Cooperative Banks 129 



with the palatial buildings that banks are able 

 to erect. In other countries there are cooper- 

 ative associations that find money for their 

 members to use in the making of the crops. 

 Because of the prosperity and consequent 

 independence of the American farmer, the lack 

 of loanable capital has not been a serious 

 handicap, except perhaps in the South, but he 

 could nevertheless use such capital to very 

 great advantage. 



A fault with our banks, considered from the 

 standpoint of the development of the commun- 

 ity, is the fact that they loan only on property, 

 thereby eliminating the poor farmer just in the 

 proportion of his needs. Moreover, they loan 

 on too short time, as a rule, to cover the mak- 

 ing of a crop. The result is that the farmer is 

 driven to the merchant and the usurer. In the 

 South, where the lien system has been in oper- 

 ation, the merchant is likely to refuse to loan 

 to a man who desires to change his system of 

 farming, even to improve it, fearing that it may 

 be only an experiment ; the result is that the 

 lien system becomes a preventive of progress. 



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