Cheyenne record., 1914-02-05
| Co. Operative Farm
Products Marketing
| How II Is Done in Europe and May Be Done
in America to the Profit of Both
| Farmer and Consumer
MATTHEW S. DUDGEON.
THE "GOMBEEN MAN,"
BY MATTHEW S. DuDeEoN.

1auntlng car and ride into the
country In search Of fundamental
facts. We hear of a patriarchal citi-
zen five miles out who they say Is as
honest as the day is long. We find
Donald O'Boyle otherwise Shane
O'ge) in habitation which from out
ward appearances hardly merits the
name of cottage. But when warm
inside we find a neat, clean, com.
Portable place, that is indeed home to
the family which has been for genera
tions the tenants of line Of non
evicting landlords. Shane O'ge, with
his son, his daughter-in-law, and some
shy, blue-eyed little grandchildren,
welcomes us warmly. The mother is
feeding the children mashed potatoes
and milk from bowl (about all many
Irish children get to eat). To them
this Is much more interesting than a
discussion of the gombeen man.
Yes. he and his father knew well
the gombeen man. WED buy Of the
trader but we'd not know the price at
all,' he said. 1T would do US no
good. We'd have to pay in the end
what he'd ask us anyway when he
had the money. 1t was hard to get 1t
round here-we mostly had to go over
and work in the Scottish harvests to
get any at ale When we had the
money we would ask what We owed
and the trader would tell us what 1t
was. We never knew what the items
were. We never dared to ask. He
would say, How dare you dispute my
books? And it's more than one poor
man I've seen kicked out for asking
a civil question. But everybody says
they charged the highest price the
stuff had been from the time it was
bought until we paid for it and l guess
that's the truth, and Of course the
added interest. though l don't know
how much. And SO of course, we paid
what they asked-and enough it was
though we never knew much about It.
They let us get meal or anything else
on credit without money for they
knew it meant more to them in a high
price besides interest. Things are diff
ferent now; they're lot better"
Cooperative Credit conquering.
Things are different in Ireland now.
The farmers themselves are driving
out the gombeen man. Cooperative
credit associations have changed all
this. AS that eminent Irishman, Sir
Horace Plunkett, says In his book on
Ireland in the New Century: "The
exact purpose of these organizations
is to create credit as a means of intro
ducing capital into the agricultural in
dustry. They perform the apparent
miracle Of giving solvency to a COM
munity composed almost entirely Of
insolvent Individuals"
Paddy Gallagher in telling us how
the association operates here at Dun
glow, says: "a credit society in Dun
glow was organized and established in
October, 1908, by the Irish Agricul-
tural Organization society and has
been regularly audited and inspected
by that body ever since. Although
we had at first only G22O of working
capital. we have now a reserve Of
G26, 16s. The members are equally
responsible for the success or failure
vote no matter how much or how
little his investment in the concern is.
They take such keen interest in 1t
that during its nine years working
there has not been an over due loan at
the end Of the year. The society is
undoubtedly of great assistance to the
people in the district. We want the
time to come when every man can
walk up the street in Dunglow and
saw he owes nothing"
CapitaIizing Character.
These cooperative banks have, as
tt were, capitalized character. The
early organizers of cooperative credit
associations held, and experience has
confirmed the opinion, that N the
poorest communities there is a per.
fectly safe basis of security in the
honesty and industry Of its members.
This security is not valuable in the
ordinary commercial sense. The or
dinary banker has no intimate knowl-
edge of the character of those who
apply for loan. Neither has he any
way of testing whether or not those
who borrow "for productive purposes"
actually apply the loan to such pur-
poses. The borrower must bring two
sureties, who like the borrower him
self, must be men of approved char.
acter and capacity. The character Of
these three men is the sole basis of