Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1882-04-06
The Pawn.ShOp.

England, when we remember That one
Of the chief inducements put forward in
the original prospectus for the esiab-
lishment of the Bank of England was,
that it would regularly engage in the
.pawning business, being ready at all
times to advance reasonably on such
silver-plate and other personal property
as its customers should deposit with it,
charging for this convenience much
less rate of interest than the gold and
silversmiths of the time. who had the
monopoly of this business, were in the
habit of charging. But to-day. TO
mortgage ones house, TO hypothecate
ones bonds. to get an advance upon
ones storage receipts or ones bills of
lading, Is business operation as re-
spectacle rs it is general; while to pawn
ones watch or any other piece of per-
sonal property, though the operations
are of precisely the same character.
and are undertaken from the same
necessity, is considered somewhat dis
reputable transaction This is partly
owing to the fact that public attention
has not been called to the intelligent
and sympathetic study of the matter.
The more prosperous classes have. with
careless disregard for the welfare of
their more needy fellow-citizens, al
lowed the whole business to fall into
unworthy hands. How thoroughly the
best interests of the poor have been in
this matter disregaried. is shown con-
clusively by the fact that the legal rate
of interest allowed the pawnbrokers in
our large cities is six per cent. a month,
OF seyenty-two per cent. a year.
Among all the cities of the country,
Boston, Mass, is, the only one in which
any attention has been given to this
wholly unnecessary burden placed upon
the poor, and where proper consid-
Grafton of the subject has led to prac-
teal reform. Several years ago few
rich men in that city, recognizing the
importance Of organizing pawnbroking
in an orderly business way, subscribed
a capital of one hundred thousand dol
lars for the establishment of Pawners'
Bank. rs it was first called. This name
was soon changed 10 that of the Collat-
eral Loan Bank, the change being made
in Difference to the prejudice against
the use of the word "pawner."
BY the terms of its charter. the bank
was allowed to charge on its loans one
and half per cent. month. or eight
cen per cent. a year. The dividends to
the stockholders were limited to eight
per cent, and all excess of profits after
the payment of expenses was to be
spent in the free distribution of coal to
the poor during the months of Decem-
Der. January and February. under the
supervision of the Town Council. The
business has been found so large as to
justify the increase of the capital: and
in their reports the managers of the
bank reiierate the statement that the
business is one of the surest there Is.
the security being in all eases deposited
with the bank before the loan is made.
and being in the immense majority of
cases promptly redeemed. A very
large proportion of the loans are made
for sums less than a dollar, while the
borrowers, upon the payment of the in
terest. are so astonished at the small
ness of this charge that they constantly
offer to pay more. The bank, while
paving TO its stockholders their regular
dividends of eight per cent, has re-
duced the cost Of pawning TO those re-
qiiiring this aid, and AT the same time
raised the compensation of those who
attend to the details of the business
above the rate they at first were paid
Thus all the various classes who are
connected with the bank have been
benefited.
But excellent and unquestionable as
are the benefits this application of intel
ligent sympathy for the poor has pro-
duced in the organization of pawning,
yet it is evident that it is not all that
can be done in this direction by Il fur
Their application of the same principle
to the economic study of their con-