WORKING CREDIT FOR FARMERS. 267 



proof of the several merits of the two types of Co-operative 

 Credit here presented and, aiming at something that is to 

 do real good and to last, we cannot be at a loss which to 

 choose. 



Quite apart from what has here already been referred to 

 as having happened under other flags, we have quite suffi- 

 ciently illuminating examples to turn to nearer home, 

 showing how utterly uncalled for is that reliance upon State 

 or any other adventitious help, the insistent looking for 

 which has thus far formed an insuperable obstacle in the 

 way of the establishment of that Co-operative Credit in 

 this country without which certainly we cannot look forward 

 to any extensive and successful creation of small holdings, 

 and without which, beyond this, the outlook for the wished- 

 for improvement of our Agriculture must remain doubtful. 



There are good workable systems of " Co-operative Credit " 

 in operation, both in Ireland and in India, both of which 

 can boast of success. The one was begun in 1894, the other 

 in 1904. In both cases — as happens in England at present 

 — at the outset " State help " was eagerly clamoured for. 

 How should a credit movement start without " money " ? 

 In both cases State help was given, but in both cases in a 

 form restricting it within very narrow limits. In Ireland 

 there were very special reasons which made it at first accept- 

 able. However, the result showed not only the instability 

 of such external support, but also its needlessness. What a 

 Plunkett had given a Russell might withdraw — and did 

 withdraw — at a moment when withdrawal meant serious 

 inconvenience to a most useful movement, against which 

 to all appearance the right honourable gentleman acting for 

 the State had set his face, in favour of an abortive intended 

 institution of his own. That affords one more proof of the 

 fact, the truth of which clamourers for State help are so 

 reluctant to see, but which is attested by hundreds of 

 examples elsewhere in economic history, namely, that the 

 State never gives anything but it expects a return, which 

 often enough is out of all proportion to the benefit which 

 it has bestowed. Even Mr. Gladstone has freely confessed 

 — after the event, as recorded in Lord Morley's Life of him 



