A Major Force for Good

Page 57

This drawing of a proposed public restroom appeared on the cover of The Gleaner & Business Farmer in February 1916 along with a story by Grant Slocum. Modern travelers can appreciate the result of the Society’s pioneering efforts in establishing public restrooms. This one in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, was opened in 1917.

After more than a century, it is difficult to know why the Gleaner Bank idea failed to gain support, but we can speculate. The idea of banking by mail was a novel one at a time when parcel post and mail order purchasing were viewed with suspicion by many. Banks projected an image of stability through imposing brick and concrete structures with huge metal vaults. That must have contrasted sharply with the idea of depositing and borrowing money through frail paper envelopes! Then there was the fact that most banks did not fail, and the banker was a local person who was dealt with face to face. For whatever reason, Michigan farmers continued to pay high interest rates and sometimes could not borrow at all.

increase the rates paid by others for deposits, but to reduce the costs of borrowing. It was hoped that at least 1,000 Gleaner members would express an interest in the idea. The Gleaner carried articles favoring the enterprise and printed a coupon that farmers could fill out to indicate their interest. A booklet was printed explaining how deposits and loans could be made by mail. Slocum was highly respected by a large majority of Gleaner members, but he sometimes found it necessary to quiet the critics in advance. In May of 1906 he promised never to borrow a dollar from the proposed bank and to “take all the stock I possibly can.” He also predicted the stockholders would double their money in five years, a move not likely to silence those jealous of his success.

Rural Rest Rooms The effort to encourage towns to build and maintain rest rooms for farm families seems strange today. The reason for the movement is best expressed in an editorial published in The Gleaner in April of 1913:

In February of 1907, an appeal was made to find 200 to 300 Gleaner members willing to invest from $100 to $500 in the Gleaner State Savings Bank. The effort was not successful, and the bank seems to have died before it was born.

“The stinging cold March winds swept across fields and over hills. Here and there romping Boreas caught up handfuls of snow and sleet, which cut like steel as it was thrown in the faces of travelers journeying down the highway toward the Saturday marketplace.

The bank idea was a good one and would have been a great addition to the Gleaner movement. Its customers would have been the same carefully selected people who made the insurance business a success. It might have provided a degree of safety uncommon to private banks and would surely have saved money for the farmers.

Within the little hotel, the only public place in the county seat village, all was cozy and warm. “Drummers,” gazing out of the windows into 45


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A Major Force for Good by Gleaner Life Insurance Society - Issuu