I will illustrate this by what I have seen in a small country
bank in Hesse. But there are many similar examples, both
small and great, to be met with, in various countries. There were
about forty members in that bank, the number being purposely
kept down by means of comparatively large shares (50 marks each)
and an entrance fee, which was likewise purposely fixed at a
high figure, though it had recently been reduced from 25 marks
to 15. The forty members, by dint of trading upon about 300,
who should have been members, and who received 3 per cent
on their deposits, earned for themselves 10 per cent. The
device of fixing the entrance fee high, in order to keep down
the numbers of members and secure an usurious dividend to a
few shareholders, though a flat negation of co-operative practice,
is not unknown in other places. Herr Wrabetz recently publicly
reported the instance of a soi-disant " co-operative " bank in
Austria, which keeps its membership small and select by means
of an entrance fee fixed at no less than 600 crowns, that is,
more than ^£'241 All such abuses should be avoided.
