AUSTRIA. 



REGISTERED CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES AND FEDERATIONS 

 ON JANUARY ist., 1913. 



The " ester reichische landwirtschafiUche Genossenschafispresse " in its 

 issue of February 19th., (No. 255) 1914, published statistics of the registered 

 co-operative societies and federations in Austria on January ist., 1913, in 

 accordance with information suppHed by the I. R. Central Statistical 

 Commission. It appears from the article that, while in the preceding fif- 

 teen years there was a constant increase in the number of new societies 

 founded, reaching its maximum in 1911 with 1,646 new registered instit- 

 utions, in 1912 there was a falling off; in fact, the number of new societies 

 founded that year was only 1,365. The increase, which in 1912 was 10 %, 

 feU to 7.2 %, while the dissolutions increased from 1.7 to 1.8 %. 



The reason for this is that recent events have shown the advisability 

 of proceeding very cautiously in the foundation of new societies ; at the 

 same time weaker organizations have disappeared. The increase in the dif- 

 ferent groups was : in the Schulze Delitzsch credit co-operative societies 

 7.1 %, in the Raiffeisen Banks 4.1 %, in the distributive societies 7.3 %, 

 in the agricultural societies 10.6 %, in the industrial societies 12.2 %, 

 in the group of co-operative building societies, now making great progress, 

 25.1 % (in 1911 56.4 %) and in the small group of the remaining soci- 

 eties 14.8 %). 



The farmers have displayed the greatest activity in behalf of their organ- 

 ization ; 26.5 % of the entire increase is represented by agricultural co-oper- 

 ative societies and 24.6 % by the Raiffeisen rural banks ; then come the 

 other co-operative credit societies. 19.9 %, the industrial societies 10,2 %, 

 the building societies 11% and the distributive societies 7.3%. However, the 

 share of the farmers in the decrease, represented by the dissolution of 347 

 societies, was also large; in fact, 32.2 % of the entire decrease was in 

 agricultural co-operative societies and 3.7 % in rural banks; then 2.3 % in 

 industrial societies, 14.7 % in the other co-operative credit societies, 

 16.7 % in distributive societies, and 8 % in building societies. 



