Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/266

262 freed from the money-lenders which for the most part were usurers, they have been united in a community of interest that has widened their circle of acquaintance, given them a sympathetic interest in each other's welfare and has largely displaced the jealously so commonly existing in rural communities.

Among the peasant classes where the Raiffeissen savings and loan banks were established with unlimited liability of the members, ministers have frequently testified that they have been as important factors in the moral life of the people as the church itself. Intemperance and immorality is not permitted among the members. If a farmer takes to intemperate drinking his loan is called in by the bank. If he is neglecting the work on his farm the loan is called in. So that every farmer feels he is under the constant watch of the other members and since they are united together in a cooperative association, where if one man fails the others must pay his losses, they are all interested in each other and anxious to see every one succeed.

The application of the cooperative principle of "one for all and all for one" serves as an incentive to the individual farmer and inspires him to do his best.

The farmers of the United States as yet have not appreciated the value of organizing to improve their credit. In the southern states the cotton crop must be marketed as soon as harvested to meet outstanding loans that the farmers have made at exorbitant rates of interest. The grain dealers throughout the central states know that they will be flooded with wheat and corn just before tax-paying time by farmers who are compelled to sell in order to raise money to pay taxes. Intensive systems of farming that must be adopted to adjust American agriculture to present needs means a larger working capital for the farmer, he must use more labor, more commercial fertilizers, better seed and he must drain his land. The European farmer gets twice as large a crop yield per acre as the American farmer because he spends twice as much capital in producing it. He cultivates better, fertilizes better and he takes better care of his land.

Interest rates in general are lower in the United States than they are in Germany and yet the German farmer is able to secure his credit through his cooperative organizations at two thirds the rate of interest ordinarily paid by the American farmer. In addition the loans are made on much more favorable terms and the times and methods of repayment are adjusted to suit the business of the farmers.

The advantages of the farmers organizing to sell their credit for what it is worth are not all on the part of the farmer. But for the capitalist seeking a safe investment for his money they offer a security