422 BANKS AND MONEY. 



that kind of poverty which produces crises is never more fostered 

 than when bankers encourage useful things, things useful twenty 

 years from this day. The railroad does not replace its money for 

 fifty years. If the actual outlay is 10,000,000, this 10,000,000 

 spent in food, etc., are not replaced for fifty years. The nation is 

 poor for fifty years. Now, go on with that poverty, and the bedevil- 

 ment of the money market will go on. The broker between the two 

 men finds that his deposits are coming short, which means that there 

 is no longer any sale of goods. Why ? Because you have been de- 

 strojdng the wealth of the country in a way which will lose it for 

 fifty years. It is no better, as far as banking is concerned, than if 

 you had chucked it into the sea. The savings of the nation is the 

 excess of the things it makes in comparison with the things it con 

 sumes, and that excess, if it employs it wisely, will make the nation 

 richer. But if it &quot; chucks &quot; it into the sea, it will remain station 

 ary. The secret of crises is the building, beyond the savings, of 

 useful and valuable works. 



It is claimed that the English Cooperative Associations are 

 the best financial successes in the world. That of Rochdale, 

 in England, was started by twenty-eight men. After a pro 

 longed strike of the flannel manufacturers, which ended in the 

 utter defeat of the working men, a few of them met together, 

 about thirty years ago, and said one to another: &quot;Is it not pos 

 sible, instead of the constant strife with capital, which is too 

 strong for us, that we can use the capital spent in this way by 

 ourselves, and do something to become our own employers?&quot; 

 That was at the bottom of the idea of starting a cooperative 

 store, and the twenty-eight men then commenced the Roch 

 dale Society, with a capital of 28 ($140), which at the present 

 time numbers 7,000 members, one for each house in town, and 

 now have an accumulated capital of 150,000 ($750,000), and 

 distributes profits among the working men of the town of be 

 tween $150,000 and $200,000, annually. The educational funds 

 of the society amount to more than $5,000 yearly; and out of 

 the Rochdale store has sprung a cotton mill and flannel manu 

 factory, which employs a capital of $700,000, in addition to its 

 other capital needed in various ways. The Executive Commit 

 tee of the National Grange have recommended the Rochdale 

 plan of cooperative societies as worthy of imitation by Patrons. 



There are at present seven hundred and fifty cooperative 

 societies in England, representing a business capital of not less 

 than $50,000,000, and the profits amount to more than $3,- 

 800,000 annually. Taking the good, bad and indifferent coop 

 erative societies into account, we find that the average expense 



