The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1889-10-18

hdF OT6On, L. Johnson, 1en0o, Mach
bar, Pope, Shields, Swenson, Thack-
er, Wallmark.-17.
ABSENT AND NOT Messrs.
Chapman, Crandall, Daniels, Good
rich, Ives, Nelson, WEIGH, Woods.
Senator Shields, OF Meeker Co., one
OF the Alliance vice presidents, work
ed hard for the passage of the bill.
Senator Dodge was also an earnest
friend of the measure.
The members of the Alliance should
understand that, as a rule, they can
not expect any different treatment in
the Legislature from money lenders;
they will naturally work for the inter
est OF their class. Neither should we
very much blame them for so doing.
The blame rests with the fools who
elect representatives of the creditor
class to make laws for communi-
ties, nine-tenths of the voters in
which are in debt. They might just
as well put their sheep in charge of
the wolves, and then be astonished
to find dead sheep and fat wolves.
In these remarks I would make no.
table exception of Mr.. Sevatson, who,
although banker, yet had breadth
OF mind and honesty enough to work
for the interest of the whole people,
in this this as we'll as other matters.
l do not say that no bankers or
lawyers should be elected to the Leg
islature; the cities will attend to that
anyhow. What urge is that where
ever there is a farming community it
should elect one of it's own class to
represent it.
1t they are not elected in the agri-
cultural region most assuredly they
never will be elected anywhere else.
AS to the horrible cruelties that
have been practised upon the people
OF the state under the guise OF usury
no pen can adequately describe them
and no imagination sum them up.
The state has been a battle-feld-a
scene OF slaughter. Homes Destroy
ed, hearts crushed, lives darkened by
the excessive greed of man for the
substance of his neighbors.
just as write this there appears in
the st. Paul Globe, of Sept. 21, 1889,
the following article:
"Three suits have been begun in the
district court against Richard w.
Bell, formerly clerk OF courts, by
members of the same family, which
are very interesting for their unique
ness. Maurice H. Roche asks the
court to annul several mortgages exc
cuted to secure the payment of GER
tain promissory notes, upon which
the defendant charged an excess of
interest amounting to usury. All of
the notes ran less than a year, and
bore the agreement of 10 per cent in
terest. There was one note of $500
upon which Roche secured but 5000,
Bell kept the remaining $500 as
interest. Another note for $3.50, on
which the interest was $3.50, and still
another for 81, $50 the interest was
$S65-that is, Roche made out a
note for 81, $50 and received only
$685..
The other two cases are on the
same charges. Mr.. James R. Roche
asks the same as does Maurice. He
executed a note of So, 100 and receiv-
ed only 81, O8O, Bell charging him
81 ,O2O as one years interest. Rob-
ert E. Roche had needed more money
than any of them. He had given
Bell his note for 81 900, upon which
$3.50 was charged as interest, and
another for $4,000, upon which ST.
500 was charged as interest"
To read this is enough to make
ones blood boil. And those extor-
tions (if these statement are true,
were practised not by some obscure
and half-famished stranger from a
distant and barbarous land, but by
an ofice-holder! By the clerk of the
court! And he robbed not strangers
but members of his family! Think of
it.! 5000 for one years interest on
$2,O8O! Why a shark could not be
more cruel. Can imagine ashark
biting off one half of man and then
watching with grinning delight the
other half swimming around and
bleeding to death? And this is the
human nature! No wonder men be-
1eVe In the devil. 1t is difficult to
conceive that God could have made
such creatures.
And yet, for several years the Al
lance has been working to cut down
interest to 8 per ct. and cannot
Right in a body, elected by the peo-
pie who suffer, we have been power
less to even stop such rates of inter-
est as the above. Why? Because
those interested fill the lobbies with
their tools, ready to corrupt men,
bers; and papers, like the Pioneer
Press defend the iniquity, and even
refuse to publish arguments on the
other side. The whole thing is alb
solutely horrible! Let the people
rise up in their wrath and elect no
man to either House who will not
pledge himself in writing to abolish
l..