New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-03-26

Lake Enc at cost nOt eACeeuihS I0n
dollars for motive power; but to perfect
this invention need FIVE thousand dol
lars. Lend me that sum: and if my In
.vention proves a failure, you must lose
your money; but if it proves what be-
lieve it will, will pay you twenty thou
sand rs.'-Here is quadruple re-
turn for money lent yet no real usuryi the
vital consideration being risk and not for
bearance.
But aside from the risk of nom payment,
which is an element in every contract tor
loan which ought to be and is considered
in the amount of return to the lender, tho
stipulated time of repayment end the GER
tainty that that time will not be exceeded,
are controlling elements in the bargain.
We may roughly approximate the rate OF
interest on loans of various kinds or classes
as follows:
I When PAYABLE on demand and secured by "a
ample Dep st Of securities tssocks) al all
times convertible on tbe instant. ........2 per cenL
2 When payable demand, and amply Sc
cured. lot the securities Qand &c requir
per cent
8. When amply cusrante.d by securities in-
slautly conveiubi but payable 80 some
liked period, future bat not distant: ..St per cent
g. The same ben payable at distant day ...4 per cent
5. " hen payable 81 al early day, but glaran- -.
i-ed BY securities not reaciy congeruoe.o per cent
g. When payable sfAr OF ami guaranteed by
ample hut slOW securities. per cent
?. When unsecured, but drawn and endorsed
by men reported amply and unqdesuonaDiy
solvent per cent.
We DO rot pretend to accuracy in this
Classification, but only to state how and
why notes accounted good have very difle-
rent values or are discounted at widely
diverse rates, wholly apart from considera-
tons of UsuIy.
- Well says a Free Trader, since
you admit that different rates of interest
may faihy be exacted and paid at the
same time, why not abolish all Usury
Laws and let every one make his own
bargains for the use of money! Why
will lot money, like water, find It's own
level 1.-THE questions are fair ones, and
shall be fairly answered.
l. Every man is no'0 practically at lib
erty to pay any rate Of interest he sees fit
to. Nobody is ever prosecuted for Usury'
All that the Usury Laws amount to is re-
fusal of the arm of the law to coSrce the
PAYMENT of usurious loans. 1.-THE borrower
chooses to pay aud can pay extra interest,"
the law stands mute; but if he don't
choose to pay, the law refuses to compel
him. 1t virtually says to the Lender:
You chose to put your contract out of the
pale Of legal protection by exacting extra
interest; now collect your debt as you
can.
.. AS to the practical effect Alabama
commenced her existence as State on the
principle of perfect freedom in money-lend-
ing and the legal enforcement of all voIun-
tary contracts according to their tenor. At
ter few years. trial, she gave up free
trade in money and enacted Usury Law
because she found by experience that the
big fish were eating up the little ones with
such voracious rapidity as to threaten their
entire humiliation. Loans fairly secured
at ten per cent. a month were not uncom-
mon; the market value Of money having
marvellous tendency upward in the atmos-
phere of freedom. So young Wisconsin
recently decreed free trade in money
among her first acts of State Legislation,
bat is now backing square out of it, having
learned by dear bought experience that the
abolition of Usury Laws operates in favor
of the money lender and against everybody
else. The experience of California has
been very similar. Our impression is that,
while several States have tried the aboli-
ton of Usury Laws, no one has persevered
in doing without them for term of ten
years.
These remarks are not intended to dis
courage any amendment of our Usury Laws.
We think they might be improved, but not
by utterly abolishing them, nor even com
ing so near it as the Assembly Committee
proposes. We should be willing to allow
the risk of q notes non payment to be
insured and paid for, and to compel the
debtor in a usurious contract to pay the
principal borrowed by him, Furnishing the
lender Gf at alD some other way than by
enabling the borrower to withhold from him
the sum actually loaued. We would ac-
quiesce in a modification, but not in re-
peel, of the system of REFRESHING usury by
law.
| Green on Gambling.
| ~ Green's Rennrt No ON Gannh lin O