PROVIDING THE FUNDS 147 



The Report of the Royal Commission mentioned emphasised 

 among the various wants specified, specifically the want of credit, if 

 agriculture were once more to come by its own. But the difficulty 

 was to devise means for procuring such credit. Of course, the State 

 was at once thought of in its modern capacity of " universal pro- 

 vider " — that " scoundrel (Racker) of State," as Frederick the 

 Great had called it when protesting against the unceasing demands 

 made upon its chest. The State was freely appealed to, as has become 

 our manner. The State does not indeed stand on trifles now in its 

 generosity to " interests." But it had at the time not yet advanced 

 to its present extreme stage of improvidence. And credit to agri- 

 culture proved a hardish nut to crack. Lending money is, and was, 

 easy enough business. But how about recovery ? And how about 

 making sure of proper employment on the right object ? A private 

 moneylender may use his own judgment and calculation and 

 appraise his own risk, which he takes, exercising his own discretion 

 in the acceptance or refusal of the application. The State can 

 make no difference between good and bad, nor adapt its safeguards 

 to the particular case. All citizens are equally citizens, and its 

 methods necessarily become mechanical, formal and hard-cast. 

 Hence, in part, it comes about that the old difficult, but most 

 important, point of credit is still under consideration, still being 

 debated and still remains undecided. 



In our country, at any rate, the difficulties standing in the way 

 have not yet been overcome. Meanwhile the need has become more 

 marked. Far more is now required for agriculture than used to 

 be the case. We are electrifying and tractoring and motoring 

 everything. Tenants have become owners, often enough against 

 their real wish, finding themselves with larger liabilities laid upon 

 their shoulders, with all their money locked up in their land. Banks 

 have not become more manageable. They are, of course, accommo- 

 dating enough to people who can show that they have ample means 

 to stand the racket — means readily to be made answerable for their 

 liabilities. But the trouble is that in most cases where credit is 

 particularly wanted the means to answer for credit will not reach 

 far enough — other liabilities having grown. The State has set 

 its hand to the work in an amusingly prenticelike fashion. It 

 formally secured the consent of more than a score of big banks to 

 grant cash credits — in cases in which they would have willingly 

 granted such on their own account — on a Government guarantee. 

 But how to guarantee that guarantee in the interest of the tax- 

 payer — how, in other words, to ensure that the case should be good 



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