SHORTCOMINGS OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 35 



Central Bank and political authorities, and, once more, by 

 public offices directed by the Government, more particularly 

 of the army — which were instructed to patronise the Organi- 

 sation by purchasing produce directly from its societies 

 in large quantities and at good prices— the societies of the 

 new " Union " had no reason to complain of neglect. And 

 there was help given in other ways, not to mention the galaxy 

 of decorations showered upon leaders. With such help from 

 all the High ]\Iightinesses of the Empire, Herr Haas's Union 

 shot up hke a Jonah's gourd, covering much ground and 

 doing well in the ordinary business of organisation, which 

 is joint buying and selling. I have found very bad societies 

 by the side of exceedingly good ones, which shows that 

 principle was freely sacrificed to expediency, for the sake 

 of enlisting " big battahons." And in matters of finance, 

 the disastrous collapse of a whole big cluster of banks in Hesse 

 about 1911, under Herr Haas's own personal presidential 

 guidance, shows that there were very weak spots in the 

 system. The financial supremacy of the Central Bank, 

 specious as had been the promises made, was not altogether 

 an easy burden to bear. I have found Herr Haas himself and 

 his fellow- Committeemen extremely irate at the manner in 

 which subjection was enforced, and resolved, if it could 

 only be done, to shake off the yoke. 



From an economic point of view, all this State spoon- 

 feeding proved quite unnecessary — as unnecessary as it 

 was irksome and hampering. Progress would have been 

 slower without it, but far more solid and enduring. The 

 great Schulze Delitzsch Union, turning over very much 

 more money than Herr Haas's Union, never took one single 

 stiver from that State institution. And the Raiffeisen 

 Union, which in a weak moment allowed itself to be drawn 

 into the spider's web, after promptly breaking off relations 

 —the moment that it discovered Dr. Heiligenstadt, in his 

 over-confidence in his power, reveahng his cloven foot of 

 intended dictation — found that it did very much better 

 without the State bank's aid, depositing with, and borrow- 

 ing from, a great Joint Stock bank on pure business lines. 

 However, the pohtical service rendered to the Throne, by 



