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CHAPTER XIII. 
agriculturalist, namely, the supply of co-operative credit. The principles of 
co-operative credit have made little progress among the mass of workers 
in factories and mines. Quite apart from any unfitness of the indus- 
trial worker as an individual, the movements among the industrial popu- 
lation form an almost insuperable obstacle to the spread of co-opera- 
tion. Only where there is a regular settled labour force has co-operation 
a chance of succeeding, and even there modifications of the general 
methods of the movement are desirable, if substantial benefit is to be 
obtained. The railways contain much the most important section of 
industrial workers in regular permanent employ, and in recent vears the 
co-operative movement has made considerable progress amongst them. 
We are, however, impressed by the fact that the greatest success is 
attained where the railway administration helps and assumes a consider- 
able measure of control. The collection of instalments of loans through 
the paybills and the delegation of the executive work to a special officer of 
the railway weaken the educative force of co-operation ; but such steps 
make it a much more powerful force for the reduction of debt, and 
having regard to the importance of this object, we have no hesitation 
in recommending that all railway administrations should make persistent 
efforts to help their workers in this way. We commend especially a 
study of the methods adopted on the Bombay Baroda and Central 
India Railway where the Jackson Co-operative Credit Society issued 
loans in the five years 1924-29 amounting to one. and a third crores of 
rupees with losses amounting to less than a thousandth part of the 
collections. A recent development in connection with this society 
deserves the attention not merely of railway administrations but of other 
employers. When the society first started, loans were given only to 
members producing two participants inthe provident fund as sureties. 
This had the practical effect of excluding gangmen and other low paid 
employees, many of whom were heavily indebted. Loans are now given 
to such men provided they produce two sureties with 5 years’ service on 
the railway and provided that the loan is applied to the liquidation of 
debts due to professional money-lenders. The railway staff officer in- 
vestigates such debts and is usually able to compound with the money- 
lender for a smaller sum than that claimed, very large reductions being 
secured in some cases. The debt is then repaid, and by the deduction 
of instalments from pay the debt is annulled. The difficulties in applying 
methods of this kind are to ensure that all loans are disclosed and to 
prevent the debtor from using the improvement in his credit to secure 
further loans from external sources. Something can be done to meet 
these difficulties by the exercise of close personal attention, and the em- 
ployment of a labour officer is almost essential for this purpose. Where 
this condition can be satisfied, there are big possibilities in the way of 
debt liquidation. The work of a labour officer should remove the main 
obstacle tothe working of a co-operative credit society by assuring re- 
gular employment to the workers, and his personal acquaintance with 
them aud interest in them should accomplish the rest. In the initial 
stages, a loan to a society from an employer (or the appropriation of 
fines to its eapital account) may prove of great benefit