COOPERATIVE LAND BANES 459 



regular selling price. He then organized a cooperative 

 association for the purchasing of cattle. Both ventures 

 were highly successful from the start. 



Raiffeisen then gathered these good, honest, but poverty- 

 stricken peasants together and explained to them in plain 

 speech that the cause of most of their woes was their own 

 mistrust of one another. He told them to get together 

 and combine their resources, forget their differences, 

 and present a united front to the evils which oppressed 

 them. 



" If you who trust one another organize into a society 

 to form a savings and loan bank to which character is the 

 prime requisite for membership and to which you will 

 pledge all the property you own, we can dig a channel 

 for credit. We will keep our own money in the district 

 and we will attract savings. Bankers will loan on the 

 property of all of us, so that money will come to us when 

 we need it to help us in our production. Indirectly the 

 whole district will benefit. 



" We can accept savings from anybody, but loan only to 

 members, and to them only for purposes which will bring 

 increase. We will pay only a moderate interest on 

 savings, and then it will be necessary to ask members to 

 pay only a little more for their loans. To make a loan 

 we may take the same sort of securities as other banks. 

 We may loan on personal security if we keep a high 

 standard of membership. If money is needed for any 

 reason, any one of you may go to your neighbor and 

 show him what you want to do and why it will be 

 profitable for you to do it. If he approves it, bring him 

 with you to the bank. If he is willing to sign your note, 

 becoming your surety, the bank must consider the loan, 

 investigate it, and upon your promise to use it for the 

 purpose stated will advance you the money. 



