He was disappointed that no measure for the improvement
of Savings Banks had been adopted by Parliament. The day appeared very
distant when his cherished wish would be realized,--that the Savings
Bank should really become the Bank of the People. But the darkest hour
precedes the dawn. When he had almost given up the notion of improving
the existing Savings Banks, the idea suddenly struck him that in the
money-order office there was the very organization which might be made
the basis of a popular Savings Bank.
He communicated his plan in a letter to his friend Mr. Baines, then
member for Leeds. The plan was submitted to Sir Rowland Hill, who
approved of the suggestions, and considered the scheme "practicable so
far as the Post Office was concerned." The plan was then brought under
the notice of Mr. Gladstone, who afterwards carried the Bill through
Parliament for the establishment of Post Office Savings Banks throughout
the country.
To use the words of Mr. Sikes himself,--when predicting at the Social
Science Association the success of the Post Office Savings
Banks,--"Should the plan be carried out, it will soon be doing a
glorious work. Wherever a Bank is opened and deposits received,
self-reliance will to some extent be aroused, and, with many, a nobler
life will be begun. They will gradually discern how ruthless an enemy is
improvidence to working men; and how truly his friends are economy and
forethought.
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