262 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



adherence to principle. In Co-operation for purposes of 

 credit, on the other hand, laxity — which has been great — 

 has led to a veritable catastrophe, a crash of banks which 

 has astonished all Germany. The Secretary of the Union 

 has tried to explain the serious character of the collapse 

 away. That was like the owner of the horse that died 

 protesting that it was not his system of training the horse 

 to do without food that killed it, but the unfortunate 

 accident of its dying just when he had succeeded in pressing 

 home his lesson. The facts of the case are in themselves 

 too plain and too well known in Germany. Other Unions, 

 no doubt, have likewise had their setbacks. But such arose 

 from totally different causes. The collapse of so many 

 Haas banks, involving criminal prosecutions against 

 a leading officer in the Union, plainly showed that sound 

 business principles has been recklessly set aside. I may say 

 that I foresaw something of the kind as long ago as in 1895, 

 on my first personal acquaintance with those banks. And 

 I am afraid that the matter is not yet wholly done with. 

 For instance, that wholesale practice of giving credit on 

 overdraft, which avowedly is adopted to save the trouble 

 in inquiry into the object of each loan and considering the 

 title of the applicant to it, is, under the circumstances of 

 these societies, distinctly dangerous. In short, credit 

 has been made easy, but at the cost of principle and security. 

 Progress and extension have been forced, where " more 

 haste " must mean " worse speed." And the nobler ideal 

 ends of Co-operation have been placed in the lumber-room. 

 It is all business and — from the Government's point of view 

 that is the main achievement, and one well worth paying 

 for — faithful adherence to the cause of the absolute Crown 

 on the part of the rural population, led, like a flock of 

 sheep, by the junkers onward towards the war of 1914. 



France Hkewise has made the State minister to the cause 

 of Co-operation for purposes of Agricultural Credit — with 

 a very large sum. Its system, very ably administered, is 

 of course designedly different from the German. But it 

 is equally open to abuse. And it has proved so little ideal 

 that it is now to be recast. The Government has made large 



