404 PROVISION OF BORROWING FACILITIES. 



who showed their approval by donations to the Raiffeisen Central 

 Loan Bank, and rulers of Federal States) and the Co-operative Unions, 

 which have acted in their several districts as the intelligent organisers 

 and advisers of co-operative effort in all its branches, may be 

 mentioned, (1) the agricultural organisations, and especially since 

 their creation under the Prussian Act of 1894, the Chambers of 

 Agriculture in Prussia; and similar bodies in other States ; (2) 

 clergymen ; (3) teachers and communal officials in rural districts ; (4) 

 larger landowners ; and (5) various educational institutions. 



RAIFFEISEN, the mayor of a small, remote district, was first given 

 the opportunity of putting his ideas into practice outside his own 

 restricted area by the Agricultural association of the Rhine province. 

 His book describing his system appeared in 1866, when he had already 

 founded five credit banks, and attracted in the same year the attention 

 of the Association which was considering means for improving credit 

 facilities for the farmers of the province. In 1868 RAIFPEISEN was 

 commissioned by the Association to establish credit societies within its 

 area, and within a year he founded 12 new societies. Shortly after 

 he was placed in charge of Aid department for Loan Banks established 

 by the Association as a branch of its work. Similar associations 

 throughout Germany took up gradually the active furtherance of the 

 credit society movement. 



Unlike SCHULZE-DELITZSCH, who conceived his societies as purely 

 business organisations, RAIFFEISEN always laid stress upon the moral as 

 well as the material aims of his societies, which "rest upon a Christian 

 foundation" and "aim at promoting the moral and material welfare of 

 members/' Clergymen of all denominations in most parts of Germany 

 have given their constant and active support to the Raiffeisen banks 

 since their inception. At the present time large number of clergymen 

 are to be found acting as chairmen or members of committees of 

 management and of boards of supervision, and in some cases they 

 undertake the duties of secretary. Rural teachers and communal 

 officials have rendered great services to the Raiffeisen societies, not 

 only by encouraging their establishment and becoming members, but 

 also by accepting in large numbers the most responsible offices srcch as 

 those of chairman of committee and of secretary. Agricultural 

 colleges of every grade, which are more numerous in Germany than in 

 England, usually include in their curriculum a course of lectures on 

 agricultural co-operation, while at several Universities (e.g., Berlin 



