Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1869-09-16
FAYETTEVILLE, TENNESSEE
Thursday MOrniug, Sept. is, 1869.
The Usury Laws.

uSui 1lno Vi lulo Dtdle. IL LDIukS
the rate of interest should be fixed
at 10 per cent. 1t seems to be
difficult to make law In accordance
with plain common sense. Our law
givers have taken it on themselves
to decide the commercial value Of
money, and have fixed a point be-
yond which it is moi laSful to co.
To have been consistent they should
have legislated in the other direction
also. If the lender may not charge
more than six per cent, the borrow
Ell should not be allowed to get it,
under any circumstances, for less.
If the Legislature may fix the price
Of money, why may it not just
as reasonably fix the price Of
any other commodity, and if of one
thing, why not Of every thing that
Is bought and sold? Thus we
might have fixed price for -four,
sugar, coffee, meal, bacon, and every
.hing that a man buys or Sells
The argument that the rate of
interest is fixed to prevent the rich
from expressing the !oor applies with
ten fold force to the latter articles,
Tor every poor man must buy more
orleSs OF these, but very few poor men
ever borrow money. Look at the
practical working of the present law.
A. wishes to buy the wood, flour
and meat for his family which would
cost 500, but he has moi the money
and be goes to B. and tells him bis
wants and asks him to lend him the
500. B. knowing the law only allows
six per cent, refuses him the money,
but lays out the S100in such articles
as A. wants and sells them to him
for $500, and the law says it is all
right-it is only legitimate trade
tran saction on the palt of B.
1t appears that our usury laws
are based upon the presumption that
money always retains the same
value. This may be true of lis
intrinsic worth, but money has little
value except what it has relatively.
This every commercial man knows
full well, and this relative value is
constantly changing just as is the
value of other property. A man
can afford to pay more for money
when he can use it to great advan-
tsge than when be makes little profit
by it. If a man can invest money
so that il make fifty per cent, he can
afford to pay higher for it than il the
investment only paid twenty. This
question of profit always regulates
the price of other property, and al
so determines, other things being
equal, the question Of demand and
supply.
The question has a moral aspect
also. As the law now stands it is
daily disregarde6. The disregard of
one law leads to disrespect for other
laws that operate unfavOrably, and
soon all laws are set at defiance
The progress of lawlessness in tie
country at large is proof CT this
tendency. But it does even worse
than this, for it openly encourages
deceit and fraud. 1t says to the
borrower, after you have obtained
the use of money by promises 10
pay an increased interest you may
avoid your contract BY refusing to
pay more than six per cent, and the
law will uphold you in the violation of
your plighted word.
It appears reasonable that money
Like other properly should be lett 10
regulate itself, and after a man
has agreed to pay a certain sum for
its use, it i'll COMFORTS with the digni-
~ Of the State to annul the contract. !
An agreement about this, as about
any other trade, should be rigidly |
enforced, and it is only when no
pr;ce is fixed that the law can rea-
sOpably step in and fix the rate of
interest.
Three hundred Cinnamon go to
G, - .obooI I'm San francisco. Il