344 RURAL RECONSTRUCTION 



And the joint stock bank is in a not much better position. " We do 

 not for a moment suppose," so the President of one of the French 

 ' Regional Banks " — which are financed by the State, and which 

 in their turn finance local societies in the main with Government 

 money — " that the State will seriously expect us to refund the money 

 advanced." No such thought occurs to managers of co-operative 

 banks, who deal with money received on their members' security. 



For want of the Government's discovering what is really wanted, 

 the question of credit for small holders has remained unsettled all 

 these years. Land settlement has suffered in consequence, and so 

 has agriculture ; and accordingly also agricultural production, 

 which is professedly the dominating concern of our statesmen, has 

 suffered as well — whereas with co-operative credit adopted on proper 

 lines, as recommended by expert authority, agriculture both in 

 Ireland and in India — not to speak of other countries lying beyond 

 the same influence — has forged ahead mightily, in great part — in 

 India one might say almost exclusively — on the ground of the credit 

 provided. Disappointing is too mild a word to use for the failure 

 so occasioned. Provide for reasonable credit, and the results 

 obtained under Lord Ernie's experiment at Maulden — where 575 

 people applied when eighteen holdings were offered — proves that 

 applicants for land and settlement will not be wanting. Armed 

 with that weapon we may expect to see the countryside filled with 

 settlers, as we desire — probably in little time. It is the lack of 

 money which now keeps them back. 



Land and working funds having been provided, as I will assume, 

 the next want to be met will be this, that the settlers should among 

 themselves close their ranks and join their forces together both for 

 purposes of business and for the creation of social community life 

 and that neighbourly intercourse without which settlement must 

 mean little more than banishment. One cannot imagine Robinson 

 Crusoe altogether happy on his desert island. Common action is 

 required for purposes of agriculture, more particularly among small 

 holders, and community life is essential under a social, and also, in a 

 higher sense, under an educational aspect. That point has already 

 been referred to. The Americans — both President Roosevelt and 

 his " Country Life Commission," with the late Ambassador Page, a 

 prominent pleader for the cause, leading the way — lay great stress 

 upon it, and among other factors to be enlisted in the promotion, 

 single out what they rather comprehensively call " the Church " as 

 called upon to prove an active agent in the furtherance of the work. 



" The Church is," so the Commission states," in a peculiar way 



