Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1885-08-13
agement and earnest and continued

support
From that time, when the inspired
penman traced upon the page of di-
vine revelation his denunciation OF
the Insurer to this, civilized nations
and states have found ii necessary to
restrain the Insurer; frequently visit
ing his offense with the forfeiture Of
the money loaned, and often with
besides: practical ex-
perience in free trade in money with
such peoples, effectually disposing of
the specious and gauzy arguments
then and how used by the Insurer and
his supporters; and such laws have
never been repealed or become obso-
lete until money became so plenty as
to reduce the rate of interest perman-
emily below the maximum which the
law had determined the people could
safely and prcftably afford to pay.
Less than tvs weeks ago you read
of loan negotiated in Boston of ST.
000,O00 at two per cent. per annum.
Why does money go begging in the
east for three or four per cent per
annum, when it could lawfully be
loaned here at 10 to II per cent. :?
Why do they not send their money
here? 1t is because they know what
we are doing, and that millions have
been loaned here, and are being loan
ea at rates they consider ruinous, and
they believe that financial ruin must
inevitably come to our people at an
early day, no matter what the wealth
of our soil may be; and they tell us
plainly they dare not trust their mon
ey among such people, and the more
yon offer the more earnest their re-
fusal, because they say no people can
prosper and pay their debts who will
borrow at such rates; they know that
men whose business will not pay over
seven per cent, cannot pay ten per
cent for capital to carry il on with;
and that farmers who cannot realize
over five per cent. on their labor and
investments, cannot get out OF debt
by hiring money at ten per cent. per
annum or three 10 twenty per cent a
month.
That for MS as poor people to per
NIT a brood OF money sharks To occu
Ply all our towns and cities, combin
ing with each other to force human
necessity TO pay such rates, is to
court ruin utter aud complete To
all our borrowing interests. Ten
millions of dollars would probably be
low estimate of the money now
loaned in this territory at such ruin
ous rates that the borrowers business
can never pay it, and he must Dor
row again and again, until the usur-
er finally sells him out and turns him
out Hpon the world without dollar.
Every person in the commonwealth
is directly or indirectly injured by the
loss of such men to business and so
ciety. and no one but the insurer is
benefited thereby.
When twenty-five years ago bill
was pending in the Legislature Of
Wisconsin 10 reduce the rate Of in
terest and to decree forfeiture of
both principal and interest if great
er amount was reserved or taken than
fixed by law, the army of the money
sharks which they then had there, as
we now have them here, rose up as
one man and prophesied that if the
bill became law no more eastern
capital would come into the state,
and business would be ruined. The
bill passed, and no business was
ruined but that of the usurer; money
loaning became legitimate business,
such as respectable men with con
science were willing TO engage in, and
confidence was restored: eastern cap
italists were no longer afraid of Wis
consin securities, and money rolled
into her border in abundance. The
usurers pulled down their signs and
moved on to iowa and Minnesota,
aad re enacted there what they had
done in Wisconsin. They and their
class were early hare; they are quar-
tered upon us more or less in every
city and village. despoiliDg the very
class Of men who most need encour-
and fair business assistance,
and they are to-day doing more to
Cypress and impoverish orr people
than all the corporations we justly
talk so much about
A few words ON taxation, and will
no longer weary your patience. Prop |
srty should be assessed to the owner.
but here IL is not The man who oc-