endeared himself more than ever before to the hearts of the laboring men. He has come into his own, and I am glad to know that he is considered one of the ablest men in the United States Senate to-day. I would not do myself and those I represent justice should I fail to mention the efforts of Congressman Neely, of West Virginia, in behalf of labor. I have learned to love him. He has a heart of gold. When the laboring men of West Virginia realize as truly as I do the fight he is making for labor and labor's rights in West Virginia they too will love him as much as I. Neely has stood for labor and fought every kind of opposition that the ingenuity of those who are against the rights of labor could conceive, and in the face of it all, with threatened political annihilation hurled at him from those who have profited by West Virginia's system of industrial slavery, Neely has been the man who has dared to do his duty toward labor, and laboring men in the first congressional district of West Virginia will not do their duty unless they put up the same stubborn and relentless fight for Neely's reelection that Neely has made for them. This I am sure they will do.

Coming nearer home, we want to say that we are interested in maintaining a Democratic Congress. We want to complete the great work that it set out to do. We appeal to the patriotic men of West Virginia in the words of our great President, "I summon all honest men, all patriotic men, all forward-looking men, to my side. God helping me, I will not fail them, if they will but counsel and sustain me." Let us answer this great appeal. Let us sustain this great administration. Let us elect to help sustain Woodrow Wilson, by electing George I. Neal, your fellow townsman, to the Congress of the United States. I need not tell you that he is worthy of your support. I need not tell you of his loyalty to Wilson and the Democratic administration. I need not tell you of his ability to fill the place. I need not tell you that the laboring people, as well as all others, trust him, for you know all this as well as I. Your duty is clear. We know that his opponent does not deal with any labor organization. We know that in his section of the State corporate power and influence has never permitted union labor to exist. The law of force has prevailed there, and the Baldwin & Felts system of a standing army in times of peace has reigned supreme, ever ready to strike down upon the first suspicion any and all of those who would dare try to exercise the privilege of free American citizens. But why say more? George I. Neal should and will be elected to represent the fifth district of West Virginia in the Congress of the United States.

One more reason why a Democratic Congress should be elected to sustain Wilson is this: In the great world war that is now waging, that is carrying devastation and ruin in its wake, when the strongest and best men of all the countries engaged in this titanic struggle are being killed, when women and little children are being made homeless to die of hunger and starvation, we want our country saved from the ravages of war. And as laboring men must bear the brunt of war, we must do all we can to prevent this country from getting involved in this great conflict. To prevent this is to sustain Wilson. And the United States at peace, is entering upon an area of prosperity that will surpass the fondest dreams of those who are trying to make this Nation the most powerful and respected nation of the world.

O

RURAL CREDITS IN IRELAND

ARTICLE

ON

RURAL CREDITS IN IRELAND

By

WESLEY FROST

UNITED STATES CONSUL
AT CORK (QUEENSTOWN), IRELAND

REPORTED BY MR. FLETCHER

SEPTEMBER 5, 1914.-Ordered placed on the Calendar

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

REPORTED BY MR. FLETCHER.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES,
October 21, 1914.

Resolved, That the manuscript entitled "Rural Credits in Ireland," by Hon. Wesley Frost, United States consul at Queenstown, be printed as a Senate document.

Attest:

JAMES M. BAKER,

By PETER M. WILSON,

Secretary.

Chief Clerk.

RURAL CREDITS IN IRELAND.

By WESLEY FROST, United States Consul at Cork (Queenstown), Ireland. [Forwarded by the Department of State to Hon. Duncan U. Fletcher, chairman of the United States Commission on Rural Credits, July 15, 1914.]

A highly notable report on agricultural credit has been published in Ireland under date of May 20, 1914. The select ccmmittee of the department of agriculture and technical instruction for Ireland, after two and one-half years' labor, now presents to the lord lieutenant general a document comprising 407 quarto pages, prepared throughout with the utmost care and intelligence. As this report will constitute a landmark among recent contributions on the subject, its findings merit synopsis. The character of the people of rural Ireland is more similar to that of American farmers than is the case in continental Europe. On the other hand, the Irish problem is in many ways different from that in America; the long-term or landmortgage credits so prominently urged by the present United States commission are by the Irish committee dismissed as not requisite in view of existing facilities.

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS-ARRANGEMENT OF MATTER.

The net active recommendations of the committee's majority are (1) for the consolidation under a new branch of the department of agriculture of all present governmental agencies for the financial encouragement of farmers in Ireland, and (2) for the systematic promotion by this branch of cooperative credit unions in rural communities. Subsidiary recommendations emphasize the importance of character and ability in the management of loan societies, the need for secrecy and business methods in the conduct of societies, the undesirability of renewals of loans or of excessive loans, and the maladaptation of the principle of unlimited liability to British societies. From the main recommendation for the consolidation and expansion of all rural credit facilities under the department of agriculture four members of the committee express strong dissent, out of a total of eight, but have nevertheless signed the report. Three of the dissentient opinions are based on the belief that cooperative loan associations must take their origin in a quasi evangelistic zeal and altruism which Government employees are not apt to generate or even successfully simulate. These views assume that the present promotion and supervision of credit societies by the Irish Agricultural Organization Society is adequate and satisfactory.

The fourth member who did not concur in the majority findings felt that the extensive existing facilities for credit aid to farmers,

through ordinary commercial means, need not be supplemented. He states:

From the evidence that has been given before us, I have come to the conclusion that the joint-stock banks meet the requirements of those farmers who have need to borrow, and who are in a financial position to do so; and I have great doubts whether increased facilities, or, in other words, "making borrowing easier," would be a wise or prudent innovation. Also I can not accept the principle that increased borrowing facilities are an incentive to thrift.

This member, Mr. Walter Kavanagh, D. L., thought that the witnesses appearing before the committee in the country districts were hesitant and uncertain as to the need or usefulness of further credit societies.

Both principal and minor recommendations contained in the report the latter being too numerous for any summary-are the precipitates from copious and skillfully collated evidence regarding every phase of present and past rural loan conditions in Ireland, studied in the light of other foreign experience; so that the report furnishes a comprehensive and convenient fund of reference information for legislators and economists. Only about one-third of the data relate to the actual operation and results of cooperative credit among Irish farmers. The remainder deal principally with ordinary nonbenevolent loan sources and with advances and grants by governmental or allied organizations.

COMMERCIAL OR NONCHARITABLE MONEY LENDING.

The original condition of the Irish peasantry as to loans was far from favorable. Owing to ignorance, lack of communication, and errors in judgment the really rural neighborhoods were frequently at the mercy of so-called "gombeen men," persons of larger education and capital, who settled into a community and by money lending and legal devices reduced the farmers to a state of wretched dependency and penury. Often the gombeen was a country shopkeeper, and when the spread of intelligence began to hamper his usurious practices was able to cloak and continue his exploitation of his neighbors' necessities by means of store credits, sale of inferior goods. at regular prices, etc. The committee is now able to report that gombeenism is virtually a thing of the past and that abuses by storekeepers have been much diminished much by competition and other forces.

To a deplorable extent, however, the gombeen man has been superseded by the registered town money lender, and the committee treats of the strikingly large quantity of loan-office advertisements which are carried by the average Irish newspaper. At present 241 lenders are registered as in active business, while 400 additional registrations which have lapsed during the period since 1900 indicate the number of transient competitors in this evidently lucrative field. The privacy and accessibility of this source of money lender it peculiarly insidious. Both parties to the transactions are so anxious to avoid the publicity of the courts that legislative attempts to regulate rates of interest or otherwise curb the evil have been foregone as inexpedient. The remedy, it is thought, will be found in providing equally ready and quiet sources in cooperative or other organizations.