The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-08-30

I lll6 CpnCtTn ~ dn dIN
profitable close for the nOn-borrowing
members.
BuI 10 proceed with the working oi
the Terminating plan The successful
! bidder and borrower having secured
his S2 90 by agreeing to return $1,000
! or 81, 5000, as the case may be, has now
to pay ten per cent of his debt To The
society annually, in monthly install
menIs, for ten years. besides the week
! ly due.of one dollar, until all the shares
| are satisfied and the concern is closed.
| He of course makes all haste to com
plete his building or his purchase, and
transfer his family to his own house.
! Ten per cent per annun on the actual
! loan (S2 00O) will not be u more extruva-
giant rent, provided the property was
| we'll purchased, than he had 10 pay his
! landlord before. So that Tor his 500
or $50 premium, JUS the case may be, }
| plus The $52 ofweekly dues. he may be
said, TO put it in popular fashion, to be
! laying up money fast enough 10 secure
a house in ten years, tless the incum-
brance Of $50 q year for the remaining
duration OF The society.) while enjoying
not only the privilege OF renting IL in
the meantime, but the advantage OF
any natural rise in the property, and
any improvement which his own indus
| try may put upon 1t during that peri0d.
A brief calculation, however, will show
the rash borrowing ut hfty per cent.
premium, paying steadily Sl52 for ten
years, will have OVer-Pald his Iun by
about $l75, allowing compound Interest
at seven per cent, in addition 10 the
heavy rent of ten per cent, and with
the incumbrance of S52 year, be
paid for an unknown periou-tive years
nj the very least TO come. By paying
S552 year for ten years he has at once
enjoyed aud acquired II 81 900 house and
lot, subjectto The remaining payments.
Taxes, insurance and repairs VIII run
his annual payments up To at least S4OO,
and the long and the short of il almost
certainly is, in fact, that he has not been
able toipay anything like this amonnt,
has lost all his hard savings, and is long
ago turned adriIt again, with heavy
load of debt 10 carry the rest OF his lie.
If he has met the conditions, on the
other hand, he has made one OF the
hArdest bargains for money hat caPi-
tal could sCrew out of penury. or
course more moderate premium,
even twenty five per cent, would make
very different showing; but II is only
by throwing out of the account an en-
tire ten per cent. erHnnum onthe value
of the property AS u rent that would
have gone TO the dogs Tor the lHndlords)
in any case, that Ihis system Of borrow
ing can be made to appear at all advan-
tageOus. The permanent societies, by
their terms, declare their conviction
that more favorable conditions thhn
these can be offered to the borrower.
1t is evident, then, that terminative
building society, disposing OF its loans
by auction at large premiums, oilers
the highest Inducements (if too many
individual failures do not take place, to
members who have no occasion to bOr-
row, but seek profitable Investment.
AS the rapidly-increasing income from
repaid loans and premiums clears oil
the borrowing members and reduces
the period for which the weekly puy
ments must be continued to close up
the concern, the shares of the remain
ing holders, soon to be realized in full,
begin TO have Il maui!estlY rich value,
premiums cease to be offered for the
accumuIa,ing funds, and they begin to
be distributed necessarily by lot. Now
arises II new traffic. The rest of the
five hundred members, eagerly en-
deavoring to buy OFT the non borrowers
on as favorable terms as possible, close
the concern, and stop their weekly
taxes. The master evil OF the system
is II moral one, and two-lold. To the
members anxious o borrow, it offers
the strongest kind of stimulus, with IL
plausible facility, for doing soHt ruin
Gus rate of interest; and to the invest
ing members II offers stimulus to
cnpidity, ii not TO ruscality, in the form
OF inordinate gains from the necessity,
indiscretiOn and exCiIability of their
poorer and simpler brethren. The
strong natural tendency of the plan is
evidently toward the worst form OF
usury, with some pFCuliur aggravH-
tions of its usual evils on both sides.
We shall be obliged TO reserve the per-
manent plan for II short description at
another time.