26o THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



for " co-operative " credit societies under Dr. Haas, and 

 the movement, becoming more and more squire-led, and 

 more and more " imperial," in the sense of cultivating 

 devotion to the Emperor, came to flourish like a green bay- 

 tree, and to spread out its branches like the tree of 

 King Nebuchadnezzar's dream — more especially while the 

 " Silesian Bismarck," Herr von Huene, an Agrarian and 

 "Emperor's friend" to the core, remained President of 

 the State Bank. He was very " kind " to Co-operation and 

 did not stumble at bank dividends of i and i^ per cent. 

 However, Herr von Huene came to be replaced in his office 

 by a new chief who, being more of an official than of a 

 politician, for his own protection saw reason to make the 

 existing arrangement more businesslike, which meant less 

 " kindness " to the societies. As early as in 1898 accordingly 

 the Haas Union came to rise in open revolt against the State 

 Bank, and in confidence Dr. Haas owned to me, at the Con- 

 gress of his Union held at Carlsruhe in that year, his impa- 

 tience to throw off the galling fetters. " We hold £1,500,000 

 in deposits ! " Alas, that was not nearly enough. And 

 it did not " lie " firm. Our South African war— in con- 

 sideration of which we called in our foreign loans — depleted 

 German hoards. Deposits were withdrawn in large amounts 

 from savings banks, co-operative banks, and all kinds of 

 financial institutions. And the Haas Union had to creep 

 at heel and accept the State Bank's conditions — which, 

 barring its aiming at dominion, were reasonable enough, 

 in the interest of security and self-supporting business. 

 The State's Bank's aim of becoming absolute mistress of 

 of Co-operative Organisations, as its imperial chief was, 

 in politics, master of his empire, came to be more clearly 

 confessed in 191 1, when an attempt was openly made by 

 the State Bank to break up the great Raiffeisen Union — 

 which, weakly, had late in the day consented, after much 

 persuasion, to become a client of the State Bank — in order 

 to make its provincial sections individually dependent upon 

 the State Institution alone, which was to have an abso- 

 lutely free hand in directing them. In this move the State 

 Bank had reckoned without its host. For the Raiffeisen 



