The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-03-05
THE PAWN-SHOP.


remember that one CT the chief
inducements put forward in the orig
inal prospectus for the establishment
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 q much less rate Of
interest than the gold and silver
smiths of the time, who had the mo-
noPoly of this business. were in the
habit of charging. But to-day, to
mortgage ones house, to hypothe-
eats ones bonds, 10 get an advance
upon ones storage receipts or ones
bills OF lading. is q business operation
as respectable as it is general; while
to pawn ones Oh or any other
piece OF personal property, though
the operations are OF precisely the
same character, and are undertaken
from the came necessity, is consid.
cred a somewhat disreputable trans
action. 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 Glasses have, with
a careless disregard for the welfare OF
their more needy feIIow-citizens,
allowed the whole business to fall
into unworthy hands. How thor
oughly the best interests of the poor
have bean in this matter diRregarGed
is shown couclusively by the fact
that the legal rate of interest allowed
the paWnbrokers in our large cities
is six per cent. month, or seventy
two per cent. year.
Amoag all the cities OF the
country, Boston, Massachusetts,, is
the only one in which any attention
has been given to shis wholly unnec-
essary burden placed upon the poor,
and where a proper confederation cl
the subject has led to q practical
reform. Several years ago a few
rich men IN that city, recognizing
the importance OF organizing pawn
broklDg in an orderly business way,
subscribed capital OF 500. 900 for
the establishment of Pawners'
Bank, as it was first called. This
name was soon changed to that OF
the Collateral Loan Bank, the change
being made in Difference to the preiu-
dice against the use CT the word
"pawner.
By the terms of its charter the
bank WAS allowed to charge on it's
loans one and a half per cent.
month, or eighteen per cent. year.
The dividends to the stockholders
we're limited to eight per cent, and
all excess Of profits after the pay
ment OF expenses, was to be spent
in the free distribution OF coal to the
poor during the months of December,
January, and February, under the
supervision of the Town Council. The
business has been found 90 large as to
justify the increase of the capital;
and In their reports the managers
of the bank reiterate the statement
that the business is one of the surest
there is. the security being in all
cases 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 fer sums less
than dollar, while the borrowers,
upon the payment of the interest,
are so astonished at the smallness OF
this charge that they constantly
offer to pay more. The Bank,
while paying to its stockholders their
regular dividends of eight per cent,
has reduced the cost of pawning to
those requiring 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 we're paid. Thus all the various
classes who are connected with the
bank have been benefited.
But excellent and uneuestions q
as are the benefits this application
Of intelligent sympathy for the poor
has produced in the organization of
pswning, yet it is evident that it is
not all that can be done in this
direction by further application of
the came principle to the economic
study OF their condition. Why
would it not be possible to combine
with a pawners' bank q savinge-
bank. so that these two institutions
should work harmoniously together
to their common end-the improve
ment of the hard conditions of the
poor? The very necessity of security
to-day forces the savings bank, which
gathers its funds from the poor, to
limit its investment of them to ouch
securities as pay the smallest inter-
est. But the pawnbrokers' bank
offers, aa experience has shown, an
exceptionally safe opportunity ics
the investment of large aggregate
sums OF money at exceptionally high
rates of interest. Though eighteen
per cent. q year, or enc and a half
per cent. n onth, is evidently ruin
GUS to the ordinary transactions OF
business, yet it is only a fourth OF
seventy-two per cent, which is the
regular charge for pawnbroking in
all of our Sites. A pawners' bank,
therefore, the capital OF which was
contributed by the rich, who would
he rontaota1 with small intereat