98 RURAL RECONSTRUCTION 



action which co-operative organisation may boast of in the matter of 

 land settlement, there is the important housing problem to take into 

 consideration, for the solution of which, recognised as it is as of 

 truly " burning " importance, one would suppose that every avail- 

 able means should be pressed into service, and in which, apart from 

 that undoubtedly necessary public action called upon in this country, 

 organisation, no matter whether from above or from below, might 

 prove highly useful. The " General Savings Bank " of Belgium — 

 to state one example tempting to imitation — is under this head 

 doing, within its own limited area, really magnificent work, making 

 the savings of " the people " serviceable for the supply of the wants 

 of " the people," and thereby raising up prosperous and contented 

 communities, which is probably quite as useful action for the nation 

 as our " sending up the price of Consols." Just the same as in the 

 question of land settlement, one great difficulty in this matter is the 

 raising of the requisite money. The " General Savings Bank " 

 provides such on very liberal terms, and its offer is readily made use 

 of. In Germany, where the " Social Insurance Institutions " — that 

 is, working men's health, old age and accident insurance corpora- 

 tions — render the same service out of their readily amassed huge 

 treasure — as does in the matter of land settlement the Prussian 

 Rentenbank, likewise on easy terms — it is the co-operative housing 

 societies which are in the ascendant, in country districts as well as 

 in towns. In Belgium it is rather philanthropic societies which 

 absorb the money, formed on the principle of " philanthropy cum 

 so much per cent." How much, indeed, organisation may be made 

 to do to procure the provision of the necessary capital, by means of 

 credit, which is the result of confidence awakened, is to be seen in 

 Italy, where the qffittanze, beginning almost literally upon nothing, 

 have by their excellent organisation alone, paving the way for 

 trustworthy management, induced capitalists to supply all that was 

 wanted, until, stimulated by the example set, the State came in to 

 help with public money. In all these cases we have not to do 

 with the provision of money, such as is practised in our own and 

 in the American Building Societies or similar bodies, but with 

 organisation of the beneficiaries, organisation of communities, 

 creating a link which binds families together, giving them common 

 objects and keeping them in close touch with one another. Upon 

 what may be effected on such ground the Societd Umanitaria of 

 Milan might teach our would-be organisers not a little. 



And then, for social purposes, for community organisation, the 

 binding together of rural families in clusters and groups, in which 



