A SOCIAL REVOLUTION 151 



the advent into the rural districts of agricultural 

 organization, with its co-operative credit and 

 other advantages, there had been a noticeable 

 decrease in the amount of drunkenness. Not 

 only was this fact verified, but it was soon ac- 

 counted for. Previously the peasants had met 

 at the village tavern on Sunday afternoons, for 

 the sake not so much of actual drinking as of 

 social intercourse. But the weekly gathering 

 at the bank offices made it no longer necessary 

 for them to go to the village inn to meet one 

 another. Hence there was less drinking, and 

 the drunkennness which had long been the curse 

 of many of the villages was steadily declining. 



The good influences thus unwittingly set up 

 were extended in another direction. In many 

 of the Hungarian villages the advent of the 

 co-operative credit bank was followed by the 

 setting-up of a co-operative store and also of 

 a Farmers' Club, all three often being in one 

 and the same building. The Farmers' Club 

 generally takes the form of a library and reading- 

 room, and constitutes both a centre for in- 

 llectual and social development and a distinct 

 counter-attraction to the village inn. 



Nor did the aforesaid moral results end even 

 here. Borrowing from the professional money- 

 lenders under the former conditions had been 



