New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-04-03

row at FIVE per cent will pay twenty for q contiu-
uance of the loan. What, then, would be the con
diton of the owner Of real estate subject TO mort
gage, the interest on which might be raised at
any moment land it is in reference to landed
property that the chief importance attaches 70
this question Of the abolition or maintenance of
the Usury Laws.
The proportion which loans on mortgage bear to
loans on personal property, is probably ten TO one
1t would be difficult 70 form any estimate OF the
amount, but it is probably greater than in France
and there il was ten years since 81, SOC, OOO,OOO
having grown in the previous ten years 25
per cent. and 10 akiDg the same allowances Tor the
past ten wears, il would be now g. los, 900 000.-
Admitting this to be the sum for this country, it
will be seen how enormous would be the mass OF
loans liable to be called in, because Of deficiency
Of from thirty to forty millions 70 meet the de
mands Of England, and how vast the sacrifice OF
property, unless the hapess owners OF real estate
throughout the country were prepared to pay ten,
fifteen or twenty per cent. interest.
IN rejecting upon this subject it must always be
borne in mind that landed property broughtto sale
in period OF crisis always shows greater de-
cline of price than any other, because it is thing
that cannot be expended. The merchant Will
purchase CLOTH or iroD or -four, at asmall diminu-
tion Of price, because he can send them TO other
countries where no crisis exists; but he cannot
do 80 with house or farm. They must stay
ard ride out the storm Abolish the Usury Laws,
then, and believe it safe to say, that In the next
crisis the time for which is probably not far dis.
tant large portion of the whole real estate Of
the country would change owners.
The difficulty with those who seek the abolition
of these laws il, that they do not .ook deep
enough to find the reasons why they have thus
long been maintained, notwithstanding our ten,
dency toward freedom Of action, aud thought and
trade But for repeated crises, they would long
since have disappeared, and the causes OF those
crises are invariably to be found In England,
while their intensity has as invariably been In
the ratio Of our dependence on the Enslish none
tsry system. In 1910, we owed that country
probably two hundred millions of dollars, but we
could not pay, and we had no means Of supplying
ourselves " it'll cloth or iron but by running
further into debt. She would trust as no longer,
and the manufacturers OF England were dis
tressed by the absence OF our demand, the conse-
quence Of which was that the farmer had no
foreign market for mis- food and the planter no
market for his cotton or his tobacco, except at
ruinous prices The compromise had ruined in
succession both the domestic and the foreign mar
kets for both farmer and planter
In 1878 how great was the difference Under
tt e influence Of the tariff Of 1912 we had become
in a great measure independent Of England, and
her crisis was unfelt We owed her less tnan
we had done for seven years BEFORE and we had
no need TO ask for credit because we were
making our own cloth and iron The farmer had
a market at home for Food, and the planter one
for Cotton, while our demands on Europe for the
produce of her spindles and looms were greater
than they had ever been before, That crisis did
not therefore, effect any portion of the nation
At the next one the case will be widely different
We are now rendering ourselves daily more and
more dependent the power TO purchase on
credit, and go soon as that power shall cease to
exist, the diminuton Of our power TO purchase
from England will be accompanied by dlmlnu'
ton in her power to purchase from our planters
and farmers, and thus we shall probably see the
scenes of 1912 repeated With such warnings
as they have had Of the instability of the prices
of money, the farmers Of this country will never
repeal the Usury laws unless they can have first
provided for them some security against the re-
currence of changes similar to those they wit
messed, and that can be provided in no other form
Than that of an efficient tariff for protection. Let
the opponents of the Usury laws make besla,
ming there, and they will have success that will
be perm snent Let them continue to make war
upon those laws alone, and their success, If any,
will and must be temporary A single crisis Will
restore them. h.