The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1915-09-24
HERR|CK PRAISES THE
RURAL CREDIT MOVEMENT
Former Ambassador to France
Speaks on Subject at
San Francisco.
ON RURAL CREDITS DAY.
Says Aim OF Movement is Not Cheap
'cr Money, But to Enable Deserv.
ing Persons to Own Homes.

ing Persons to Own Homes.
San Francisco, Sept. 21.-This was
Rural Credits day at the exposition
with one Of it's features an address
by Myron T. Herrick of Cleveland.
formerly ambassador to France, in
which he discussed in detail many
phases of the rural credits move
fnent.
The grand purpose of the rural
credits movement, said Mr.. Herrick.
had been overlooked by those who
expected of 1t only lower interest
rates. Cheaper money, he declared.
is not it's only aim. 1t rises higher
than that and proposes to enable
home seekers to accomplish their
wish, landowners to procure ade-
quate funds to develop their hold
ing and credit is the mistaken notion
resources 80 that American agricul-
ture may become modernized and
properly financed and keep pace with
progress in every other industry.
Reviewing the five years that the
movement has been in course. Mr..
Herrick declared that legislation in
various states looking to the forma
tion of credit unions and land credit
institutions had little merit. State
aid, he believed, to be undesirable
in the United States il private enter
prise could be efficiently regulated
and rural cooperation intelligently
practiced. Among other things ne
said:
THE cause of much of the misun-
derstanding about cooperative bank
ing and crdit 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 lalf-tru;h IL alive with
dangers. Cooperation can never
help anybody except him WHO is able
and willing to help himselS--and his
neighbor also. True, cooperation is
the quickest way to success for the
humble as we'll as for the high, but
its literal Interpretation is organized
mutual self-help. 1t presumes that
men will work harder, longer, and
better together than when STANDING
alone, 1t requires a spirit and an
ability to both give and receive; and
it can reach its fullest development!
only among persons who are capable
and honest and known to be so
among persons who ask no favors
who spurn charity and state aid, and
rely solely upon their own talents
toll and resources.
"There Is more cooperation in the
United States than in any other coun.
try, and 1t is used here even for the
largest undertakings. The gather
ing 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
companies. with their millions o
policyholders and billions of dollars
of assets, and the mutual savings
banks and building and loan associa
tions, with their stupendous totals o
deposits, savings and reserves, pu
most Of their funds of organized
thrift under cooperative manage
ment. while trade unionism (the old
est kind of co-operarIon) permeate
the laboring classes. These are city
centered, but do not constitute all tn
cooperative activities. Cooperation
appears in inconceivably varied an,