PROVIDING THE FUNDS 165 



months — reviews all that the committee has done. It may act as 

 auditor, auditing the accounts. That is not, however, advisable in 

 large banks. For the object of its existence is, rather, to judge 

 whether the committee has used its discretionary powers aright, to 

 see whether the committee has in its acts sufficiently safeguarded 

 the interests of the bank — kept loans within proper limits, made 

 sure of adequate and good security, seen to it that the security has 

 not deteriorated, and so on. It also inquires into the employment 

 given to specific loans, into the periodical part-payments stipulated 

 for, and the rest of it. At the close of the year the " board," like 

 the " committee," presents a report, reviewing, among other things, 

 the acts of the " committee," so as to place the annual meeting, which 

 is the supreme authority in all matters, and in which it is essential 

 that membership, not the amount of the several holdings in shares, 

 should determine the vote, each member having a vote, and only 

 one, in a position to judge and to give its discharge and approval. 



Such is, in brief outline, the organisation of the co-operative 

 banks now spoken of. The epitome of it here given has advisedly 

 been kept brief. In the practical application there are modifications 

 in various countries or unions in details. Thus in Italy the manag- 

 ing committee is much larger and the current executive work is 

 entrusted to three sindaci, elected from out of the number of the 

 committee (consigio), acting in turns, one at a time, on whose 

 shoulders thus a rather heavy burden is laid. It is the committee 

 (consigio) which acts as controlling body. In Belgium the control of 

 the committee's doings is entrusted to one censeur. In France, so 

 far as co-operative banking of this type goes, which is not a 

 great distance, supervision is committed to three censeurs. In 

 essentials the system remains everywhere unchanged. It will of 

 course depend upon the conduct of the executive authorities and 

 the vigilance of members, how the bank develops. The experience 

 of some seventy years has shown that in itself the organisation is 

 absolutely sound. Loss is as effectually guarded against as it 

 possibly can be in any man-made sublunary institution. 



It will have been observed that the credit given is hedged in with 

 a quadruple row of safeguards — counting the election of the member 

 as one. Of course credit business, in the sense here spoken of, is 

 permitted only with members. No outsider is entitled to a loan, or 

 ought to have one. For the investment of surplus funds invest- 

 ment outside the bank will sometimes prove inevitable. But that 

 is another matter altogether. The granting of credit to members of 

 the executive and controlling bodies has presented some difficul- 



