THE PEOPLE'S CREDIT
Greer, Paul
The People's Credit THE POOR MAN'S PRAYER. by George Boyle. Harper. 207 pp. $2.50. CREDIT FOR THE MILLIONS, by Richard Y. Giles. Harper. 202 pp. $2.50. Reviewed by Paul Greer MEN of good will...
...That means, in case of the death or total disability of the borrower, his unpaid debt is covered by a 61/2 cents monthly premium per $100 of outstanding loans...
...The treasurer is usually some one readily accessible...
...today's dilemma lies in how to induce more people to participate in their use...
...The people's credit was like that...
...It would be an excellent idea for each cooperative and credit union to start a bookshelf with these volumes...
...What would the St...
...The total for the opening day was $26.40...
...It is true that the undeserving poor must still rely on the mercies of the loan shark, and that those with assets or known credit standing may obtain loans from commercial banks at a lower rate...
...The Poor Man's Prayer may be, as was Desjardins, a plea for guidance, but it ends for members of his people's banks on a note of thanks...
...Alphonse Desjardins, the French Canadian who transplanted the credit union idea from Germany, uncovered new and better incentives for thrift...
...Loans will also be made for purchase of additional credit union shares...
...There is individual safety in credit union membership, but even more is the spirit of mutual aid...
...God in Heaven...
...They are expected to save regularly if they can...
...Dick Giles tells us that in the United States there are 10,000 credit unions, doing more than one-tenth of the consumer loan business...
...A sense of human solidarity is fundamental to credit unions...
...These instruments of solidarity exist...
...With Desjardins, the unit was the parish...
...But for the great mass of us, men and women with families dependent on our health and income, there are emergencies that seem almost beyond our capacity...
...In the province of Quebec today there are more than 1,000 credit unions, with more than 200 million dollars in assets...
...Lawrence be if those drips of water were separated and scattered all over the mountains...
...In some of the largest cooperatives there is a wicket where the credit union receives deposits or arranges loans...
...Assets of a single Illinois credit union, started by 142 railway clerks 22 years ago, now total more than $4,000,000...
...There are some new wrinkles designed by the Credit Union National Association to encourage the saving habit...
...For instance, all deposits in live credit unions are now matched by life insurance in similar amount...
...Three weeks later the people's bank of Levis took in its first de-posit, 10 cents...
...Little sums all scattered around, each apart from the other...
...I have seen them flourish among North Dakota farmers, among postal workers in many cities, in shoe factories, newspaper plants—and even among minor bank employes, and always with the blessing of the employer...
...Most of them are in industrial states— Illinois has 889...
...Reviewed by Paul Greer MEN of good will in this hate-loaded century need tools...
...If the church in Catholic Quebec had not been alert to the necessity of identifying itself functionally with the community, the opposition of lending agencies might have locked this tool in their vaults...
...No power, no flow, no drive, no source...
...My friend, S. P. Dean, has remade an entire North Carolina Negro community, starting with a credit union...
...Members join a credit union by paying a 25 cents entrance fee and making at least part payment on their first $5 share...
...These two timely books on the beginnings and the becomings of credit unions emphasize the community value of cooperative credit...
...In addition, the insurance principle also is applied to the has itself...
...Loan applications are quickly processed by a committee...
...Herein lies the next step, of providing consumer credit for purchases of durable goods, at the same time avoiding the hidden drain of instalment charges...
...Only as readers are found can more books like these find publication...
...George Boyle, famous among cooperators for his work in Nova Scotia, tells of the meeting 50 years ago that launched the first credit union, at Levis, across the river from Quebec: "Alphonse looked down at the people . . . They save money here and there—in a sock, in a bag, or a bank...
Vol. 15 • March 1951 • No. 3
