Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1872-04-02
Concluding Remarks Of the Hon. Thos.
T. West, Of Harrison, on the Usury
Bill, delivered February 6, 1872.

Il
Bill, delivered February 6, 1879.
Iniconclusion,- Mr.. Speaker, permit me to
say that it has been demonstratedin the course
of this debate THAT money was created by
government for a specific object-that of a
currency to carry on the business of the coun-
try Its main object was then for the public
good, TO afford currency to. which ali men
might have access. .~zas,
Again, 1t possesses power which no other
article does or can. One hundred dollars in
land possesses as much value as one hundred
! dollars in money, but much less power. The
land, though OF the same value will not at
all times and in all places command one
hundred dollars value in the different COM
! modities which its owner may want" Land
or merchandise is not legal tender for debt.
at the option of the debtor. ''The power of
money over every other article arises ont of the
artificial character given it by the State," and
| not out of any intrinsic value in the materials
Of which it is, com posed -
Since bit of paper of the intrinsic value
of one mill is invested by the act of govern
ment with an extrinsic value of one hundred
or many hundreds Of dollars, and goes out
clothed with power to regulate and measure
the value of all other articles; and since it
may be concentrated in the hands of a few
capitalists and held for purposes Of specala-
i ton only, at such rates as to prevent it from
answering the purposes of its creation it is
| certainly fair to conclude that it is both the
right aud duty of the Legislature to regulate
its use. and fix by law the rates at which it
may be borrowed and loaned.
| 1t only remains then, to determine What is
fair equivalent for the use of money and
whether our present laws on this subject are
wise aud sautary.
The history of all times is open to our re-
search, aud guided by its light we may arrive
at just conclusions.
All nations first tried free trade in money,
allowing the lender to fix his own rates of
interest. In Athens and Rome, under this
system, interest ran as high as forty and sixty
per cent In the latter country such was the
| feeling produced by these extortionate rates
that it was the cause Of frequent revolutions.
In England, previous to Henry the Eighth,
the customary rates of interest were forty per
cent; during his reign the rates were reduced
to ten. They were afterwards reduced to
eight, and during the reign of Anne, to five
per cent. An excess of that rate subjected
the lender to forfeiture of tho debt and an
additional forfeiture of three times the amount
In iiindoston, and in China, practically free
trade countries, interest ranged from ten to
forty per cert. In all these countries in their
different times and clmes, experience proved
beyond doubt that the money lender, unre-
strained by law, was governed by no other
rule than the wants of a greedy avarice.
Lessons of instruction of no doubtful an.
tiquity may also be gathered from the history
Of our own country. Indiana repealed her
laws against usury about 1887. As a result,
interest ran up to twenty. five per cent, in manv
/ instances to fifty. Estates were mortgaged
and sold under these ruinous rates, aud during
the three years of the usurers' reign in that
State, general bankruptcy and ruin swept
over the land, from which it did not recover
in twenty gears. In Wisconsin and New
York the repeal was also disastrous. Alter
these and various other attempt at high rates
of interest, tho country settled down to six
per cent. as fair equivalent for the use of
money. So, that in 1850, we find more than
two thirds of all the States of the Union had
fixed that rate by law, and generally imposed
heavy penalties for taking any excess But
spirit of speculation, engendered by an un-
paralleled expansion of paper currency during
the war; with tendency to accumulate for
tunes without returning an equivalent; has
enabled the moneyed class again to triumph
over the people, and to break down the laws
with which tho wisdom of the past had en-
trenched them.
Since the repeal of the old usury laws by
the Legislature of West Virginia, interest has
gone up to eight, ten, and eighteen per cent,
and no certainty that it will stop there. In
TACT, our present laws amount to practical free
trade. and the lender Tin generaO will take all
that the necessity of the borrower compels
him to pay. Avarice and ambition are the
same to-day that they were in the days of the
C;esars.
But gentlemen who oppose this bill have
argued that by reducing rates of interest we
will drive money out of the country to seek
investment abroad and tha. if our laws permit
high rates it will draw capital from abroad
To all this 1 would answer that "money
sent abroad is but servant to be hired for
the profit of its owner. Itgoes there to make
profit out of the community which draws it,
and for the community which sends it. It
would, therefore, be we'll if West Virginia
had some of her capital gone abroad in times
OF expansion, that it might now return with
the profits made from other people.
The friends of this measure have been
charged with undue sympathy for the bor-,
rover with making war on banks aud money
lenders. Sir, this bill proposes to pay the
fail. rate of six per cent. for the use of money
the rate under which the great States of
this Union grew into and maintained a per-
maneut prosperity. 1t simply re-enacts the
laws OF loou-nothing more; nothing less
Then why this attempt at ridicule ? Do gem
tlemen suppose that the country will believe
the supporters of this measure to be class
of needy borrowers? IF so; they will please
except my colleague, Mr.. Elliott,) who is a
large holder of bank stock, and is a bank di>
rector. Is it not evident to these gentlemen
that the speculator who borrows money at ten
instead of six per cent, as formerly, to buy
J our cattle and other products mDst buy these
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