, sell the plan so thoroughly to almost all of the workmen that further solicitation is not needed. It is in this solicitation of the workmen by the bank's representatives that the bank is enabled to get that intimate personal contact with the prospective saver that is extremely valuable in gaining some insight into the savings habits and the financial ambitions of the average worker.

The bank's representatives find that the thrift idea is not a new one to the workmen. Most workmen want to save. Heretofore, however, they have been limited to a certain extent by lack of physical opportunity. The bank has ordinarily been closed at any time when the workmen might be able to reach it. It has actually been a difficult task physically for the workman-or the workman's wife, who often has a large family of small children to take care of-to get to the bank during banking hours.

By this method of payroll deduction inside the plant, the worker is given an opportunity to save which presents no physical difficulties whatsoever-and this opportunity he is eager to use. There are many workmen, too, who have not saved simply because they have lacked the "push" to begin saving. These men need only the impetus given by the representatives of The Union Trust Company to sign up immediately for the "Save at the Shop Plan."

What Solicitation Revealed

It is interesting to take, for instance, the report of a Union Trust Company representative covering the first solicitation of an average plant. There were 84 employees in this shop. Twenty-seven already had accounts at The Union Trust Company. Eleven had accounts in other banks. nine in savings

and loan companies, and seven were buying homes. Out of the entire 84 men, 22 men adopted the plan immediately. Of course, most of the 27 men who already had accounts at The Union Trust Company did not adopt the plan, as they were already saving at that institution. Accordingly, the securing of the 22 "Save at the Shop" accounts upon first solicitation, was quite significant of the popularity of the plan among the workers.

Note now the personal reaction of various types of workers to the plan.

One workman said, "Oh, yes, saving is all right, but I just can't keep it up. My wife died about three weeks ago, and her funeral expenses ate up every cent I had in the world. I am left with four little children. My expenses are high, and I simply can't save a penny." The Union Trust representative pointed out to the man that he had just passed through an emergency where he had needed cash, and needed it badly. Luckily, he had had a little saved up to meet the emergency. Therefore, the bank's representative urged, "Wouldn't it be advisable for you right now to begin building up a reserve fund to meet the sibility of some other emergency in the future." "Just let me think that over a few minutes," said the workman. About five minutes later he approached the bank's representative and said, "I guess you are right about that emergency stuff. Put me down for five dollars a pay."

A group of boys about 19 years old said that they couldn't possibly save any money. They said it went faster than they could get it. The bank's representative questioned them closely as to what they did with their pay, whereupon they admitted that they spent considerable of it in gambling, amusement, and the like. This group of boys was sold on the "Save at the Shop Plan" through the idea that the money for their savings accounts would be taken out of their pay before they could get their hands on it, and, accordingly, they would not spend it.

Many of the men in the shop-particularly the foreigners-had been sold on the "Save at the Shop Plan" by the very first letter written by an officer of their plant, explaining the "Save at the Shop Plan." Consequently when the Union Trust representative approached a man of this type, the representative would get no further than a sentence, "I would like to talk to you for a few minutes about saving money through 'Save at the Shop Plan,' before the worker would speak up and say, 'Oh, yes, I know. Put me down for five dollars, please.'" Six men out of a group of twenty-two in this plant re

sponded immediately in exactly that manner.

Following the Leader

The men showed a considerable tendency to follow the leader. If one man in a group of a certain section of the factory signed up for the plan, the others were pretty sure to follow. This was particularly true among the colored men, who proved, by the way, extremely enthusiastic about the "Save at the Shop Plan." In one department of this factory there were five married women all working together in a little room. One of them, with a small daughter dependent upon her for support, signed up for the plan on the basis of four dollars per pay. Immediately the four others followed suit. One amusing incident of the solicitation in this plant was the instance of one young married workman who signed up for the plan, so that he could save up something without his wife Knowing about it.

The interviews with the individual workmen lasted on the average never longer than two minutes. In fact, only one minute, as a rule, was necessary for The Union Trust representative to tell whether or not a man would sign up for the plan. This would tend to prove that the workmen were familiar with the thrift idea and had considered in advance whether or not they might be able to use the "Save at the Shop Plan" for themselves. The interviews showed that the workmen had read both preceding lettersthe letter from their own company and the letter from the bank-very carefully before the Union Trust representative had interviewed them.

All of the men-whether they could úse the plan or not-were interested in the plan and listened courteously and attentively to the Union Trust representative when he interviewed them upon the subject. The above paragraphs serve well as a description of an average solicitation of the workers upon the "Save at the Shop Plan" by a Union Trust representative. The same thing has been going on, and is still going on, in many Cleveland factories.

Appeal of the Plan

One of the most interesting things about this plan is the fact that it appeals best to the men who need it most. It gains its main support from the younger men and the men who form the great rank and file of what we call "common labor." The workmen who are more highly educated and skilled mechanics who have been getting comparatively high wages for some time, are, most of them, already using some form of saving,

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