_Third:_ The banks are _for_ the people. The farmers’ money is loaned by the farmer to the farmer at a low rate of interest (usually 4 per cent. to 6 per cent.); the shareholders receiving, on their shares, the same rate of interest that the borrowers pay on their loans. Thus the resources of all farmers are made available to each farmer, for productive purposes. This democratic rural banking is not confined to Germany. As Henry W. Wolff says in his book on coöperative banks: “Propagating themselves by their own merits, little people’s coöperative banks have overspread Germany, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Belgium. Russia is following up those countries; France is striving strenuously for the possession of coöperative credit. Servia, Roumania, and Bulgaria have made such credit their own. Canada has scored its first success on the road to its acquisition. Cyprus, and even Jamaica, have made their first start. Ireland has substantial first-fruits to show of her economic sowings. “South Africa is groping its way to the same goal. Egypt has discovered the necessity of coöperative banks, even by the side of Lord Cromer’s pet creation, the richly endowed ‘agricultural bank.’ India has made a beginning full of promise. And even in far Japan, and in China, people are trying to acclimatize the more perfected organizations of Schulze-Delitzsch and Raffeisen. The entire world seems girdled with a ring of coöperative credit. Only the United States and Great Britain still lag lamentably behind.” BANKERS’ SAVINGS BANKS The saving banks of America present a striking contrast to these democratic banks. Our savings banks also have performed a great service. They have provided for the people’s funds safe depositories with some income return. Thereby they have encouraged thrift and have created, among other things, reserves for the proverbial “rainy day.” They have also discouraged “old stocking” hoarding, which diverts the money of the country from the channels of trade. American savings banks are also, in a sense, banks _of_ the people; for it is the people’s money which is administered by them. The $4,500,000,000 deposits in 2,000 American savings banks belong to about ten million people, who have an average deposit of about $450. But our savings banks are not banks _by_ the people, nor, in the full sense, _for_ the people.