Early death of his father and brother forced Banaitis to quit school in order to work at his family's farm.

[2] His tutor for the gymnasium entrance examinations was priest Antanas Radušis [lt] who introduced Banaitis to the banned Lithuanian press.

He began smuggling Lithuanian books that were banned by the Tsarist authorities and successfully evaded the police.

Vincas Kudirka visited it in summer 1888 and Juozas Adomaitis-Šernas lived there in spring 1889 hiding from the German police.

He bought equipment in Warsaw from Jonas Smilgevičius and attempted to produce butter and cheese, but other farmers did not support the effort and the enterprise failed.

The permit was received but the authorities demanded to print pro-Russian newspaper Lietuvos balsas (Voice of Lithuania).

[15] The beginnings were difficult – there was a lack of equipment (the first acquisition was a hand-powered Koenig & Bauer press) and of qualified personnel.

[17] In 1907, he published his own translation of seven Japanese fairy tales from Russian to address the public interest in Japan in the wake of the Russo-Japanese War.

[14] The press also printed Lithuanian newspapers Garnys, Viensėdis and magazines Ateitis, Bažnytinė apžvalga, Draugija, Lietuvaitė, Lietuvos mokykla, Nedėldienio skaitymas, Vienybė.

[22] Banaitis wanted to publish it only in Lithuanian, but Ober Ost officials insisted on translating it to German and Polish.

[8] In 1915, Banaitis organized Kaunas chapter of the Lithuanian Society for the Relief of War Sufferers and became its vice-chairman.

Accompanied by a student choir from the Saulė Gymnasium (led by Banaitis' son and future composer Kazimieras Viktoras), the ensemble organized a concert at the Kaunas City Theater on 5 January 1916.

[35] In September 1917, as a member of the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party, Banaitis attended Vilnius Conference and was elected to the 20-member Council of Lithuania.

[36] On 15 January 1918, Banaitis was appointed to a three-member commission to initiate the creation of Lithuanian police and military, but the German administration would not allow it.

[36] When Germany signed the Armistice of 11 November 1918 and Soviet Russia began its westward offensive starting the Lithuanian–Soviet War, Banaitis was active in organizing the Lithuanian Army.

[41] In October 1919, Banaitis began editing and publishing party's newspaper Žemdirbių balsas (Voice of Farmers).

[44] When the publication resumed, Banaitis used the newspaper to advocate against monopoly (particularly for linen production), explain benefits of property insurance, promote the idea of a Farmer's Bank, and agitate against the ruling parties.

[45] After the Union of Lithuanian Farmers failed to win any seats in the October 1922 elections, the newspaper was discontinued on 5 February 1923.

[40] Banaitis returned to publishing in February 1928 when he established weekly newspaper Tautos kelias (Path of the Nation).

[47] The newspaper supported the coup d'état of December 1926 that brought the Lithuanian Nationalist Union and President Antanas Smetona to power.

In June 1928, Banaitis resigned as editor in favor of Algirdas Sliesoraitis, one of the founders of the Iron Wolf organization.

[49] Already in October 1911, Banaitis and lawyer Antanas Petraitis established a small Lithuanian credit union.

[55] However, due to the hyperinflation of the German mark, mishandled transition to the Lithuanian litas, and general mismanagement, the bank suffered major financial losses.

[60] In 1927, Banaitis decided to expand on the shipping business to the Lithuanians emigrants headed towards the South America.

He applied for a permit to establish a bureau of the Hamburg Südamerikanische Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft, but due to financial difficulties it was approved only in June 1928.

[61] A year later, it changed the name to Amerika and represented Lloyd Royal Belge [de] operating from Antwerp.

The Lithuanian government ordered Banaitis to find a different ship owner to represent and, when he failed to do so, terminated the permit for Amerika in March 1931.

Fellow signatories of the Act of Independence Antanas Smetona and Pranas Dovydaitis delivered public speeches.

Family members had to raise funds to save the mortgaged farm in Vaitiekupiai from being auctioned off by a bank.

[67] The farm burned down in 1941; its remnants were destroyed by the authorities of the Lithuanian SSR – stones of the foundations were used to pave roads.