204 PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE LIFE 



The banks have proved a signal success, a 

 reasonable return on the small capital involved 

 is secured, and a defaulter is a very rare 

 phenomenon. 



There is surely no valid a priori argument 

 against the benefits of these banks amongst 

 ourselves. If sound character is found to be 

 the best possible security on the Continent it 

 can safely be relied on in England. It would 

 be humiliating to suppose that farmers and 

 peasants in other countries can be trusted, 

 while our own fellow-citizens cannot. Nor, 

 indeed, can this suspicion hold the field for a 

 moment in view of what has actually taken 

 place in Ireland, where co-operative credit 

 banks are working with excellent results ; in 

 view, too, of the indubitable integrity of our 

 English small-holders proved by the experience 

 of the Commissioners and County Councils. 

 Small as the progress of co-operative credit in 

 Great Britain is up to the date of writing, the 

 record of the forty-five societies already 

 established in England and Wales is encourag- 

 ing. But when one reflects that in Servia 

 there were, in 1906, including local branches, 

 no less than 750 of these banks, our national 

 backwardness in this useful and almost 

 essential enterprize is certainly remarkable. 

 We can only hope that the efforts of our Board 



