The Monitor-register., 1897-05-07
A Joyless Victory.

Two of the smallest men in the city
were standing at the curbstone waiting
for a car. Their conversation had been
about the traditional female tendency to
extravaganza and the difficulty they had
in keeping their domestic expenditures
down to what they considered a reasona.
BILE limit.
"There they are nown' exclaimed one
of them.
"Who?"
"Our wives. And I'll bet they've been
shopping p
"They seem to be talking very earnest
ly about spending something"
'I'll bet l can tell what my wife is
talking about"
care you a mind reader p"
"No. But l can guess on that subject.
I'll bet you a dinner I can, anyhow"
"I'll take it."
"All right. She is talking about spend
ing money. Well go up behind them
and overhear what they are saying to
prove it,"
They crossed the street and the origi-
nator of the idea smiled knowingly as his
wife opened her purse and peered into it.
"My DEAR" she said to her companion,
shave you any change?
"Yes; a little"
"Well, would you mind lending me a
penny to buy a postal card ?"
Certainly. if 1 have one. Oh, yes2
Here it is"
THANK you ever so much, l have five
cents, but l hate to use it. A nickel
always seems to go 80 fast after you once
break it,"
The man who offered the wac nad
won it, but for some reason b didn't
seem proud Washington Star.
Cooperative Banking For Farmers.
The American Agriculturist of April
4 again discusses editorially the centre
feasibility of cooperative banking
among farmers" "This can be done,"
it says, "by slight notifications of the
system of cooperative savings fund and
building associations or cooperative
banks, which has proved so remarkably
successful in American cities. These in
situations now hold over $500, 900, 900
of deposits and are a thoroughly demon
strated practical success. The Saxon
Land Credit association "a report upon
which can be obtained by writing to
the secretary of state, Washington is a
modification of the Raiffeisen system,
which in Prussia and Germany has
achieved the same success among the
working farmers of those countries that
the cooperative banks have achieved in
u American cities. The peoples banks
of Italy and neighboring countries, based
upon much the same plan, have had
marvellous success. A report giving fur
Their particulars upon the Saxon Land
Credit association has been published
by the department Of state for free dis
tribution, in which Consular Agent Pc
ters says with a truth that can never be
questioned:
What American farmers require to relieve
them Of the present financial strain under
which they are living is the power to borrow
W pNO AC"OoO PO5SlDIS luIereSU CONSISTENT W1Uu
their securities and the financial condi Cons in
the great centers of the world. So long as they
must borrow from the local money lender they
must pay a high rate of interest for accommo-
dation. It is this high rate of interest under
which our farmers are now striving and fall
ing that is responsible for the general unrest
and dissatisfaction. Remove the high rate of
interest, give them the same opportunity to
use their credit as men engaged in other bust
ness, exchange the present mortgage on the
farm for one with a reasonable interest, which
the farmer can pay and have something left
for the savings bank, and we will restore hap
piness and prosperity.
This question has been solved by the farmers
and landholders of Europe, and the solution
of the problem did not consist in the issue by
the government of a mass of debased currency
circulated among the people at a fictitious
value. The end was reached by the farmers
and la~ndholders by their own force and CO
operation, by the founding of associations
which in time became a power in the land, and
whose financial strength was measured by mil
lions of undoubted securities which the public
was only too glad to invest in.