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THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1913.
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THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH PORSYTH ST.
Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Matter of
the Second Class.
JAMES K. GRAY,
.President and Editor.
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The South and the Nation’s Food.
The fact.that the population of the United States
is increasing more rapidly than its production of
food is of peculiar interest to the South, for it is in
the fertile resources of this section that .the solution
of the problem lies. There is enough untilled land
between Maryland and Texas to yield crops of veg
etables ample for all the American people through
centuries to come, lands ideally suited to truck
farming. There are enough idle acres in the same
territory to make up the present shortage in the
country’s meat supply and also to relieve, in large
measure, the ever-increasing demand for grain.
Without touching this vast reserve of soil, the farms
of the South today, if conducted on scientific lines,
can do much to replenish the dwindling food supply.
But the South, like the country at large has
fallen short of its opportunity in this regard. The
Manufacturers Record interestingly notes that “if
fifteen Southern States—Alabama, Arkansas, Florida,
Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi,
Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennes
see, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia—in all but
two of which cotton is raised, were raising as much
corn in proportion to population as was raised in
PL.
that area before the war, the South’s annual corn
crop would be a billion bushels instead of eight or
nine hundred milli.n; and if proportionate produc
tion obtained as to wheat, its annual wheat crop
-.-Id be one hundred and twenty-three million bush
els instead of ninety or a hundred million.” We are
told furthermore that in 1859 the South raised
fifty-two per cent of the corn of the country, but that
in 1909 it raised only twenty per cent of the total,
while the per capita production of the latter year
was twenty-three and forty-six hundredths bushels
compared with thirty-five and fifty-four hundredths
bushels fifty years before.
It is thus Evident that in the production of grain
the South has not even kept pace with its ante
bellum Record. Despite the far-reaching improvement
in agricultural methods and the great incentives
which recent years have brought, this section is com
paratively less productive of food stuffs now than it
was half a century ago. This situation may be vari
ously accounted for, as the Manufacturers Record
suggests. _ It is due in part, no doubt, to “the attention
that has been given to cotton growing, the increase
in the cotton crop in the fifty years having been
at the rate of one hundred and forty-two and two-
tenths per cent.” The section’s rapid industrial
growth is another factor that must he considered.
“The number of wage earners in Southern factories,”
as the Record shows, “increased between 1900 and
1909 at the rate of fifty and eight-tenths per cent;
the number of wage earners in mining increased
between 1902 and 1909 at the rate of ninety-eight
and seven-tenths per cent; while the increase in the
number of persons operating farms was only sixteen
per cent.” . ,
The important fact, however, is that our popula
tion has multiplied far more rapidly than ouk food
production. To whatever this condition may be
due, it must be changed if the South is duly to pros
per and win its rightful place in the nation’s eco
nomic affairs. More corn, more wheat, more of all
the necessaries of life must be raised. The wondrous
variety of our agricultural resources must be turned
to better account. Thus the South will become the
country’s great storehouse and will attain the power
and usefulness to whieh she is naturally destined.
That this idea is now astir among our people and
is already yielding fruitful results, no one who ob
serves present tendencies in the South can doubt.
The Boys’ Corn Club movement alone is- fast in
creasing our output of grain; the developing interest
in truck farming is adding to our food supply. The
forces of progress are at work and their effect will
become more and more manifest.
I Forward With Currency Reform.
I
The Democrats of the Senate have wisely deter
mined that there shall be no more useless delays In
settling the currency issue. They have shouldered
their party’s responsibility and have agreed upon a
definite course in which Republican co-operation will
be welcome but not indispensable. Beginning Mon
day, they will hold the Senate in daily session, from
ten o'clock to six and from eight to eleven each
evening, until a satisfactory measure is enacted.
There will be no rest, no pause, not even an adjourn
ment for Christmas holidays, until the present out
worn and inadequate system of bail king and currency
• is reformed and the country’s disquieting suspense
relieved.
This practical program will bring prompt results.
It will put an end to the obstructive tactics which
deadlocked the committee and threatened indefinite
postponement in the Senate itself. It will drive into
the open those interests which have hoped through
petty discords and successive delays to stifle the
spirit of currency reform. }t will force them to join
in a purposeful, constructive plan or else stand
squarely condemned as recreants to the cause of
business progress and security.
The course adopted by the Democratic majority
is not high-handed nor, in any ill sense, coercive; it
is simply businesslike and patriotic. There is no ex
cuse for prolonging through months to come an
issue on the main points of which all sides are in
substantial agreement. The currency question has
been uppermost in the thought of Congress since
early summer. It has been amply discussed by the
Senate committee on banking. Its larger problems,
those which hitherto have caused the sharpest divis
ions, have been solved. There is no very wide dif
ference between the reports submitted by the two
branches of the committee; both indorse the basic
principles in the administration measure. The
present situation is thus as if architects had agreed
upon the design of a house but were delaying work
simply because they differed as to the exact number
of windows or the width of a particular veranda.
These details are relatively unimportant beside the
general purposes of the bill and the country’s com
mon business needs for banking and currency reform.
Should the Senate defer action until a bill equal
ly pleasing to all individuals or all interests could
he devised, no law would ever be enacted. Bankers
themselves are hopelessly divided as to precisely
what kind of law will be best. It is impossible, fur
thermore, that an Ideal measure, one that will meet
every need of the future or the present, can be se
cured. Any hill that might he proposed will be open
to criticism. The important fact is that Congress,
and for the most part competent judges the country
over, have now reached an agreement on the essen
tials of the legislation demanded. Never before has
there been such a unanimity of intelligent opinion
on this issue; and it is doubtful that there ever will
he again, if the present opportunity to enact a law
is lost.
The duty of the Senate is, therefore, unmistak
able. The duty of the Democratic majority in the
Senate is unmistakable. It should unite on the com
mon ground of agreement that has been so clearly
defined and, with no more time than is necessary for
honest debate, press through a bill that will meet
urgent business needs and relieve existing uncer
tainty. The moment Congress speaks the decisive
word on this great question, a tremendous weight
will he lifted from the nation’s business activity.
There is no fear as to what may bfe done but there
is a distinctly unwholesome air of suspense. The
need for prompt action on the hanking and currency
question is even more imperative than it was in the
case of the tariff. Delay is unjust, if not dangerous.
The announcement of the vigorous plan the Sen
ate Democrats are to pursue is within itself highly
reassuring; for it means unless all omens fail that
an adequate hill will be passed within the next month
and that commerce and industry will move forward
with new confidence and cheer.
Cotton Plus Cattle.
lip discussing the opportunities of the average
American farm to increase the country’s meat supply
and thus reduce the burdensome cost of living, a
recent bulletin of the federal Department of Agricul
ture lays particular emphasis upon the Southern
States.
The South, we are told, is the only section where
cattle can still 'be raised, fed and sold at a profit
that will be satisfactory to the producer and at the
same time leave the price to the consumer reason
ably low. This is a fact upon which the South’s
agricultural leaders have long been insisting and
which, there is reason to believe, is at length being
realized by our farmers.
Natural conditions in the South reduce to a min
imum the cost of cattle raising. There are no long,
hard winters with their heavy expense for feeding
and housing. 'There are thousands of acres of idle
land affording excellent pasturage. The grasses and
forage indigenous to our soil remove the necessity
of using the more costly grains as livestock food. It
has been demonstrated furthermore that with proper
methods the sturdiest and finest cattle in the country
can he bred in the South.
It only remains for the Southern farmer to seize
the opportunity that is so easily within his reach.
He can make cattle raising profitable to himself and
to his section without interfering with established
agricultural pursuits. Indeed, the production of live
stock will serve to enrich and upbuild all other in
terests of the farm.
If every farm in Georgia would produce three beef
steers a year, the State would be incomparably
wealthier and more independent'.
Transatlantic Flight.
The rumor that a transatlantic air flight from
Newfoundland to Ireland will soon be undertaken is
rather incredible in America but across the sea it
woulji occasion no surprise. Old World aviators have
long expected such an adventure. Some of them, in
deed, are said to be making definite preparation to
that end. A London newspaper has offered a prize of
some fifty thousand pounds to the birdman who
first accomplishes this teat and the lists are swarm-
ng with possible competitors.
The fact is the current year has brought forth so
,-iany wonders in European aviation that the actual
crossing of the Atlantic in an airship would not he
half so startling as it would have been a few seasons
ago. One Frenchman has winged his way over the
Mediterranean, another has flown from Paris to
St. Petersburg and back again; in Germany, Russia,
Italy and England the airship has performed marvels
of endurance and speed. Continuous flights not very
far short of what the transatlantic venture would
require have been made, and sober prophets are pre
dicting that the latter dream will soon become a fact.
Homes for the Corn Club Boys.
Eighty-five counties " will be .represented at the
Georgia Corn Show which opens next week in At
lanta and at least nine .hundred members of the hoys’
corn clubs will be present. j
It is doubtful that so important an exposition of
the kind has ever before been developed in any State.
Certainly no such enterprise has ever promised more
to the agricultural interests of. Georgia.
As the host of this popular occasion, Atlanta has
a peculiar responsibility, it is called upon, not
simply as a duty but as a pleasurable opportunity,
to entertain the nine hundred or more boy visitors
during their stay in the city.
These boys come .from representative Georgia
families and embody all that is best in the youth of
the State. Atlanta must make them heartily wel
come. There has been a liberal response to the
call issued by the Chamber of Commerce for homes
for the visitors hut several homes are still required.
The hospitable people of this community should
open their doors and without further delay provide
the homes still needed.
r
The Alabama Senatorship.
The Alabama senatorship is again at issue. Gov
ernor Q’Neal has appointed Hon. Frank P. Glass to
fill out the unexpired term of the late Senator
Johnston. The question is raised, as it was in the
case of Congressman Clayton, who was named to
the same vacancy but afterwards resigned, whether
in view of the seventeenth amendment to the Con
stitution the Governor of a State may make such an
appointment without being specifically authorized to
do so by the Legislature.
The Journal is not concerned with Alabama’s in
ternal politics; but this is a matter that involves
the State’s federal rights and, to no slight degree,
the interests of national Democracy. It would he a
grievous hardship for that State to be deprived of
its due representation in the Senate and for the
Democratic party to be denied its due number of
votes in the Senate simply because of a technical,
if not fanciful, doubt as to the precise meaning of
certain parts of the seventeenth amendment.
This amendment, providing for the popular elec
tion of United States senators, particularly declares
in the final clause that it “shall not be so construed
as to affect the election or term of a senator chosen
before it becomes valid as a part of the Constitution.
Senator Johnston’s term extended to 1915 and he
was chosen before the new amendment went into
effect. It would seem, therefore, that the vacancy
caused by his death may legally be filled through
the method that obtained before the seventeenth
amendment became operative, that is through ap
pointment by the Governor, because as the amend
ment itself stipulates it is not to affect "the term
of a senator chosen before it becomes valid.”
The crux of the question, however, lies in the sec
ond clause of the amendment which provides that:
When vacancies happen in the representa
tion of any state in the senate, the executive
authority of such sljate shall issue writs of
election to fill such vacancies: Provided, that
the legislature of any state may empower the
executive thereof to make temporary appoint
ments until the people fill the vacanoy by elec
tion as the legislature may direct.
Yet, this clause cannot be fairly or reasonably con
strued save in the light of the amendment as a
whole. Its true intent depends upon what follows
and precedes it. It must be taken in connection with
the other clause we have quoted. Thus considered,
it obviously refers, as the New York Times logically
contends, “to elections to be held in all coming
years when the amendment has been in effect for so
long a time that no senatorial term will have had
its beginning in a year prior to the time when the
amendment became valid.”
“Thereafter,” the Times adds, “vacancies
would be filled as provided in the second clause;
until that time the Governor would have power
to fill vacancies by appointment, since the amend
ment Is not to affect terms beginning before it
became a part of the Constitution.”
It is estimated that it would cost Alabama ap
proximately a hundred thousand dollars to adjust
itself forthwith to a narrowly technical interpreta
tion of the new/ amendment. In its Legislature,
which meets only once in four years and which will
not hold another regular session until 1915, there
are now twenty vacancies. The Governor would have
to call a special election to fill these vacancies, and
then a special session of Legislature and after that
a special election by the people. All this would re
quire not less than ninety days’ time in addition to
heavy expense. It can scarcely he presumed that
the amendment was ever Intended to impose such
hardships upon a State.
If the new amendment will in any wise permit
such a construction as will allow the seating of Mr.
Glass, it should be ^so construed. Alabama should
not he shorn of equal representation in the Senate
and the Democratic party should not be deprived of
its rightful strength merely because ®f a vague
doubt.
The Last of Huerta.
The important victories of the Mexican revolu
tionists during the past week remove every doubt
of Huerta’s impotency to restore order in the trou
bled republic or to retain even the specious power
he usurped. His boast of military strength has been
stripped bare, revealing a torn, spiritless army whose
generals are outwitted and whose men are often
on the verge of mutiny. The “Constitutionalist”
forces are winning almost without exception when
ever they can bring the enemy to battle. They now
control most points of strategic value and it seems
merely a question of time when they will swarm
irresistibly upon the capital itself.
These circumstances taken in connection with
the financial crisis of the Huerta regime are sure
omens of the dictator’s early downfall. His alleged
government finds it impossible to secure foreign
loans on any terms and its effort to replenish an
exhausted treasury through special taxation at home
is apparently just as unsuccessful. With a demoral
ized and steadily dwindling army, with an empty
purse and no sympathy, moral or practical, from any
quarter of the world, what can Huerta do but retire or
meet the fate to which desperate adventurers are
foredoomed?
More and more is the Wilson administration
justified in its' policy toward this unscrupulous Mex
ican. Had it recognized his flimsy government, which
was reared on assassination, it would not have
averted the crisis that was destined sooner or later
to come; for so inherently weak and criminal was
the Huerta regime that it lacked the simplest ele
ments of endurance. Our nation has the honor of
having never connived at this shameful scheme, and
placing moral considerations above mere expediency,
it has shown that the former were the wiser as
well as right.
The Work Before Congress.
The regular session of Congress, which opens Mon
day, inherits one of the great problems of the special
session just ended, that of currency and banking
reform. The task of immediate importance is to dis
pose of this issue. Indications are that no time will
be lost in doing so. The Senate Democrats, realizing
their responsibility to the party and to the country,
have determined to press the currency question for
ward with ijll reasonable speed and enact a satisfac
tory hill before the new year.
In that event, the regular session will be free for
the consideration of a large number of constructive
measures, bills relating to the improvement of agri
culture, to the development of Alaska, the extension
of education and kindred projects. It will he free
also for a thorough consideration of the trust
problem.
The special session of Congress was rich in good
for the people. The extra session promises to be
equally so.
■ CONFIDENCE IN WILSON
By Savoyard
So far as my personal observation or knowledge ac
quired from books goes, the administration of Woodrow
Wilson is the first in our history, since the republic
was established 124 years ago, that was not embar
rassed by a political reaction a year after the presi
dential election. Republicans sneeringly comment,
“He is a minority president.” Very well; so was Lin
coln, and much more so than Wilson. Had Douglas
or Breckinridge been the only candidate opposed to
the Republican ticket in 1860 Lincoln would have been
defeated. But in 1912, had either Roosevelt or Taft
been the sole candidate against the Democratic ticket
Wilson would have been elected. He would have re
ceived more than 50 per cent of the Taft vote as
against Teddy, and for him would have been cast more
than 80 per cent of’‘the Roosevelt vote as against Taft.
The reaction against the first Lincoln administra
tion was frightful. Indiana elected a Democratic
United States senator, so did x^ennsylvania, and^so did
Lincoln’s own state of Illinois. The Republican major
ity in the house of representatives was cut down to
very nearly a frazzle. The rebuke of the administra
tion was enough to “make a wig stand on end,” and.
good Republicans, th‘e night of the election, despaired
of the country.
• • •
No such showing the other day. In Massachusetts
the Democratic ticket was first and the Republican
third. In New York City a Wilson man was chosen
for mayor, and the Democratic party of the Empire
State was operated on for cancer, and to all appear
ances that performance promises to be miraculously
successful.
• • *
The Hon. Smoot has advanced an opinion of the les
son of the Democratic victory that has the merit of lu
cidity, at least, and it is this if I gather his meaning—
that when the standpatters and the bull moosers shall
all get together and they shall cast more votes for a
single ticket than the Democrats cast for their ticket
they will carry the election. There Is no arguing
against a proposition like that; as well seek to drive
a coach-and-four through the multiplication table or
any other established theory of mathematics.
But how are they going to get together? Can you
draw out leviathan with a hook? Can you yoke Teddy
and Taft, or Cannon and Murdock, or Smoot and La
Follette? How can the grand young man Beveridge
and the eloquent young man Watson yoke together?
At present, if there is any sincerity aflpai, your Pro
gressive prefers a Democrat to a standpatter and your
standpatter prefers a Democrat to a Progressive. And
don’t you forget this: Of the 4,119,538 votes cast for
Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, more than a million were
recruited from the Democratic party and most of the
others preferred Wilson to Taft. So when the “getting
together” stunt is pulled off—and the thing is vision
ary—it will be found that the bulk of the Progressive
party will line up on the Democratic side of the hedge.
• • •
The late William Lindsay, a very powerful thinker,
a clear-headed man, was asked in 1898 what he thought
of the proposal that Democrats—goldbugs and silver
cranks—“get together.” He replied, “They will get
together when they think together, not before/* It
was a profound truth. They “got together,” all right;
Woodrow Wilson, “goldbug,” and William J. Bryan,
“silver crank/* got to be, and are, as thick as Brlndle
and Cherry, but not until they came to think together.
Joseph G. Cannon and Victor Murdock may get to
gether, but first they must think together, and issues
being what they are,- that is “one of them impossible
things,” both being sincere men.
I was talking with a newspaper man yesterday, a
Republican, representative at this capital of one of the
leading daily papers of the country, and he made this
remark: “If Wilson can extort from congress a whole
some currency bill this country will enter upon an era
of industrial and financial prosperity never before seen
or dreamed of, and his re-election in 1916 will be unan
imous, like that of James Monroe in 1820.”
• • «
No intelligent and fair-minded man can read the
works of Woodrow Wilson without concluding that in
tellectually he is all that Burke was, and as an admin
istrator, if not as spectacular as Chatham, he is as
great as Chatham. He has his way, not by jamming
things through like Thad Stevens, but by convincing his
fellows that his way is the right way. John Sharp
Williams told you what sort of a man Wilson is the
* other day when he administered that deserved rebuke
to Senator Cummins, of Iowa
And the people understand Wilson. Wilson carried
the election the other day. It was the faith the peo
ple had in Wilson that made Walsh governor of Mas
sachusetts and Fielder governor of New Jersey.
And let me say besides—the American people are
resolvd that Woodrow Wilson as president shall have a
fair trial. The Democratic majority in the sixty-fourth
congress will be greater than in the sixty-third, and
we will elect twenty of the twenty-two senators to be
chosen.
Washington, November 20.
Romantic America
Althohgh no country can boast such varied and
attractive highways and byways as America, people
are so fascinated by European travel that few are
familiar with them. Other writers have told us oi
the byways, but Mr. Schayffler also tells us of the
highways. He takes us from coast to coast and his
impressions of our cities are well worth knowing.
The picture given of Pittsburg, the “City of Beau
tiful Smoke,” makes us long to pack a bag and see
the wonderful smoke effects. One has been so accus
tomed to think of Pittsburg as a dirty city that to
have it described as the “City of beautiful Smoke”
and to learn th^t it won its crowning beauty out of
its foulest stain—smoke—is rather surprising. From
any of the city’s hills can be enjoyed more kinds of
smoke than thefe are kinds of clouds. “In swift suc
cession pass banners of snow, creamy fountains,
aerial groves of olive, hanging gardens of lilac and
rose, “hills of oranges and rusty red apples, geysers
ranging through a thousand grays, from fawn color
to sheer brutal dirt, then deepening to a black as rich
as the tarry coal from which it sprang.’
Then we journey to the charming Creole city of
New Orleans, with its quaint foreign atmosphere and
\ its hospitable, courteous inhabitants. “The Creole is
easy going. It is refreshing to find a citizen of these
States so free from the dollar-snatching instinct, so
full of that spirit of dolce iar niente which prevails
in the far lotus-land along the Bay of Naples. New
Orleans has often been called ‘Our Little Paris.’ And,
indeed, the art of life seems to be practiced here with
as much gusto and as little friction as In the mother
city. In physical appearance, though, in its wealtn
of stately old mansions and glamorous courtyards
somewhat fallen from the splendor of their prime, the
place reminds me more perhaps of the Teuton’s ‘Little
Paris/ Leipzig. But it has this advantage over all
other Parises whatever: it belongs to the Far South.”
The Mammoth Cave, the underworld of Kentucky,,
the Grand Canyon, the Yosemite, the Yellowstone and
all of the wonders of this great* country are describ
ed. The illustrations which add much to the charm
of the book are by Maxfleld Parrish, George In ness,
Jr., Joseph Pennell, Andre Castaigne, Winslow Homer
and Albert Herter.
Pointed Paragraphs
Even an old soak has been known to generate
dry wit.
* * *
Love yourself as you do your neighbor and see
how far you’ll get.
• • m
A woman's eyes sometimes indicate a lot of swear
words she dare not utter.
* * *
Even a bum actor make a hit with the audience
by breaking a lot of dishes.
\
RURAL CREDITS’
XII—PLUNKET’S WORK IN IRELAND.
B. FREDERIC J. HASKIN.
In looking over the field of rural credit operations
no other country seems to come quite so close home
to Americans as Ireland, whether by reason of the
American admiration for the sturdiness of the Irish
character in its native surroundings, or whether
through sympathy in their efforts to solve the hard
economic problems of absentee landlordism and the
harder governmental problem of home rule.
♦ • • )■
This the whole world knows about Ireland: tnat tor
generations the masses of its people have lived under
an agricultural system that has yielded them the
barest existence- And this the few who have investi
gated present-day conditions know: that transplanting
the Gernjan idea of co-operative credit in particular,
and of rural co-operation in general to Irish soil has
brought forth fruit in the way of the attainment of
economic Independence, in abundant measure. The
Irish take pride in showing to the world how one of
the English-speaking peoples has benefited by learning
the lessons the German farmer has to teach them all.
* • •
During the past quarter of a century England has
had a new policy in Ireland—-a policy of enabling the
soil to come into possession of those who till it. Sir
Horace Plunkett admirably sums up the results that
are coming about in Ireland by saying: “The out
standing fact of Irish life today is that after a con
flict of centuries old between the small class which
owned the land and the large class which occupied and
cultivated it, the agrarian revolution common to most
European countries is ending, as it always does and.
by the transfer of the land to the tiller rf the soil.”
• • •
After the crown decided upon the issuance of 52,-
00.,000,000 of imperial credit to enable the Irish ten
ants to become the Irish farm owner, a commission
was organized to spy out the farming experiences of
the world and to bring back to Ireland the grapes of
succcessfully applied practice. The one lesson which
this investigation learned, according to Sir Horace
Plunkett, was that the prosperity of.rural communities
wa3 due to state educational assistance plus self-help.
They found everywhere that what the farmers could
do for themselves by intelligent co-operation was im
measurably greater tnan what the best intentioned
state could do for them.
The result of 'he work of Sir Horace Plunkett and
Father Finlay, the Jesuit priest who had studied con
ditions thoroughly in Germany, in promoting rural
credit conditions and other forms of co-operation In
Ireland has been that 100,000 Irish farmers are now
united in the self help that comes from rural banking
and co-operative production and distribution- Ireland
is being transformed from a country of rich absentee
landowners Into a country of small farmers, few of
whom grow rich, but most of who may now enjoy a
decent living for themselves and their families. The
Irish hive imported the Raiffeisen bank from Ger-
many, almost to the letter, and it works as well there
as ever it did on its native soil.
• • • \
The Irish idea is to make co-operative hanking only
one part of a general scheme of co-operation among
farmers, and the men who have been responsible for
tl.e transplantation of co-operative credit from the con
tinent to Ireland have Insisted all along that the one
form of co-operation must go hand in hand with the
other.
• • •
Sir Horace Plunkett for a long time was in a posi
tion in Ireland corresponding to our secretary of agri
culture, and he asserts that 54 out of 55 that are spent
in educating the farmer are lost unless he enjoys the
means of putttlng the lesBons into practice. He points
to a hundred thousand Irish farmers who are borrow
ing and lending money and growing and marketing
their crops upon a co-operative basis as evidence of
what the Irishman can do.
* • *
The Irish Agricultural Organization society early
placed itself back of the movement to organize the
farmer of Erin, and it was due to the propaganda it
waged In season and out that organized Irish farmers
today produce 515,000,000 wortu of marketable stuff a
year.
• • •
Austria has the same system that is found in Ger
many An effort now is being made to effect one
change in the mattter of the liability of members for
the debts of a bank. A bill has been pending to sub
stitute the present form of unlimited liability, which
permits the creditor, in the event of the liquidation of
a bank, to demand the whole of his debt from a single
member, for a form of liability for supplementary pay
ments. Under the substitute the creditor would hold
the society and not the individual member responsible,
and the society would have to meet the debt by a pro
rata assessment rather than by permitting the creditor
to recover from an Individual member.
* • . •
Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark and nearly all of
the other countries of Europe outside of Russia, have
some form of co-operative credit. In most of the
countries it is a modification of the Raiffeisen system
of Germany. And the one big, outstanding fact that is
of prime interest to the American farmer is that wher
ever the system has been tried out, with whatever
modifications that are essential to meet local condi
tions, it has set the farmer on his feet.
• • •
Instead of making him improvident, and Instead of
encouraging him to be indifferent to saving, it lias had,
the opposite effect. Where once he was ashamed to
confess his indebtedness because it was a badge of
poverty, now he is glad to acknowledge it, because the
community knows that only the forward-looking man
who has ambitions and aspirations for the future can
incur such indebtedness- -t leads to thrift because
loans are advanced only for causes which promise to
yield returns. It takes a community of practically In
solvent men and transforms them into a highly solvent
association which can help its members in divers ways.
• * • /
What rural credit has done in Europe has so im
pressed the British government that it has transplanted
the system to Asia, establishing it in India. There,
in 1904, was promulgated an act for the appointment
of registrars of co-operative credit societies, whose
duties include a general supervision of the operations
of such societies. For the rural societies the law de
mands unlimited liability, save where contrary govern
mental sanction is forthcoming, which is not the rule.
There are now some 5,000 rural societies jn operation
in India, and they are spreading rapidly. A society
is started out with a sum advanced by the govern
ment, but as a rule it does not need this oney long.
• * *
The effort in every country, including India, in the
introduction of a rural credit system has not been in
the direction of aiding men who already are able to
command credit on favorable terms. The aim has
been, rather, to obtain credit for those who heretofore
have been without the pale of credit, and it is pointed
out by the friends of rural credits that it is not to be
supposed that the adoption of such a system will ap
preciably diminish the rate of interest at which a per
son now can borrow money who can offer substantial
security and has direct access to present-day banks.
• • *
It is pointed out that there are ma»v inquiries to
be answered before it will be safe to declare just what
sort of a rural credit system a country demands, inqui- j
ries such as the following: Who are the people for
whom the 'credit facilities are intended? Are they
large farmers or small cultivators? Do they own the
laijd they till, or are they tenants? Are they upon
approximately the same social and financial level, or
aie there wide; dilferences between them? Do they
mainly require loans for long terms for buying lane,
or are their needs principally met by short loans for
working capital? Do they borrow mostly to stop the
gaps of bad mangaement, or to add to their powers of
production?
Jii
B’e sure you are wrong—then don’t do it.
A naan is known by th’e new year resolutions he
keeps.
I