240 
Annual Be port of the 
derived from the monthly or annual contributions of members; the 
latter is made up of admission fees and from retaining a percent¬ 
age of the profits in the bank to be distributed in case of dissolu¬ 
tion. Deposits and loans are made, and these, with the active fund, 
constitute the working capital. No interest is paid on contribu¬ 
tions, but members receive a dividend from the general profits aver¬ 
aging some fifteen per cent, per annum, and are allowed advances 
at a low rate of interest, to the amount of their stock, and larger 
sums by giving security of other members. The aggregate busi¬ 
ness of these banks in 1867 was $13,000,000, and the proportion of 
losses was but one-quarter of one per cent., which is creditable 
alike to the administrative ability of the officers and the honesty 
and integrity of its members. 
Hemy Yillard in the Journal of Social Science, volume 1865,1870, 
i 
closes an interesting article upon these banks as follows: “They 
were intended to provide workingmen with the same banking facil¬ 
ities that, previous to their establishment, were the exclusive privi¬ 
lege of the capitalists, and this mission they have certainly ful¬ 
filled. They are now universally appreciated as a healthy and pow- 
ful factor in the social economy of Germany, and as such have 
lately obtained recognition and protection by special laws which 
distrustful governments long hesitated to grant.” 
What the people want is sufficient money to transact the legiti¬ 
mate business of the country, and at such rates of interest as the 
profits on such industries will justify. Supply this want, and our 
people will be employed, speculation upon the necessities of the la¬ 
borer will be crippled, and the outlook for the future be full of hope 
to those engaged in the world’s industries. There is certainly 
something wrong in the distribution of the wealth of our country, 
when capital is doubling in a fraction over seven years; when a 
few, in nearly all of our principal cities are millionaires, living in 
silver palaces, furnished in gorgeous style, at the same time that 
thousands in these same cities, whose labor produced this wealth, 
are to-day asking for employment and cannot obtain it; hence are 
objects of charity in this land of plenty. This accumulative pow¬ 
er of money is the prime cause, and the result of this ruinous sys¬ 
tem will be more and more apparent as it increases in strength and 
power, until we see the property of the country, real estate and 
all, accumulated in the hands of the few, as in England and all the 
