WORKING CREDIT FOR FARMERS. 271 



which the late Lord ^^'elby was doubtful, until I completely 

 reassured him by explaining that the more searching control 

 there is, the better shall we co-operators be pleased. For 

 control is the soul of the thing. It was want of proper 

 control which wrecked those ill-fated Hessian banks of the 

 Haas Union. Such control necessarily must be carried 

 out by the movement itself, through its properly selected 

 and appointed men ; because no one else possesses a suih- 

 cient knowledge of the facts and principles coming into 

 account, or the same interest in keeping things safe. A 

 Government officer or an auditor or clerk from an ordinary 

 bank would be wholly out of place in undertaking the task. 

 Control ought also to be actually paid for by the movement 

 itself. It is worth the money to those in the movement. 

 However, the child sent to school cannot pay for its own 

 schooling. Alike in India and in Ireland the movement 

 is still too veak to be able to bear the entire cost of inspec- 

 tion, such as there should be, out of its own means. In 

 Ireland, to provide it with such means, we have tried to 

 secure for it the power to practise distributive Co-operation 

 such as Raiffeisen societies abroad enjoy and practise, so 

 far as it is required, with excellent results. There is no 

 danger whatever in the exercise of such powers by small, 

 strictly localised societies such as the Irish. The House of 

 Lords unanimously and enthusiastically endorsed our 

 demand. But that demand was resisted in DubHn in the 

 interest of gombeen men, whose profitable " trade " — I 

 should feel inchned to call it " blood-sucking " — was not to 

 be taken from them. The questions constantly put to me, 

 when giving evidence before a Departmental Committee 

 about the effect of Co-operative Credit, sufficiently prove 

 this. And it was also resisted in the interests of a new-fangled 

 " non-controversial " scheme of " Co-operation," which 

 has been explained as meaning " Co-operation " without 

 actual business — " Hamlet " without the Prince — which 

 has failed to bear fruit. Probably in deference to such 

 resistance the demand was frowned upon at Whitehall and 

 momentarily stopped by the refusal of facilities for proceed- 

 ing with the Bill in the Commons by the Government of 

 the day. 



