New Britain herald., 1915-09-22
RURAL CREDITS DAY
 AT THE EXPOSITION
Myr0n I. HerriCk Discusses Many
 Phases Of Movement )

San Francisco, Sept. z2.-Y esterday l was Rural Credits Day at the Expo- 1 sition with one of it's features an ad- 1 dress by Myron T. Herrick Of Cleve- | land, formerly Am mbassador to france, ] in which he discussed in detail many | phases of the rural credits movement. The grand purpose of the rural credits movement, said MT. Herrick, r had been overlooked by those who ex- pected of it only interest rates. Cheap ] CT money. he declared, is not it's only aim: it rises higher than that and proposes to enable home seekers to accomplish their wish, landowners to procure adequate funds to develop
 their holdings, and farmers to mo-
 bilize their resources so that American agriculture may become modernized and properly financed and keep pace
 with progress in every other indus
 try.
 Legislation Little Merit.
 Reviewing the five years that the
 movement has been in course, MT.
 Herrick declared that legislation in
 various states looking to the formation
 of credit unions and land credit in-
 stitutions had little merit. State aid,
 he believed, to be undesirable in the
 United States if private enterprise
 could be efficiently regulated and rural
 cooperation intelligently practiced.
 Among other things he said:
 ''The cause of much of the misun-
 derstanding about cooperation bank
 ing and credit is the mistaken notion
 that cooperation is an altruistic or
 benevolent means of helping the
 down-and-out class of persons who
 are individually weak and incompe-
 tent. This half-truth is alive with
 dangers. Cooperation can never
 help anybody except him who is able
 and willing to help himself-and his
 neighbor also. True, cooperation is
 the quickest way to success for the
 humble as we'll, as for the high, but
 it's literal interpretation is organized
 mutual self help. It 'presumes that
 men will work harder, longer, and
 better together than when standing alone; it requires spirit and an abil- ity to both give and receive; and it can reach it's fullest development only among persons who are capable and honest, and known to be so-amo ong persons who ask no favors, who spurn j charity and state aid, and rely solely upon their own talents, toll and re- sources. 4-
 There is more cooperation in the United States than in any other coun- try, and it is used here even for the largest undertakings. The gath ering and distribution of news by The Associated Press is the most striking example in the world of cooperation conducted, on a grand scale without lucrative object The life insurance with their millions of pol icyh elders and billions of dollars of assets, and the mutual savings banks and building and loan associations, with their stupendous totals of depos- it's, savings and reserves, put most of their funds of organized thrift under cooperation permeats the labor1ng classes. These are city-centered but do not constitute all the cooperative activities. Cooperation appears in varied and innum erable enterprises. The protection of the leeves from breaks is in some of the state bordering the Mississippi River a cooperative work. Farmers or ganizations for safeguarding mutual interests are numerous, while rural cooperation for business has already made substantial progress, but chiefly for marketing fruits and the manu- facture and disposal of milk products.
 eff American farmers should awake to the full realization of it's possi- bilities, they would soon be using CO., operation in all their industrial, commercial. and financial affairs relat- 1 ing to agriculture. With the splendid examples in the city before them, it is strange that they have lain dor mant so long. Cooperation may, of i course be practiced through cor l poration or in a partnership, but the ] is it's best breeding 1 ground and nursery. In the United ! States, however, the purposes and or l dinary banking have been content | with the corporation and partnership. The propagandists should broaden their views and strive to make lawful 1 for associations whatever may now be done through these other two forms of organization. Furthermo ore. 1 if they wish to see rural cooperation 1 reach it's highest development, they should advocate such a modification of the antitrust laws as would permit l cooperative associations to combine"