THE BANKERS AND 
THE FARMERS. 
Agricultural Credits. 
The general awakening of 
interest in the necessity of 
a better system of credit for 
American agriculture has 
started the bankers studying 
the farmers’ business, and 
it behooves the farmers in 
turn to study the bankers’ 
business, and especially their 
interest in the establishment 
of agricultural credit insti¬ 
tutions. 
The necessity of a more 
readily available capital for 
carrying on the farmers’busi¬ 
ness is granted by everyone 
who has given the least at¬ 
tention to the matter. But 
how this is to be done is the 
point at which the interests 
of bankers and farmers are 
likely to conflict. If there is 
money to loan and securities 
to sell the banker naturally 
wants the business, and he 
wants the business in such 
shape that it will make him 
a good profit. The bankers’ 
associations have taken the 
matter of agricultural credits 
up seriously, and have in¬ 
vestigated the European sys¬ 
tems; their periodicals are 
filled with articles on the sub¬ 
ject. It has become so much 
a live issue that the national 
political parties have included 
it in their platforms, and 
without doubt something will 
be done in the near future to 
establish either public or pri¬ 
vate institutions from which 
farmers may make loans on 
favorable terms. 
Unless the farmers take a 
hand in this, the financial in¬ 
terests of our country are 
likely to shape such institu¬ 
tions to suit their interests 
first and the farmers’ inter¬ 
ests second. Already there 
are suggestions of a large 
central land bank with al¬ 
most unlimited capital for 
financing farmers, of land 
mortgage associations with 
like gigantic capital to handle 
loans on farm real estate. 
But there are some funda¬ 
mental factors concerned in 
the matter that must be ob¬ 
served if a system is estab¬ 
lished that will give the relief 
that is necessary and proves 
the success that similar insti¬ 
tutions have proven in Euro¬ 
pean countries. 
FIRST :— Farmers must be 
represented in its manage¬ 
ment and control. The Ger¬ 
man agricultural credit op- 
Soy Beau. Cow-horn Turnip. Eyo. Crimson Clover. Hairy Vetch. 
SOME OF THE COVER CROPS AT HOPE FARM. Fig. 437. 
ganizations, which are the 
best in the world, are man¬ 
aged by farmers and for 
farmers. They are literally 
a union of the farmers for 
the farmers and by the farm¬ 
ers. Bankers and financiers 
can co-operate and assist such 
organizations, but they can¬ 
not do for the farmers what 
they must do for themselves. 
SECOND :— Farmers’ credit 
organizations must be on a 
limited liability basis. For 
that reason the Raiffeissen 
system which is so widely 
distributed in Europe and by 
many advocated for introduc¬ 
tion in America is not ap¬ 
plicable to our conditions, be¬ 
cause the one thing on which 
Raiffeissen built his associa¬ 
tion was the unlimited lia¬ 
bility of members. It was 
literally “one for all and all 
for one.” The American 
farmer will not become a 
member of an association by 
which he makes himself liable 
for all of his property. With 
a peasant population such as 
the one near where Raiffeis¬ 
sen founded his societies it 
made little difference to the 
members whether they 
pledged themselves for all 
their property or not, because 
they had nothing to lose any¬ 
how. But the American 
farmer will not and should 
not willingly risk his farm 
and all he has by becoming a 
member of an association 
which has unlimited liability 
of its members. 
THIRD:— Farmers do not 
want any subvention or sub¬ 
sidy from the Government. 
France has established her 
agricultural credit institution 
on the basis of free govern¬ 
ment loans and granted legal 
monopolies the privilege of 
furnishing real and personal 
credit to farmers. The farm¬ 
ers of America have no need 
of free loans from the Gov¬ 
ernment; all that they need 
is to sell their credit for what 
it is worth, so that they may 
borrow on as favorable terms 
as other industries. 
FOURTH: — Agricultural 
credit organizations should be 
under Government super¬ 
vision. The bankers probably 
will not endorse this proposi¬ 
tion heartily. But if the in¬ 
terests of the farmers are to 
be protected and the institu¬ 
tions are to be of undoubted 
security they must be under 
direct Government super¬ 
vision. The success of the 
