Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1913-11-21
TWO KINDS or INTEREST

efficient, conscientious, broad mind
ed, honorable to the highest degree.
l would trust this man with every
cent that 1 possess or ever hope to |
have. I treasure his friendship as |
one of those priceless possessions |
far above computing in dollars and |
cents or expressing in words. And |
the best part Of it is that this friend
of mine is not an exception-he is |
TYPICAL of the whole class of coun-
try bankers.
The more | survey the rural sit
uation from day to day the more
firmly | become convinced that the
highest success will eventually be
attained. by partnership, close and
harmonious, between the farmer and
the banker. The two must work hand
in hand to perfect American agricul-
ture 1t is partnership mutually
pleasant and mutually profitable. The
banker loans his money to the far
mer. The better crop the farmer har-
vests the more secure becomes the
loan. 1t is not generosity Or philan-
thropy alone that prompts the bank
er to increase the efficiency of the
farmer 1t is good business. 1t is
| the same with the farmer. He depoS-
! it's his money in the bank because
| he wishes to be saved the trouble
and worry of looking after it him
self and the details of bookkeeping.
| 1t is not charity or generosity or
anything like that on the farmers
| part 1t is just good business and
sound common sense. So the farmer
and the banker come to look on each
other as necessary adjuncts to each
others business. There is no false
dealing or hypocrisy; it is just a.
good, sensible working arrangement
from which both profit.
Recently, however, the banker has
been doing just little bit more
than the farmer, meeting him just
a little more than half way. Take the
! situation in Minnesota, for example.
The boys and girls in eighty rural
school districts and more than one
hundred high schools of Minnesota
now go to school with rag babies"
under their arms, as we'll as read
ers, spoilers and Biographies. These
rag babies are not doll playthings,
but long rolls of cloth used by the
pupils for testing the terminating
qualities of grains. The bankers of
Minnesota are footing the bill for
their use; paying the cost of the
courses in Seed-teSting and hanging
up the prizes for the best boy and
girl seed-teSter. Take Illinois, for an
other example. The bankers of the
state are paying a big share of the
expenses Of the farm-adviser move
ment in the sixty counties, out of
the whole eighty-three, in which the
work is being carried on. In Kansas,
the president of the state bankers
association, during the recent drouth,
travelled from town to town on
special train, informing the farmers
! that money with which to buy or
build silos would be loaned them at
especially low rates and on unusually
easy terms. All this is not merely
philanthropy 1t is a good business.
But back of the good business
there is quite a measure of philan
thropic good will, just the same. At
ter all, there are two kinds of inter-
est in which the banker is concered.
First, perhaps, is the interest of six
or seven per cent which he charges
on the loan he makes to the farmer
But there is still another kind of in
| terest; heart interest. The country
| banker has the welfare of his farmer
patron close at heart; he wants to
see him succeed, wants to see his
sons and daughters educated, wants
| to see the farm homes improved and
the farmers standard of living raised
The banker has a natural pride in
his community. 1t is not good bust
ness to build a $4,000 terra Gotta or
pressed brick or white stone front
bank building in a rundown rural
community. The banker wants to see
the whole standard of living raised,
town and country both. He has a
heart interest in everybodys well
fare, particularly the farmers
Perhaps it was my friendship for
one country banker that first led
me to recognize their merits as a
class. But my admiration is not
founded on this personal friendship
alone. | have seen too many in
stances of unselfish, heart-interest