No one of the fundamental ideas of this edifice is attacked by the bill laid before the Chamber.
But this work is perfectible and it contains in its constitution even the principles of its perfectibility. In studying the functions of the Savings Bank, the conviction is soon arrived at that the authors of the Act of 1865, conceived them in the most general and simple form possible, leaving it to time to complete their work. Thus it is that the investments are above all things regarded and portioned out with the view of the possible eventual withdrawal of deposits.
The great peril which the makers of the law had before them, was that of not being able to satisfy a sudden and simultaneous demand for the repayment of the deposits. As to the various forms which these investments could take, they were thoroughly recognized and pointed out by the law-makers, but there were some which were only mentioned in their explanatory statement, but which must take a more and more important position.
This has occurred with regard to agricultural investments, which have awaited a complementary organic legislation. This again is the case with the investments in land, the importance of which in the economy of the Savings Bank, Frère-Orban had seen already in 1850, better than anyone, but which so far has lacked appropriate embodiment by which to give a real satisfaction to the needs of rural property.
The Acts of April 15th 1884 and June 21st 1894, with regard to agricultural credit, of August 9th 1889, with regard to working-class Dwellings, the bill of November 19th 1896, with regarded to landed credit only develop the thought contained in the institution of 1865.
The much-regretted Mahillon has profoundly said:
«It is indispensable in order to produce its whole useful effect, that the Savings Bank should be completed by distinct bodies which regulate its working. It is by this organic development that the fruitful character of the genius of our legislators will show itself.»
Our bill tends less to give a larger expansion to these original functions of the Savings Bank than to set free a new function which will carry we think according to the words of Mahillon, its useful effect to a still higher degree.
The Act of 1865 makes no preparation for this putting into motion the property of the depositors, but then neither its text, nor the spirit even of the institution excludes it. It has been seen at work in the examples of Austria and Hungary; such important innovations however require in themselves real legal sanction.
Thus it is that the two large classes of operations which the new service proposes to combine, imply the possibility for third parties to effect at all post offices payments in favour of depositors whose deposit-books will be kept centralized at the General Savings Bank.