rogramme that by far the most interesting study of the
co-operative system can be made, on account of its success in the
poorest parts of the Island. Furthermore, the attempt to enable the most
embarrassed section of the Irish peasantry to procure working capital
illustrates some features of agricultural co-operation which will have
suggestive value for American farmers.

"A body of very poor persons, individually--in the commercial sense of
the term--insolvent, manage to create a new basis of security which has
been somewhat grandiloquently and yet truthfully called 'the
capitalization of their honesty and industry.' The way in which this is
done is remarkably ingenious. The credit society is organized in the
usual democratic way explained above, but its constitution is peculiar
in one respect. The members have to become jointly and severally
responsible for the debts of the association, which borrows on this
unlimited liability from the ordinary commercial bank, or, in some
cases, from Government sources. After the initial stage, when the
institution becomes firmly established, it attracts local deposits, and
thus the savings of the community, which are too often hoarded, are set
free to fructify in the community. The procedure by which the money
borrowed is lent to the members of the association is the essential
feature of the scheme. The member requiring the loan must state what he
is going to do with the money. He must satisfy the committee of the
association, who know the man and his business, that the proposed
investment is one which will enable him to repay both principal and
interest. He must enter into a bond with two sureties for the repayment
of the loan, and needless to say the characters of both the borrower and
his sureties are very carefully considered. The period for which the
loan is granted is arranged to meet the needs of the case, as determined
by the committee after a full discussion with the borrower. Once the
loan has been made, it becomes the concern of every member of the
association to see that it is applied to the 'approved purpose'--as it
is technically called. What is more important is that all the borrower's
fellow-members become interested in his business and anxious for its
success.

"The fact that nearly three hundred of these societies are at work in
Ireland and that, although their transactions are on a very modest
scale, the system is steadily growing both in the numbers of its
adh