The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1878-11-28
INTEREST-USURI.

of hiring that does not make visible
return. If one hires a house he has
its occupation, if lands he has their
yield of grain or fruit. a horse he
rides or is drawn in a carriage-but if
he is pressed with debt and asks of
his more fortunate neighbor an adj
vance of money TO pay it with he is
no richer whatever either in his pos
session or in what those possessions
will yield to him in nse. He has
simply shifted his debt and added to
it factor which constantly. day and
night, fair weather and foul, is add.
ing to its volume. We know that to
make an argument against the morali-
ty OF taking interest npon money, in
this day would be deemed insanity
or communism. But we find in the
Bible that Gods chosen people were
forbidden to exact this tribute. in
their transactions with each other;
why this inhibition was not made
broader, and include the gentle
world, is not SO clear. Leaving then
out of the question as, belonging to a
higher field, whether it is morally
right to exact interest, we propose to
examine that EIOre practical one, how
far should sound political economy
permit the money lender to go in his
usurious demands. In other words
what rate of interest should be legal
lied by the state.
The money changers say that there
are universal laws which should regu-
late this matter. the laws of supply
and demand. This is plausible and
adroit. Plausible. because it may be
reasonably argued that if any articlei is
scarce and in great demand it is cor
respondingly worth more; adroit, be-
cause it raises a fictitious measure Of
value, and as lawyers say begs the
question. And more, it is adroit be.
cause it leaves the money lenders
masters of the situation. For to be
loaners OF money they must have it,
and as it is an universal law that the
rich men are always few in numbers
it is often quite easy for these few
TO 50 combine as to regulate at their
own convenience the volume of mon.
ey, expanding or contracting at will.
SO that it is posi- bic for them to Gre
ate an artificial scarcity when the de-
nand is great, and thus raise the
rate of extortion.
Again # the law Of supply and de-
mand should fix the rate of interest
the money dealers should be subject
to that other law forbidding the for
stalling the market. If men combine
SO as to forstall the market in bread.
stuffs, for example, the law will for
rather shouldl stop them. Why not
then in that article which regulates
in great measure the value of bread
stuffst Money, rightly viewed is not
an article OF commerce. ii is simply
standard of values fixed arbitrarily
by the law maker. 1t cannot there
fore be said to come under commercial
rules. 1t again the law Of supply and
demand governs the rate OF interest,
there can be no rule regulating it save
the vans of the borrower and the
greed of the lender. The pawnbroker
who advances one dollar to half
starved. half frozen woman upon arti-
cles OF clothing worth ten dollars.
and exacts, in case his victim does
not die of want in the meanwhile,
one and sometimes two dollars per
month interest, is raised TO the same
level of respectabiiity with the gen.
tleman banker who EFFORTS from his
customer only twelve or eighteen per
cent per annum. Ii the one case the
woman's children were crying for
bread and the demand vas urgent,
the supply OF money with the pawn
man was corresponliEgly limited and
the rate goes up-in the other. the
business nan S needs are no. so great
and his bankers boards are larger.
The onsy correct rule is that the
measure Of hire in almost all cases, is
the absolute return the hired article
brings. f lands. their value for &C
cupation CT cultivation: II property
of other kinds, the prof. it viii yield
legitimatsly; if money, its regular
and natural increase. The man who
pays for the hiring OF money, except
for speculative puTposesl more than
its legitimate yearly increase is either
. fool or . slave. A fool il his neces-
stiles do not drive him to tia slave