Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-12-17

{
ment of men. Men of undoubted in
tesrtty and business training should
be kept on the job. l believe that all
utilities should be assessed and taxed
in proportion to value, and on the
same hssis as other property, and that
assessments should be made by ex-
4 perts. Equality of taxation, equality
and efficiency of assessment, central
ization Of authority in matters of tax
alton and the removal of assessing and
| taxing power from the influence OF
partisan politics, are among the re-
forms needed in Maine.
State Master Varey of New YORK,
in his admirable report on taxation,
says: Statistics show that the In
crease in amount Of taxes is five times
4 as great as the increase in population.
If this be true, and if by any means 1t
could be made possible that all prop
! erty could be assessed and taxed ac-
cording to it's just value, the man
/ whose property is in sight would have
less cause for complaint than he does
! under present conditions.
Farm Credits.
| One of the handlcaps under which
the American farmer and man of small
means is laboring today is his inabil-
| ity to obtain credit upon any collater-
| al which he has and at rate Of inter-
| est which his income will allow him
to pay. 1t is the man of limited means
who most needs credit and is most
| sternly denied it's use, and there is no
| philosophy, sense nor business in the
| idea that credit should be withheld
| from the poor man to prevent him from
running in debt. Are not the financial
| condition and thrift of the masses
| quite as important to the welfare of
the nation as is the welfare OF people
of larger resources? And as has been SO
| well said: when credit is furnished at
| the right price, instead of being de-
| n1oralizing it is healthful and uplift-
| irg.''
The farmers of the United States pay
exorbitant interest on leans, while in
countries where cooperative societies
are organized, farmers are securing
money at from to per cent.
In Germany in 1909, under the Raft
feisen system. loans IN small amounts
a mass & to the t asG anlp s ssEls9
cannot teach us anything in helping
the farmer to extend and develop agri-
culture by extending financial aid at
living rates.
This Is the most important question
confronting us today. 1t means relief
| for the American farmer by extending
| to him the means to develop his bus
mess. Henry w. Wolff says; The
| masses need popular cooperative
| banks to democratize credit, to make
| credit and all other banking facilities
readily accessible to people to whom
| the ordinary avenues leading up to
such benefits are at present closed.
That is the distinctive object of co-op-
eratiye banks. They are to be persist
emily called upon to take up and prac-
tice the small business, which, because
ii is small and little remunerative and
| very cumbersome, the other banks ex-
cusably do not care to carry on. They
are, IN other words, to provide for the
| million down to the very humblest who
show themselves worthy of credit"
1 here append very brief sum-
mary of methods employed by two Eu-
ropean systems above referred to:
In the first half of the past century
| the small farmers and small artisans
| of. Germany, who could not have re-
course directly to capitalists or to
banks. suffered severely at the hands
of the usurers, from whom they pro-
! cured the credit which was indispensa-
| Bile to the exercise of their business.
| The seriousness of the situation, rem
| dered more acute by the economic
/ aSA III AL.
| and was bringing with it great and
urgent need of credit was clearly rec
ognized by two men who have deserv-
| ed well not only of Germany but of
| the whole civilized world, by devising
! and putting into practice the best
methods of remedying the evil. These
We're Frederick William Raiffeisen,
| burgomaster of Weyerbusch. and
! Francis Frederick Schulze, better
known by the name of Schulze-De-
| lizsch. The former was the originator
Of the rural cooperative banks, which
have spread into the urban popular
banks.
These two forms Of cooperative
banks, although somewhat different in
their organization. are based on the
common fundamental principle of
organizing the would-be borrowers
themselves in order that they may OBJ
tain by combination the credit facili-
ties which they would have sought in
dividually in vain.
Such cooperation has made pos
! sible, ON the one hand, the collection
among the members themselves, in the
form of shares or of small deposits,
of considerable amount of capital,
which serves to supply the credit re-
quirements of their fellow members.
On the other hand, the cooperative
credit societies, being regularly man
aged and subject to rigorous super
vision, have been able to secure cred
it on favorable terms from outside
4 sources of capital.
'The credit given by the Raiffeisen
banks, which are rural in character,
and by the Schulze- Delizsch which
are mainly urban. Is usually personal
credit. Although they occasionally
grant loans on mortgage for long Pc
RODS. they generally 'confine them
selves to the making of loans for COM
paratively short periods Tin the Raft
feisen banks usually for one year, with
a maximum Of three or five years; in