Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-11-05
RURAL CREDITS.
XII.-The Systems of Other
Countries.
By Frederic ]. Haskin.

oy 4ASuN1AS AA0SAAA IA
In looking over the field of rural credit
operations no other country seems to come
quite so close home to americans as Ire
land, whether by reason or the American
admiration for the sturdiness of tie Irish
character IN its native surroundings or
whether through SYM athy In their ef-
forts to solve the hard economic prob
lens OF absentee landIordism and the
harder governmental problem of home
rule.
This the whole world knows about Ire
land: That for generations the masses of
its people have lived under an agricultural
system that has yielded them the barest
existence. And this the few who have
investigated present-day conditions know
That transplanting the German idea of
cooperative credit in particular and of
rural cooperation in general to Irish
soil has brought forth fruit in the way
or the attainment of economic indie
pendence. in abundant measure The
irish take pride III showing to the world
now one of the Engiis speaking peoples
has benefited by learning the lessons the
German farmer has to teach them all
r
During the past quarter of a century
England has had new policy in Ireland
"a policy of enabling
New Policy the soil to come into
for Ireland. possession OF those who
till it. Sir Horace
Piunkett admirably sums up the results
that arc coming about in Ireland by say
ing; TIE outstanding fact Of Irish life
today l. that after conflict of centuries
old between the small class which owned
the land and the large class which oc-
cupied aud cultivated it, the agrarian rev
oiolon common TO most European coun-
tries is ending. as II always does end by
the transfer of the land to the tilIer Of
the soil
After the crown decided upon the IS
s'lanee OF S.woooa,oDo of imperial credit
10 enable the Irish tenant to become the
irish farmoWner i commission was or
gained TO spy out the farming expert
enceS o. the world ana to bring back
70 ireland the grapes of successfully APP
piled practice, The one lesson which this
infestlgatlon learned, according to Sir
Horace Plunkett, was that the prosperity
or rural communities was due to state
educational assistance Plus self-help. They
found everywhere that what the farmers
could do for themselves by intelligent CO.
operation was immed urabl greater than
what the best intentioned state could do
for them.
The result Of the work OF Sir Horace
iiunkctt and Father finlay, the Jesuit
priest, who had
Farmers Unite studied conditions
in self-Help. thoroughly in n in Ger,
rural credit conditions and other forms
# cooperation in Ireland has been that
fntt-sl Irish farmers are united in
The seif-help that comes from rural
BANKING and cooperative production and
distribution. Ireland is being transformed
from country OF rich absentee landown-
srs into country OF small farmers. few
Of whom grow rich, but most of whom
may now enjoy a decent living for them
selves and their families. The Irish have
imported the Raiheisen bank from Ger
many, almost to the letter and II works
as well there as 1t ever did on its native
soil
The Irish idea is to make cooperative
banking only one part of general
scheme OF cooperation among farmers
and the 1nen who have been responsible
For the transportation OF cooperative
tredit from the continent to Ireland have
insisted all along that the one form of
corporation must go hand in hand with
he other.
Sir Horace Plunkett for a long time was
our Secretary of Agriculture. and he as
serts that four dollars out of every five
that arc spent in educating the farmer
are lost unless he enjoys the means of
putting the lessons into practice. He
points IL = hundred Thousand Irish farm
crs who ar" borrowing and lending
money ard growing and marketing their
crops upon cooperative basis as evil
6ence OF what the Irishinan can do
The Irish Agricultural Organization So
ciety early plated itself back Of the move
ment TO organize the farmers of Erin.
and IL was due TO the nropaganda it
waved in season and out that organized
irish farmers today produce $1,000, 900
worth of marketable stuff a year.
Austria has the same system that is
found iii Germany. An effort now is be-
ing made to effect
Austria Employs one change in the
German System nIIi,v Of Of n 1ae ll1.
for the debts OF a bank A bill has been
pending 10 substitute the present form of
unlimited liability. which permits the
creditor, in the event of the liquidation
of bank, 10 demand the whole of his
debt from single member for a form OF
liability for supplementary payments
Under the substitute the creditor would
t+OAd NtIS sONAtlS not the INDIVIDUAL
member responsible. and the society
would have to meet the debt by pro-
rata assessment rather than by permit
ting the creditor 10 recover from an indi-
vidual member.
Belgium. Switzerland Denmark and
nearly all OF the other countries of Eu-
rope outside or Russia have some form
OF cooperative credit. In most of The
countries II is a modification OF the Raft
feisen system of Germany. And the one
big, outstanding fact that is OF prime in
terest To the American farmer is that
wherever the system has been tried out
with whatever notifications that are es-
sentfal to meet local conditions IL has set
the farmer on his feet
instead OF making him improvident and
instead OF encouraging him to be indif-
terent 10 saving. II has had the opposite
effect Where once he was ashamed to
confess his indebtedness because il was
badge OF poverty. now he Is glad to
acknowledge IL, because the community
knows that only the forward-lo looking man
who has ambitious and aspirations for
the future can incur such indebtedness
Ut leads to thrift because loans are adj
yanced only for causes which promise to
yield returns. 1t takes community of
practically insolvent men and transforms
them into q highly solvent association
which can help Its members in divers
ways.
What rural credit has done in Eurone
has so impressed the British government