AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN THE UNITED STATES 965 



less. Making the bonds of the Landschaften legal investment 

 for trust funds and the like has made it harder, Trosien declares, 

 for farmers to obtain credit from these institutions, because it has 

 forced the latter to employ more rigid methods in making loans. 

 Not only does direct financial aid by the state tend to de- 

 moralize the individual but in the long run it also dries up 

 the sources of credit. This is the testimony of most of the 

 Europeans who have given their lives to the solution of the 

 problems of agricultural credit. Some of them at first advocated 

 state aid ; but when confronted with its results, they became its 

 ardent opponents. In response to appeals from the leaders of 

 the cooperative-credit movement, for example, the Prussian Gov- 

 ernment established the Prussian Central Cooperative Bank ; but 

 despite the excellent management of the bank, it soon became 

 apparent that it was stifling the cooperative-credit movement, 

 and the latter has for some time been trying to shake itself 

 free from the Bank's grasp. In a recent letter to the writer 

 a leading German professor of economics states, "It is true that 

 the central cooperative banks of the farmers, namely, the Agri- 

 cultural Central Loan Bank of the Raiffeisen cooperative societies 

 and the Agricultural Imperial Cooperative Bank in Darmstadt, 

 have not thriven well. The main reason is that the Central 

 Cooperative Bank, founded in Prussia with the aid of an interest- 

 bearing state loan, has drawn to itself the equalization business 

 of the provincial central cooperative banks. The Prussian Central 

 Cooperative Bank is very cleverly and energetically administered, 

 so that the competing institutions were in a difficult position." 

 At the International Cooperative Congress in 1894 the question 

 of state subventions received much attention. A few extracts 

 will show the drift of the statements made on this occasion by 

 the European leaders. Doctor Alberti of Germany declared, 

 " Every manner of subvention by the state must be rejected. 

 And my opinion, supporting this argument, is based on forty 

 years' experience." Herr von Elm expressed strong objection 

 to state aid and said that the state should confine its efforts to 

 education and emancipating laws, that it should " give the agri- 

 culturists elbow room and let them alone." M. Fiiredi of Hungary 



