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THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1913.
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THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST.
Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Matter of
the Second Class.
JAMES R. GRAY,
President and Editor.
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE
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The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday
and Friday, and is nr&aled by the shortest routes for
early delivery.
It contains news from all over the world, brought
by special leased wires into our office. It has a staff
of distinguished contributors, with strong departments
of special value to the home and the farm.
* Agents wanted at every postotfice. Liberal com
mission allowed.- Outfit free. Write R. R. BKAD-
LEF, Circulated Manager.
The only traveling representatives we have are
J. A. Bryan, B. F. Bolton, C. C. Coyle, L. H. Kim
brough, W. W. Blackburn and J. W. Brooks. We will
be responsible only for money paid to the above named
traveling representatives.
1
g|v j
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Atlanta, Ga.
A Great Day in Georgia.
£
Tuesday will mark the definite beginning of a new
epoch in Georgia—the epoch of independence in sup
plies and foodstuffs, of raising all we want at home.
That is the day, November 18, which has been desig
nated by the Georgia chamber of commerce and pro-
-claimed by the governor and numerous mayors as-
Georgia Products day, when community banquets in
scores of cities and towns and family dinners in
hundreds of private homes will be spread with good
things that Georgia has produced.
In many ways the day will be notable, hut in none
more than in its demonstration of the* wonderful ver
satility of Georgia as a producing state. Meats and
vegetables and fruits and nuts—all will be Georgia
grown. Some of the feasts will be gathered within
single counties, and one will be supplied from the
farm of one man. Many of them will apply the Geor
gia manufactures idea, too, and not only all that is
eaten but all else that appertains to the spread will
be Georgia made. .
The Atlanta chamber of commerce feast of a thou
sand covers, to he served in the main auditorium,
will he perhaps the biggest and most comprehensive
among all that are laid out upon the boards that day.
For originating Georgia Products day and plan
ning the uniform program that is to be followed, the
Georgia chamber of commerce merits and will re
ceive the appreciation of all thoughtful citizens—for
in that it has done a great work for the state. In
no other way could the tremendous resources that are
here have been presented more strikingly. No other
agency could have promoted the movement and led
It to successful result. The healthy rivalry that there
is between towns and cities has been harmonized in
the state chamber of commerce and the great energy
which they apply has been directed into the one
\
channel of glorifying Georgia.
An American heiress will pay more attention to a
foreigner who talks through his coronet than to a
native who talks through his hat.
Morality, Too, Begins at Home.
Charity is not the, only virtue that begins at
home. There is the wellspring of morality also. It
is an old truism, but its reiteration is in order, for
it is all too apt to be forgot.
A speaker in the recent International Purity Con
gress at Minneapolis brought it to mind again. Clif
ford G. Roe, delegate named by the secretary of
state upon direction of the United States congress,
scored that parental neglect of daughters which lets
them grow up like weeds on the prairies.
Mr. Roe committed, however, two errors. He lim
ited his excoriation to those parents who possess
means, and he limited it also to neglect of daughters.
He should have included all parents, poor and
wealthy alike; and he should have included sons
with daughters.
The mother who neglects her home for societies,
theaters and card parties is to be censured; but the
censure must be shared by the mother who neglects
it for other interests than those here enumerated,
who neglects it even for church or missionary work,
or because she is indifferent and slothful, or because
she is discouraged by poverty and nard work and an
improvident husband. The degree lessens, but the
censure should be applied to all alike.
Similarly, the fathers who show a keener interest
in their business properties than they do in those
infinitely greater assets of the home are to be blamed,
hut they are not alone in their wrongdoing. The
fathers who have no business properties, who live
from year to year on salaries, or from week to week
on small wages, must be brought within the sad
consuoany.
Nor must all the care be expended upon the
daughters of a home. The sons of humanity consti
tute a potential menace toward its most carefully
uurtured daughters. Train sons as well as daughters
in their obligations to society at large.
Parents and children of all degress and both
sexes constitute the great American home where
morality must begin. Start.it there, and the mistake
made in after life will be but an accident. Formative
measures with morality are the best, the easiest and
the most natural. Apply them in the home, and cura-
, tive measures will We less and less needful as the
generations succeed each other upon earth.
Now for the Currency Bill
The welcome news comes from Washington that
the'senate finance committee has agreed to disagree
over the currency hill and that six of the Democrats
will report the administration measure this week
when the seventh Democrat (Senator Hitchcock) and
the five Republicans transmit their own recommenda
tions.
This assures the country of immediate considera
tion of the matter by the senate. The delay has been
not only in the senate hut in a committee of the
senate. The trouble has been to get. the bill back
into the open. Now it is about to come out of the
committee. The speedy passage of a measure that
will be acceptable in the main to all interests and
that will be devoid of some features that were ob
jectionable to the great banking interests, seems now
certain.
Whatever difference of views there may have been
as to the provisions of the measure, the country is
of one mind in its confidence in the administration
and its admiration of the determined stand which
President Wilson has maintained in bringing about
this great reform of the currency. During half a
generation past the need for it has been admitted,
but no statesman seemed able or determined enough
to formulate a measure that would suit until the
present administration defined its views. What is
known as the administration measure approaches
complete suitability nearer than any other previously
suggested.
The early enactment of the currency law will give
the business interests of the country renewed confi
dence in the federal government, and will clear the
way for other reforms to which the Democratic party
stands pledged.
When a watch is run down it stops working; hut
it’s different with some men.
New Era for Georgia Farmers.
Much importance attaches to the announcement
that the United States department of agriculture
has enlarged the scope of its work in Georgia in
co-operation with the state college of agriculture.
The corn clubs which have been bringing such won
derful benefit to the state are to be duplicated in
pig clubs and in other similar organizations to en
courage the production of hay, oats, fine cotton, and
the breeding of live stock. J. Phil Campbell, the
representative of the federal department, who has
been leading the corn club work in this state so
efficiently, brings this announcement.
In no phase of its activity does the federal gov
ernment reach the people more directly or more
beneficially than in this which diginifies the great
work of the farmer by training its novitiates for
greater efficiency. Every dollar that is spent upon
it is well invested, for its returns are manifold and
immediate. It would be almost futile to attempt
a close estimate of what the corn clubs have done
for Georgia. The amount spent upon their encour
agement is so inconsiderable when compared with
the rich harvests they have yielded that the reckon
ing hardly could be made.
Basing a prediction upon the success of the corn
clubs and the girls’ canning clubs, it is safe to an
ticipate that within a very few years Georgia’s
whole grain yield will have become tremendous;
pork raising will have become a recognized and
well understood industry; and the breeding of live
stock, for which Georgia now is sending millions
each year to other states more enterprising, will
have stopped that heavy outflow.
v Such work as this has a great constructive pur
pose. Its value to Georgia cannot he overestimated.
The easiest thing for a man to acquire is old age
-—if he lives long enough.
Screen Your Grates.
A letter from State Fire Inspector W. R. Joyner,
printed in another column, emphasizes the point
which The Journal made the other day in comment
ing upon waste of infant life upon the altar of open
fires. There is one phase of criminal carelessness
upon which the community stands indicted. Figures
compiled by Chief M. C. Harrington of the Rome fire
department have shown a staggering total of deaths
by fire last year among infants in Georgia. The list
has begun again with the approach of winter.
Practically every case of children dying from
burns received at open grate fires might have been
prevented by proper care on the part of the parents
or guardians in charge.
The terrible remorse that follows a fatal accident
of this kind, or even one that merely scars the child,
precludes any possibility of another similar accident
in that home. From then on through the rest of
time every precaution is taken. But these are the
things that should have been done before. They do
not recall the little life that has been taken.
The trouble is that the community is slow to learn
by the experience" of individuals. This is one lesson
that cannot be impressed too clearly on everyone in
whose home there are a child and an open fire. Screen
your grates now, before it is too late.
One is tempted to return to the farm reading that
the wealth from cotton is something like $200,000,000.
Commissioner Clements.
The prediction from Washington in the news dis
patches is that Judson C. Clements, the Georgian who
has been a member of the interstate commerce com
mission for the past twenty-one years (since its
organization), will not he reappointed by President
Wilson on December 31 when his term expires, and
that Governor R. B. Glenn, of North Carolina, will be
appointed in his stead by President Wilson. Gover
nor Glenn is an active and energetic leader of
the Democratic party in his state, and his work on
the interstate commerce commission is certain to re
flect credit upon himself and his party.
But aside from that and from the further fact that
Commissioner Clements is a Georgian, it is to be re
gretted that Judge Clements will retire from public
service. He has done valuable work and his effi
ciency has been recognized universally. It is a pity
that such an official must be displaced. His dis
placement is due to his age, he being now 67 years
old. His long experience and his mature judgment
make him even yet a most valuable officer for deal
ing with those matters of great import which the
commerce commission is called upon to handle, and
render it extremely unfortunate that he is to be re
lieved. He will retire with a long and honorable
record of useful public service.
No, Alonzo, you can’t always judge by appear
ances. A girl with eyes like a dove may have an
appetite like an ostrich.
Our Sole Interest in Mexico.
Now and then there rises someone to ask, “What
business have we to interfere in Mexico’s family
rows? What interest has our nation there? Why
can’t we keep hands off and let them work out their
own troubles any way they like?”
Years ago a similar question might have been
heard about our retention of the Philippines after we
expelled Spain from those islands. Time has shown
the motive and its wisdom. The situation then was
very much as if one man had incapacitated or killed
another in fair and just fight and out of the gen
erosity of his heart had undertaken the care of that
man’s helpless dependents against misery and dis
aster.
But save in their inherent wisdom, the two situa
tions are not parallel. In the Philippines the sole
incentive whs altruistic humanity./ In Mexico our
national integrity, perhaps our national safety, is
involved. The Monroe doctrine has been cJ ec l are d,
and we must uphold it or make ourselves less before
the world by retracting it. We have not gone to war
yet in Mexico, and there is small probability that we
will; but humane motives might impel us later even,
to that.
Just now President Wilson, that admirable and
perfectly poised executive of our nation, is actuated
solely in all that he does by the Monroe Doctrine.
What is the Monroe Doctrine?
It is a principle, a policy, not a written law, set
down in a message to congress by President Monroe
ninety years ago 'on December 2. All political par
ties have adhered to it. President Cleveland invoked
it when he threatened war _f the Guiana-Venezuela
boundary .dispute was not submitted to arbitration.
It has become a fixed part of our foreign policy.
Here is an extract from President Monroe’s mes
sage to congress. This is the only written form of
the Monroe Doctrine;
“In the wars of the European powers in mat
ters relating to themselves wn have never taken
any part, nor does it comport with our policy so
to do. . . We owe it, therefore, to candour and
to the amicable relations existing between the
United States and those powers to declare that
we should consider any attempt on their part to
extend their system to any portion of this hem
isphere as dangerous to jur peace and safety.
With the existing colonies or dependencies of
any European power we have not interfered and
shall not interfere. . But with the governments
who have declared their independence and main
tained it, and t nose independence we have on
great consideration and on just principles ac
knowledged, we could not view any interposition
for the purpose of oppressing them or controlling
in any manner their destiny by any European
power in any other light than as the manifesta
tion of an unfriendly disposition toward the
United States. ... It is impossible that the
allied powers should extend their political sys
tem to any portion of either continent without
endangering our peace and happiness; nor' can
anyone believe that our Southern brethren, if
left to themselves, would adopt it of their own
accord. It is equally impossible, therefore, that
we should behold such interposition in any form
with indifference.”
The foregoing was written at a time when the
United States had reason to apprehend European
combination of arms to restore to Spanish domina
tion certain South American states which had as
serted their independence from Spain. It stopped
■ .those plans immediately. It warned against any
future colonization by Europe on the American con
tinent.
Briefly, the Monroe Doctrine is a promise that the
United States will not interfere in the affairs of the
eastern hemisphere, and a declaration that the na
tions of the eastern hemisphere shall not interfere
in the affairs of the two Americas. It originated in
the policy recommended by President Washington
that the United States should avoid entanglement in
European politics. The counterpart, that Europe
should not interfere in American politics, grew stead
ily through succeeding years until it was crystallized
by President Monroe in his message to congress.
Therefore, though the doctrine is aimed to prevent
foreign interference in the political affairs of the in
dependent nations of North and South America, it
carries the counter obligation (which we have never
violated) that the United States shall not interfere
in Europe.
The declaration of the Monroe Doctrine was a bold
step, but this government pledge! itself upon the
principle and has continued to maintain it. Great
Britain was in hearty agreement with President Mon
roe’s message at- the time of its delivery. In time
the other nations of the old world acquiesced in it,
until now it has become one of our fixed and recog
nized principles of government. ■,
That is the ground upon which the United States
stands today in its attitude toward Mexico. It cannot
permit foreign interference there without abrogating
the Monroe Doctrine. In enunciating that doctrine this
government assumed the responsibility of seeing that
the American states protected by it commit no rob
bery or destruction upon the interests, the citizens and
their property, of the nations-of Europe. We as
sumed the obligation to protect those interests. We
are discharging that obligation in refusing to recog
nize Huerta and his despotic lieutenants as the legal
governors of Mexico; for if we did recognize them,
we would he encouraging anarchy and revolution and
assassination among all the other American republics
and so would increase our burden not only for the
time being in Mexico hut for all future time in both
of the Americas.
England, ’Germany, France, and other nations of
Europe, have enormous interests at stake in Mexico,
hardly less than those of American citizens. Mexico
is in a state of anarchy; an unconstitutional dictator
occupies the seat of government in Mexico City.
Therefore it behooves the United States to encourage
by all fair means, and by force only if humanity de
mands it, the restoration of constitutional govern
ment in that republic.
Inasmuch as the nation would not countenance
the repudiation of that established principle in our
conduct, the obvious and only thing for the Washing
ton administration to do is to assume for itself the
burden of protecting the interests cf Europe in Mexico
and to demand that a stable government be estab-
Msned there in lieu of the Huerta regime built upon
assassination. The position of the United States is
not one of arbitrary interference by right of greater
power, but is one of necessity arising out of a fun
damental principle of our government.
The administration is procedir-g cautiously and
has won the confidence of all loyal citizens. It will
avoid unnecessary entanglement. It does not contem
plate violence. There will be no armed intervention
in Mexico except as a last measure. The question has
weased even to look like a party matter. It has be
come broadly naticnal. Therefore the hands of the
administration should be upheld by all true patriots
without regard to their political affiliations.
MAN, PROUD MAN
BY DR. FRANK CRANE
(Copyright. 1913, by Frank Crane.)
Man, proud man, is a considerable fellow. He
tames the horse, shoots the lion, harnesses the steam
and the lightning, and all that sort of thing; but
every once in a while nature hands him a jolt and
brings it home to hi,m that after all he is but a large
worm.
Worms have a nice -time carrying on their worm
affairs and doubtless thinking this worm-world is a
pleasant place in which to wriggle and eat cabbage
leaves, until some huge creature comes along and
steps on them. And against this calamity falling
upon them from outside their ken they can never
provide.
Man thinks he has mastered the sea with his huge
steamboats. One night the biggest boat he ever
made bumps into an iceberg and goes down as easily
as a smashed dor,y. Fire breaks out on the Volturno,
and before its devastation he is helpless.
Science has made seagoing safer? But it has made
calamities also greater.
The storm that raged over the Great Lakes No
vember 9 and 10 was a rude reminder of how terrible
may be the cruel forces that lie in leash all about
us. For sixty hours the wind whipped the waters;
seventeen lives are known to be lost, probably there
are forty more; three steamers went down in the wild
welter, a dozen were driven ashore. The damage in
money will run into the millions.
The same day the old ocean showed his teeth. Six
liners reached port several days late. Five human
beings were injured aboard the Pretoria. An eight-ton
anchor was wrenched away from the Prinz Friedrich
Wilhelm.
On land also the angry elements were busy, -it
Cleveland twenty-one inches of snow fell. Five men
were killed. Business was paralyzed. There were no
deliveries of groceries, bread, milk, or coal, and suf
fering was widespread. Trains were stalled. Tele
graph wires were down. The loss is estimated at two
million dollars.
But, for that matter, are we not all walking in the
midst of danger, more constant, if less dramatic, than
these?
Fifty thousand people die every hour. All over the
world, one by one, they drop. The passage of souls
into the unknown is like the swift patter of the elec
tric spark.
Microbes crowd our air, water, and food. Acci
dents happen. Hearts fail. Brains give way. Death
and disaster are common, persistent factors of life.
This is not a sermon. It is a plain statement of
what everybody knows.
Is it not strange how fatuously we believe that
“tomorrow will be as this day and much more abun
dant”?
What to do? Why, the least we can do is to live
on such a plane that we are ready to go or stay. No
better lines upon this theme have been written than
the familiar close of Bryant’s “Thanatopsis”:
So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night,
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.”
Danger in Talking
Verbomania isn’t a new disease—in fact, it is an
cient—but its terrible dangers to society are just be
ginning to be realized, says Ossip Lourie, a Russian
writer, in an article ranking excessive talking as a
dangerous disease and a* menace to civilization.
Civilization is responsible for it, in his opinion, and
nothing but strenuous regime to enforce temporary si
lences on those afflicted can stop its dreaded ravages.
"And he urges humanity to inaugurate a campaign
against tuberculosis and against excessive alcoholism.
Progress is decidedly hindered, he goes on to say,
by this prevalent vice, and he urges the immediate at
tention of the teacher and the minister and the doctor.
According to his theory, human language developed
from signs into articulate speech and then was fixed
by writing. Then people, like pianists who can render
difficult compositions without thinking about them,
acquired the power to talk without thinking about
what they were saying. So words become possible
without ideas in the mind of the speaker.
If it were impossible to speak without thinking,
Mr. Lourie insists that the greater part of mankind
would grow dumb in a few years. For far from be
ing creatures that think “men are nothing but ani
mated talking machines.” They carry within them
selves the principal of verbal movement, which is de
termined by a power over which they have no control.
When the words become divorced from the idea
talking becomes pathological, a disease, for a man’s
intelligence is not measured by the number of words
he speaks, but according to his power of comprehen
sion. Idiots frequently express themselves with great
facility, while men of genius are often able to talk in
only the most poverty-stricken terms.
Verbomania, he insists, affects numbers of people
who are in other respects quite normal and whose mal
ady does not prevent them, unfortunately, from taking
part in the regular business of e'veryday life. Among
its victims he counts leaders of sects and of political
parties, and also habitual gossips, whom he places in
the same class as dipsomaniacs.
These verbomaniacs become moral weaklings, and
their disease becomes associated with all kinds of
vanity, slander, calumny and perjury. It is more fre
quently found among women than men, and it spreads
more rapidly among the southern races.
Mr. Lourie urges preventive remedies for family,
school and general social use. Don’t let a child pro
nounce a word until he knows its meaning, don’t
let him talk rapidly and force him to remain alone
for at least one hour a day. And for professional
and incurable talkers he recommends longer treatment
of silence.
There is an absolute need for places where gossips
and social wrecks of various descriptions can pick
themselves up. Otherwise there is infinite future woe
and disaster which will be world-wide.—Philadelphia
Public Ledger.
Quips and Quiddities
The New Reporter (going to the telephone and os
tentatiously starting the machinery)—Hello, central!
Let me have 2745 C, please. (A pause.) You giddy
little thing! No, I said twen-ty-seven. Twenty-sev—
Hello! Is that 2745 C? Is Mr. Sawgertees Devoy in
the office? Will you tell him that Mr. Jefferson Mc-
Addister would like to speak with him? Yes, that’s
the name, McAddister, journalist.
(The other reporters listen in awe-struck silence.)
The New Reporter—Is this really Mr. Devoy? My
name is— Ah, you recognize my voice? You perhaps
remember that I interviewed you yesterday? What’s
that? Best report? Oh, thank you! You’re very kind.
I tried to make it so. Has anything turned up in re
gard to that case since noon? Well, sorry to trouble
you. Eh? Dinner? You’re extremely kind. At Sher
ry’s? What? And a bottle? (Surging interest in the
entire staff.) It’s awfully kind of you. Well, say
Tuesday at 8. But really I—
City Editor (in his everyday voice)—I have some
work here, Mr. MAddister, when you ar e quite through
talking to yourself. That telephony has been discon
nected since morning.—Puck.
* * *
An eminent but rather eccentric author wore a busi
ness suit with immaculate white kid gloves when he
called on some friends who were proud parents of a
small boy.
The little boy seemed to be much attracted by the
caller and stayed close by his chair all the time.
“You like to stand by Mr. L— and hear his funny
stories, don’t you, Arthur?” asked his father.
“No; his hands smell just like our automobile,” re
plied Arthur.—Delineator.
RURAL CREDITS
VIII.—THE SCHULZE-DELITZSCH BANKS.
BY FREDERIC .7. HA SKIN.
While Schulze-Delitzsch banks, founded by Herr
Schulze in the town of Delitzsch, are regarded in Ger
many as “town” banks as distinguished from “coun
try” banks, and while they are most used Dy small
traders and industrial workers, they yet form a link in
the chain of Germany’s credit system which has
served to put the small borrower on a par with the
large one with respect to rates and standing. The
Schulze-Delitzsch bank was started by the same dis
tressful year 1848 that set Raiffeisen to work laying
the foundation for the application of his credit ideas.
In 1849 Schulze organized a friendly society ft>r tne
relief of sickness and also an association of shoe
makers for the purchase of raw materials. In 1850 he
founded a loan society, with ten members, all of them
artisans. Two years later he remodelled it, making
it a self-supporting institution with capital and shares.
He saw that the lack of good credit was at the root
of the poor man’s helplessness, and that this could be
removed by collective action of a number of such men.
• • •
Working along similar lines, one for town people
and the other for country people, Schulze and Raiffei
sen did not think very highly each of the other's ideas.
Schulze blinked suspiciously when he saw Raiffeisen
departing from his ideas, and Raiffeisen pitied Schulze
as a sort of Bourbon who never would learn by expe
rience. However, experience proved that Schulze was
right in what he provided for the town bank and Raif
feisen right in what he provided for the country bank.
• • *
The bank founded by Schulze is an association to
provide credit for its members only. It has two kinds
of assets—the money paid in for shares and the un
limited pool of the credit of a ll the members. Each
share is fixed as high as possible. High enough to
keep out the undesirables and to afford some ready
money for the bank’s operation, and yet low enough
not to prevent the entrance of any frugal workingman.
The buyer of a share may pay for it in installments,
and gets a dividend on the part he has paid for from
the day he starts his payments.
• • •
The profits of the society are divided into two
parts, one part to the reserve fund and the other to
the shareholders. The law requires that the reserve
fund shall amount at least to 20 per cent of the share
capital. The Schulze-Delitzsch bank gets its fund for
lending to its members from deposits and from redis
counts by outside banks. Deposits are in large part
the savings of the community, and non-members may
use the bank for purposes of depositing money, though
not for borrowing. The bank pays 3 per cent and up
ward for money deposited with it, and lends it again
at 5 per cent. *■
• • •
The banks protect themselves from sudden with
drawals of deposits in time of financial stringencies
by requiring notice of intention to withdraw, ranging
from two weeks to twelve months, and pay an ascend
ing rate of interest according to the length of notice
required. In ordinary times, however, they waive the
night of demanding notice.
• • •
Regular deposits differ from savings deposits in
their size and the length of time they must be left
in bank. They are for larger amounts and are de
posited for a shorter period. Only the larger banks,
with well trained officials, will accept such deposits,
as the slightest error in fixing interest rates may in
volve important losses.
• • •
In addition to these forms of accounts there are
regular checking accounts that may be opened by
members and non-members. Public moneys are often,
deposited in these banks, although they are n&t con
sidered as legal trustee investment institutions, ex
cept by special enactment for each bank. |
• • s»
In furnishing credit to their members the Schulae-
Delitzsch banks have two methods—the straight loan
and the discounted trade bill of exchange. Loans are
sometimes made in the shape of a single definite ad
vance of money. At other times a credit limit is
fixed, and the borrower can draw out the money jus^
as he needs it, paying only for the amount he actually
uses, and for the time he uses it. For instance, he
gets a credit of a thousand dollars at the bank. He
can use such portion of this as he desires today, pay
it all back a month hence, get some out again two
months later, and *ho on, enjoying the advantage that
a thousand dollars to his credit gives him, and yefc be
ing under the necessity of paying interest only on the
part he actually uses.
• • •
The bank is protected in one of four ways in each
credit advance—by the indorsements of two responsi
ble fellow members, by the hypothecation of land mort
gages, by the deposit of collateral, either scrip or val
uables, or by the good name of the borrower. This
latter form of protection is called “Blanco,” meaning
“white,” and refers to the good standing of the bor
rower.
• * •
The banks frequently go on a bond for an individ
ual member upon the payment of a cash fee, guarantee
ing the performance of his contracts up to a certain
amount.
• • •
In the discounting of trade bills of exchange tho
transaction is along the following line: Mr. Smith
buys a bill of goods of Mr. Jones, and is allowed by
law and usage of a three-months credit thereon. But
Mr. Jones wants his money immediately, and so ho
presents his bill to the bank, which discounts it and
holds it against Mr. Smith, provided it is convinced
that Smith is financially sound. If Smith comes for
ward at maturity and pays the bill that is the last
heard of the transaction; but if he fails to do so, the
bank holds Jones to its payment.
* * *
The Schulze-Delitzsch banks are controlled by a col
lege of three salaried members—one member attending
to the money department, a second member to the ac
countancy department, and the third serving as a gen
eral head, whose business, so they say in Germany, is
to worry the other two. Two signatures are required
to every transaction entered into by the members of tho
college, and their responsibility is joint and undivided.
They are elected for three years by the entire member
ship, and their work is reviewable by a board of control
or directorate.
* * *
In operation the Schulze-Delitzsch banks have
trained the people to become their own bankers, assist
ing the individually weak to grow into the unitedly
strong, and aiding the community to develop self-dis
cipline and prudence. They have developed co-opern-
tion where it is needed and omitted it where it lo un
necessary. They have saved the. poor but honest arti
san from being the prey of the money lender. They
know their customers and their customers know them.
Being both borrower and lender in one, they invite in
spection of their private finances as the best means of
protecting themselves. Combining saving with credit,
they find their organization a two-edged sword that
cuts the adversity of small means from around them,
and lifts them to a plane of economic independence
that never could be possible with the ordinary non
co-operative bank. Building up their savings and ex
tending their credit at once, they gradually lift them
selves up the ladder of life.
* * *
The complaint is often heard that the man of little
means is getting less attention in these banks as the
years go by, and that they are losing their hold on him.
The reply to this is that it is not a case of big men
capturing and driving out the old members from con
trol, but rather that the small men of yesterday un
der its beneficent operations, have become the compara*
tively big ones of today—and that that is the best
proof of all that a Schulze-Delitzsch bank renders a
great service to the community in which it operates.
After it is established for a long while its old members
do outgrow the small men who would join—It simply
becomes the proper course of the latter then to organ
ize another bank of their own, and to wax strong with
its extending years.