Note 193 — Chapter IX
Reading edition
The Secretary of a Workmen's Building Society was examined before Mr. Slaney's Committee (1850) on the Investments for the Savings of the Middle and Lower Classes, when the following evidence was elicited:—
I think that one reason why the labouring man does not invest in the Savings Bank is, that the fact of his being able to save money is used as a pretence why his wages should be reduced, and he carefully excludes from the knowledge of his employer that he is able to save. I have found that the workmen of one district go to a distance to find a Savings Bank, and will not go to their own. Their names are called loudly and officially, and it becomes whispered about that so-and-so is a saving man, and may therefore work for less wages.—Vide Evidence of Mr. W. Cooper.