326 PROVISION OF BORROWING FACILITIES. 



has a perfect cognizance of the solvency and status of would-be 

 borrowers, and it can and does examine the purpose of every loan and 

 enforce its due employment, for in a village all is open to the eyes and 

 ears of all ; it establishes among the members the bonds of confraternity 

 and tends to substitute association for suspicion, healthy and active 

 communal, yet personally free, action for individual isolation and 

 inertia ; it forms a centre of local progress and reform. All are 

 admissible, even the poorest, who satisfy the administration that they 

 are worthy of membership, and, as will be seen in Italy, the mere 

 possibility of joining a society has reclaimed men from drunkenness 

 and extravagance, and has given them an impetus to sobriety, 

 industry and even to education in its ordinary sense. 



Objects of a Society. These are well expressed in section 2 of 

 the model Articles : 



"The object of the society is to improve the situation of its 

 members both materially and morally , to take the necessary steps 

 for the same, to obtain through the common guarantee the 

 necessary capital for granting loans to members for the 

 development of their business and their household, and to bring 

 idle capital into productive use, for which purpose a Savings 

 bank will be attached to the society. 



"The Society will also have in view the objects mentioned 

 in clauses 2 to 6 of Article I of the Law for Co-operative 

 Societies of 1st May 1889." 



The objects mentioned in the last sentence are 



(1) The supply of raw materials (e.g., manures, wool, coal &c.). 



(2) The sale in common of the products of agriculture and 



industry. 



(3) Co-operative production and sale. 



(4) The purchase, wholesale, of food-stuffs and agricultura 



necessities and their retail sale to members. 



(5) The acquisition of implements or machines necessary for 



agriculture and industry and their use in common. 



These objects cover a wide field, and, if carried out^ would 

 develop agricidture beyond belief ; it is claimed that these societies 

 are actually developing in the direction here indicated, as will be 

 seen below. 



It should be noticed that in fulfilling the object of improving 

 production, a prime necessity was that of "freeing the members 



