WORKING CREDIT FOR FARMERS. 261 



Union, which it had supposed to be abjectly at its mercy, 

 turned out to be strong enough to resist the pressure and 

 promptly to break off all relations with the State bank — 

 after which connecting itself on pure business lines with 

 the great " Dresdner Bank," it found that it did consider- 

 ably better than under the patronage of Dr. Heiligenstadt 

 and his institution. The Union of Trade societies likewise 

 by that time had found out that the Government loans, 

 however sweet they might have been in the mouth, developed 

 a decidedly bitter taste in the belly, and its most trusted 

 advisers urged it to break loose as soon as might be prac- 

 ticable and attach itself to the un-State-aided Schulze- 

 Delitzsch Union. 



Therefore all " co-operative " connection with the State 

 Bank has now come to be reduced to that with the Haas 

 Union. But, to make up for the defection, it has, like its 

 Court at Berlin, extended its sway all over Germany. The 

 Haas Union has likewise grown greatly, by absorbing several 

 erst independent Unions, previously maintaining them- 

 selves distinct for local reasons. It is accordingly now a very 

 powerful, and also in most matters an extremely well-organ- 

 ised Union, but, if the truth be told, attached to its State- 

 endowed banking spouse rather as in a mariage de conve7iance 

 than in a real union of hearts. While Dr. Haas lived, he 

 did not, in private, conceal his impatience at the State 

 Bank's overmastery and his wish to get away from it. 



Now in matters of Co-operation of other forms — buying, 

 selling, production, and the like — which are really matters 

 of business only, the Haas Union has done exceedingly 

 well. Its leader laid himself out for " bulk," which is in 

 such things very essential, and, to secure that, let not a 

 little " principle " go uncared for by the board. As long 

 ago as in 1895 I found decidedly/ bad and faulty societies 

 side by side with exceedingly good ones. It was all the 

 same. The principle followed was : the more the merrier. 

 The toleration of those " limited liability " village banks, 

 which Dr. Haas avowedly — as a letter written to me shows 

 — disapproved of, for the sake of having them in his Union, 

 in itself shows how lax has been his own and his successor's 



