The day before yesterday one of our readers came to the editorial office of the Russian Herald in order to make inquiries about a bank, located on 12th Street, Chicago, which had gone bankrupt.

In this bank there were a good many deposits belonging to our countrymen, immigrants from Russia.

These Russians had accumulated their savings little by little - saving just a few cents at a time. Perhaps, in order to be able to do so, they had to sleep too little, to eat too little and to deny themselves many things in order to save at least a small sum of money for hard times.

They saved the money. They deposited it in a bank. And after a while they learned that the bank had gone bankrupt, the banker had disappeared, and the savings earned by hard labor had also "vamoosed." They have 2been utilized by those who did not earn them; by those who were not forced to deprive themselves of food and of many other things in order to save something for hard times.

The man who had come to the office of our newspaper told us among other things, the following sad tale about a friend of his, I. P.

This man has been working hard and much. After many years of hard labor he had saved $1,300 , and had deposited them in Braslavsky's bank. The bank went bankrupt, and the unfortunate man lost all his savings. Now he is sick and penniless. He has just been working for the banker.

One is involuntarily reminded of those articles about the necessity of founding a Russian people's bank which were published in the pages of the Russian Herald.

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If I. P. would have deposited his money in a bank belonging to the colony of Russian workmen, the banker would never (have) had the chance to reap where he had not sown.

The story of bankruptcies of private banks which were not trusted by a majority of the public is not something new to us. Braslavsky was not the first, and probably not the last, of such bankers. Many of our friends and fellow workers have suffered owing to the dishonesty of banks and agencies; much Russian sweat and blood has been shed in vain, foolishly.

It is impossible to keep silent about that. We have warned and are warning the Russian colony: If you do not possess, or are still unable to acquire a bank of your own which you yourselves would control, at least do not deposit your money in banks which are not trustworthy.

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Remember that every $100 which you have saved have cost you much more than what they cost to a rich man.

But the Russian Herald will not content itself with such warnings. It wishes to help the colony to recover its money that has been lost; if we cannot reclaim from the sharks all our hard-earned money, let us recover at least a part of it.

True, some private persons, we have been told, have undertaken to force some of the banks to refund the money which has been lost through the banks' fault, but only under the condition that half of the refunded money remain in the hands of such private solicitors.

We invite those who have agreed to part with one half of their savings, earned with their sweat and blood, to come to us. The Russian Herald will help them.

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All those who have lost their money owing to the bankruptcy of Braslavsky's bank, or any other bank, should declare that to the editorial staff of the Russian Herald. After that we shall all hold a meeting and shall elect from among those who have suffered because of the bankruptcies a special executive committee among the members of which will be a specialist, the lawyer of the Russian Herald, Mr. K. P. Gugis. He has taken to his heart the interests of the victims of bankruptcies and will act as their attorney and endeavor to have their money refunded to them. Besides this matter of reclaiming the money lost through the bankruptcy of the banks - or, rather, the recovery of a part of this money - the committee of aid to those affected by the bankruptcies will also consider the matter of the so-called "sums of money which have not reached Russia."

Many of us have been sending money to our relatives in Russia. Some of the money has been received, but some of it is still somewhere "in the air." This money has not been received in Russia and yet it has not been returned to the senders under the pretext that "the money has been sent to the addressees."

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The investigations to be made by the committee may throw some light on particular cases and thus enable those who have sent the money to recover it if it has not been received in Russia.

Do not procrastinate; inform the Russian Herald today when you sent the money, where to, and what was the amount lost.

Fill out the following form and mail it to the editor of the Russian Herald:

I want to bring a suit for the reclaiming of my money.

Surname and family name	Address
Amount lost	When
In what bank or agency was the money deposited?
Signature