Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

4 THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1913. i t t 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. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE Twelve months 75c Six months 40c Three months 25c The S^ni-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes for w»y 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 postotficp. Liberal com mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R. BKAD- LEY, Circulation 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. NOTICE TO FUBSCRIBEBS. The label used for. addressing your paper shows the time your subscription expires. By renewing at least two weeks before the date on this label, you insure regular service. In ordering paper changed, be sure to mention you old, as well as your new address. If on a route please give th e route number. We cannot enter subscriptions to begin with back numbers. Remittances should be sent by postal order or registered mail. Address all orders and notices fo this de partment to THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL. Atlanta, G*. 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