The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1878-09-26

dence in receiving loans.
The design of the law was laudable.
It's primary object was to assist the poor
in procuring or improving their homes
and its plan was that the poor should
haze loans at loaO rates of interest, and on
the other hand, that the rich, who did
not want loans, but who might become
members for the BENEVOLENT purpose
of assisting their poor brethren, should
receive a reasonable interest for their invest
ment, and. have the same we'll secured.
The intention of the law was that
these associations should be, like all 9TH
ers, permanent organizations, and it
guarded against persons entering them
for speculation by limiting each member
to twenty shares.
Under the cover of this law, a number
of sharks of this city, in 1869, Conspicu.
GUS among whom was William McKin-
ley, jr., conceivedIand organized a scheme
which, as a heartless, souless and inhu-
man system of extortion, is without a
parallel in the annals of all time. Itsur.
passes belief that man with spark of
humanity in his soul should have en-
gagged in such scheme; and yet, alter
its results became manifest and it had
caused widespread suffering and misery
among the poor, sufficient to appal the
highwayman, it was persisted in and
pursued with fury, relentless and in.
human beyond conception.
There were two of these extortion
mills, known as No. l and No. 2. No. l
was pre6minent in iniquity, and was
conspicuous in having for its executioner
(attorney) its own'president, and for its
fnancier that master of national finance,
William Mckinley, jr. Mckinley was
the master mind of the concern, became
its secretary on its organization, and has
been ever since. McKinley's Office was
the headquarters of the vampire. All
its business was transacted there,-its
books kept there fact, his. office was
its office.
Well, these sharks evaded the law
limiting the number of shares, by taking
shares in the names of relatives. They
organized them in utter variance with
and in defiance of the law.
By false pretences they inviegled into
their extortion mill some good citizens
of means, and then found no trouble in
roping in the honest and unsuspecting
workingman, who found in their consti.
tuition these high.sounding words: Its
" object is to accumulate fund which
" may he loaned on good security to the
" members thereof to aid them in pro-
" curing a home"
They did not organize, as intended by
the law, as a permanent institution, but
with view to winding up in six or eight
years. Nor did they provide for the or
dinary way of loaning money to mem
bers contemplated by law, but inaugu-
rated a system wholly outside of the
law. They provided that members
should pay a monthly assessment called
dues) of 81 on each share; these pay
ments to continue until the fund aCCu-
mulated would be sufficient to pay on
each share 5000; that out of the fund
thus monthly accumulated, members
could receive this sum of 5000 in ad.
vance by paying lin addition to their
monthly dues) interest at six per cent.
monthly until the concern wound up !;
but this privilege of so receiving in ad-
vance this sum Of 5000 per share Called
"a loan") was put up at auction and
given to the highest bidder, and the
amount bid was deducted from the 80 :
called "loan" of $780, but in defiance of
the law (as the Supreme Court has de.
cided) the recipient of this advance pay
ment or "loan" had to pay interest not
on the amount actually received by him
after deduCtiDg the amount of his bid,
but on the whole 5000.
Nothing is more certain than the fact
that these extortionists intended this be-
nevolent institution to wind up in six or
eight years; they SO proclaimed when
they were roping in the poor; they told
them that by paying small monthly dues
and interest for from six to eight years
they could get in advance sufficient
money to get homes, and but for the
subsequent decision of the Supreme
Court it would have been wound up in
less than seven years.
Now the association had no other way
of making money than the dues, inter
est, ETC., received from its own members.
The plan, then, of these Shy locks, like
Major Mckinley, who entered these as
sociations, not for the purpose of getting
money in advance, but for speculation,
was to bleed the poor borrowers to such
an extent, that fund would be aCcu.
mulated in from six to eight years suffi-
Cient to pay during that time the running
expenses, salaries of officers, attorneys
fees and taxes, and also to pay at the end
of that time 5000 per share to non-bor
rOwers profit to them counting eight
years. of q per cent per annum, and
counting six years of SO per cent per an
mum on their investment, and not taxed.
OF fcourse these sharks, especially that
master of finance, Mckinley. understood
this. To them it was matter Of arith-
metic, not so the poor, deluded victims
enticed into this den of thieves.
Well, the poor were roped in subscrib-
ing from five to ten shares, and in March
1859, the laborer carried bis scant wages,
the widow her scant earnings at the
washtub, to McKinley's Office, to pay the
first monthly dues, and visions Of little
homes gave them new courage in the
battle of life. The extortion mill now
began to grind; the carnival of plunder
commenced under the superintendence
of the late army kitchen mechanic. The
dues paid; the "loans" (2OO) were offered
to the highest bidder. The hopes oil
these shylocks were more than realized;
but instead Of word Of warning, they
glided among their victims, encouraging
and urging them to bid higher and YET
higher, telling them the higher the bids
the sooner would the association wind