PROVIDING THE FUNDS 149 



ditions as they now stand, credit may be obtained, at their dis- 

 posal, whereas the small holders coming newly into the field in their 

 thousands — as we desire — are likely to be blessed with considerably 

 less of that convenient commodity which, as matters stand, secures 

 credit, and in many cases with none whatever. 



Under such conditions, not only is there much less prospect of 

 the State being able, out of its own chest supposed to be bottom- 

 less, to supply what is needed, but, in addition, the entire nature of 

 the credit to be given — if it can be given— comes to be changed, and 

 credit will for its security have to be based upon something else 

 than tangible and attachable and readily convertible property. 



Now the accomplishment of this task is a problem upon which 

 men making a special study of it have been engaged abroad for 

 seven or eight decades back, and for which they have found and 

 provided a decidedly — indeed triumphantly — successful solution, 

 wearing different shapes, so as to suit varying circumstances, but 

 based throughout upon the same immutable principle. Self-help 

 has been called to the rescue. And self-help has settled the job. 



Since, under the altered conditions of the problem, attachable 

 property will, in many cases at any rate, have to be dispensed 

 with as immediate security, inasmuch as farmers' chattels want to 

 be kept available for use, and farm produce constitutes a most 

 undesirable security to hold, it is plain that the security to be 

 asked for will in the main have to be personal ; and, that being so, 

 the points first suggesting themselves for consideration are the 

 estimate to be formed of the character of the applicant for a loan, 

 a judgment upon the profitableness of his proposed enterprise, in 

 order that the debtor's value may not deteriorate, and the pros- 

 pect, or certainty, of repayment. 



However there is another point still which may justly and pre - 

 cedently be raised, and that is, why the State should be called in 

 at all to act as moneylender, as many people demand, supposing 

 that borrowers are able to help themselves. The dignitas nodi for 

 the intervention of this " deity " has thus far certainly not been 

 made out, save in quite exceptional cases, such as are not likely 

 to be met with among ourselves — say, in the poverty-stricken dis- 

 tricts of Southern Italy, where, in truth, security of tenure accorded 

 to the small tenants would be a far more effective remedy for the 

 evil to be dealt with. Even among the poorest of our Indian rayats 

 self-help has been found capable of providing what was needed. 

 Indeed, State help, where applied under circumstances like those 

 here contemplated, has distinctly failed to produce half as satis- 



