134 THE FARMER AS A BUSINESS MAN. 



same farmers become prosperous, and deposit their surplus in 

 savings-banks, or possibly buy a little bank stock, they are 

 quite sure to prom[)tly call for their dividends upon the first 

 of January and July, and to roundly blame the management 

 if they are not satisfactory. Throughout the country there 

 are thousands of poor people whose little all is invested in 

 savings-banks, and who depend for their means of living upon 

 the regular dividends. These, however, can not be paid unless 

 debts due to the banks are promptly met. In the main the 

 money of the banks, and especially of country banks, is owned 

 by comparatively poor people, whose small deposits, when 

 combined, form the capital which is available for loaning. 

 When, therefore, farmers denounce "banks," they attack, for 

 the most part, poor people like themselves. It is true that in 

 large cities tliere are large financial institutions which control 

 great blocks of accumulated capital owned by capitalists. 

 These, also, have their functions, which it would require a 

 volume to intelligently explain and discuss. They are essen- 

 tial to society as it exists. Without them the great financial 

 operations of the age would be impossible. They loan great 

 sums of money at low rates, upon unimpeachable security. It 

 is through them that governments and large municipalities 

 borrow money in time of need, and that the great railroad and 

 other corporations float their indebtedness. They are not 

 themselves "monopolists," but they supply the means by 

 which only are "monopolies" possible. Their function is 

 limited to collecting and fending great sums of money at very 

 low and* constantly decreasing rates of interest. By this tax- 

 ation is reduced, as well as the cost of service in all the most 

 important departments of life, and they thus render a service 

 to society. So far as these loans are made to the public, 

 society at large is a direct gainer, because it borrows money 

 in amounts and at rates which would be unattainable without 

 the agency of these institutions. In lending money these 

 concerns make the best terms possible for themselves, just as 

 the farmer does in selling his products. If loanable capital 

 at any time happens to be scarce, those who have it will set 

 their own price to those who are in great need of it, just as the 



