The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1913-06-08
How EveryF Farmer Dol
lar Is Made To Do the
Work Of Twelve -
Creating Capital From
Honesty and Thrift.

80 HE German farmers have mas
III tered the business of farming.
~ Their systems for financing their
~ agricultural undertakings, for
purchasing materials and for distrib-
utlng and selling their produce have
served as models for Europe. Adapta-
tons of the German agricultural credit
systems today flourish in Egypt and
in India. Beginnings are being made
even in japan and China. Mexico has
adopted the principle OF agricultural
credit and Canada has entered upon
the task. Besides this, nearly every
country of Europe harbors farmers
banks of the German type The idea
has travelled around the world. Only in
the great Anglo-Saxon countries, in
England and the United States, has it
failed thus far to flourish Is there
a racial characteristic peculiar to the
farmers of the English-speaking races
that opposes the principle of co-opera-
ton? That Is a question for the study
of the American commission on Agri-
CULTURAL cooperation which is now
visiting Europe under the auspices of
the Southern Commercial Congress.
The true value of the German CO.
operative systems is not readily APP
Parent to the American traveller. He
is impressed rather with the great
contrast between rural conditions In
Germany and conditions in his own
country. This has been true of every
European country thus far visited by
the Commission. The number of peo-
pie required to secure g livelihood out
of a few acres of land, the presence
of women in the fields, the drudgery
and lack of diversion in their lives,
the exceeding thrift of these people
these are the impressions which first
seize upon the travellers mind. I'm
doubtedly much of the truth is lost
10 the members of the American Com
mission by lack of an opportunity to
compare the conditions of commun-
tiles before and after the appearance
or the cooperative banks and other
mutual aid societies. But history and
the statements OF others must be
depended upon for that.
But for all this the lesson is clear
in the amounts of money secured to
agriculture through these systems and
the beneficent purposes to which these
sums are applied. Go into Silesia
among the illiterate Polish farm la
borers. The cooperative credit sys-
tenn has a strong hold there. Even
those Polish laborers are bankers
though they cannot write out the ap-
plications for the loans And from
such community these banks spread
up to such institutions as the Agri- |
cultural Credit Association of Augs- |
burg boasting some $4,000 members. /
and placing from six to seven millions |
OF dollars of loans each wear. OF |
various types there are some II. 600 |
cooperative banks spread throughout |
Germany. At the close of 1907 these
banks held in savings deposits as
much money as the commercial or bi-
banks of the Empire. During the
financial panics, 1866 and 1870 when
the safety of other German banlxinp
institutions was being severely strain
ed by the wholesale withdrawal IF
funds, these cooperative banks, these
banks OF the people" were consid-
cred so safe that they were actualIvd
embarrassed with offers of denosits
which the depositors were wi1lirg
should be taken without interest. Sucb
IS the safety, such the strength of
these institutions. Taking the stats
tics returned in 1909 and 1910 tba
cooperative banks annually handIe
about $4,000. o00,0 900 in outgoing go
incoming funds. Collectively +bev
lend over billion dollars a wear ~
their members.
And what are the units that compose
his system which counts its business
and loans in billions of dollars?
The fundamental principle of CO.
operative banking is that number of
people bind themselves into a society
holding themselves liable for the debts
incurred by that society and upon the
strength of that joint liability conduct
/ banking or a money lending BUSH
ness.
Thus we have the organization of
these banks. the farmers or farmers
and tradesmen of a community join
a society and tell the world "You
may depend upon us to pay .sau back
what you lend this society. II we
don't you can sell us out or $, vz."
following this announcement g.
banks open up offices and hid 4 ; *