St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1885-01-10
Monetary ExactiOns.
City Item.

ClGp 4t6ln.
That money begets mOnay all the
world knows, but this result can not be
effected without human Intervention.
The reasOnablaueas of requiring a
proper remuneration for the use of
money can not be questioned. Money
represents accumulations derived from
successful industry, or enterprise, or
both, and the propriety of making a
charge for its use is quite as apparent
as it is III case such accumulatiOns have
been converted into other recognized
forms of value. There is, however, in
humanity grasping disposition which
has converted usance into usury, and
made merchandise of the necessities of
the needy. Upon this Christian civili-
zation has placed it's ban, and in some
instances, has gone so far as to declare
that a charge for the use of money is
not only viOlative of religious prinei-
pies, but against that public policy
which demands the greatest good for
the greatest number.
The grasping, heartless disposition
here referred to displays itself not
alone in the exaction of extortiOnate
rates of interest for money loaned, but
in monopOlistic and oppressive de-
mands upon the public, and IN the for
nation of so-called rings and corners,
by which the normal relations OF trade
are interrupted to the advantage of
conSpirat0rs.
One usurious form of exaetion ap-
pears to have been developed in certain
wheat growing sections of the West,
and that so mercilessly as to virtually
leave nothing for the producer. On this
snbiect correspondent of the New
York Sun says:
''In the past decade almost every
town lying in the wheat belt has bad
one or more usurers quartered in it.
Some of these men owned the money
they used. Others, who had the repu-
tatiOn of being cold, hard and selfish,
who would remorselessly nse every in
genuity of the law to extOrt the last
cent due them from unfortunate debt
ors, craftily meshed, operated with
money borrowed from friends living in
older and more wealthy States. In a
country as heavily mortgaged as the
Southwestern wheat belt was, and is,
the usurers occupied profitable posi-
tion. They lived in the country simply
to prey on the necessities OF the poor.
They never lent money on real estate
security. The laws OF most OF the
| Western States are wisely. drawn to
prevent the farmers from being absO-
lutely impoverished by foreclosure of
real estnte mortgages, or by judgments
secured on notes. A certain number OF
horses, COWS, swine and fowls are ex-
empt from execution. The necessary
agricultural tools, household goods and
| a years supply of food for the family
and animals are also exempt, and suffi-
cient seed to sow the needed land is
exempt. Too much property was ex-
empt from seizure under foreclosure OF
real estate mortgages, or judgments OBJ
! tanned on notes, TO suit the usurers.
| With great unanimity they decided that
chattel mortgages should be demanded
assecurity from all unfortunate men who
applied to them for aid. By a judicious
use of chattell mortgages men can be
stripped of all they possess, provided
| they don't run off with the property.
Thus it came about that the money
/ lenders took all that was produced,
leaving the toilers barely living. Mo-
ney loaned from two to four per cent
per month can give no adequate return
| to wheat raisers, whose profits even IN
favorable years, are extremely narrow.
| To meet such usuriOus demands, all
lluxurieS must be discarded, necessities
stinted, and the most pitiful economies
observed under all circumstances.
An approach to the same kind of sys-
/ tenn used to obtain in the cotton regions
of the South, but it was neither so ex-
acting nor so general. When the negro
/ was chattel, chattel mortgages were
the rule, rather than the exception ;
but the rates of interest were not so
| high as those described as common in
the wheat belt, and planters did not
feel the grinding force of the demand
as the-We had almost said 'enslaved"
wheat growers feel it now. In the
school Of misfortune our cotton prOdu-
GERS have been taught economy, and
they strive as far as possible, to produce
i their always marketable crops. within
gradually advancing towards indepen-
dence. and unless they fall back into
careless habits theI goal will soon be