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

have been made at from - to 20 per
cent, when commissions and other
expenses were included"
If one loan company has 500 fore
closed farms, around one spot in
Dakota, rented out to tenants, how
many must their be in the entire ter
ritory, soon to become two sovereign
states? Sovereign states! Settled
by freemen! Intelligent American
citizens, reduced in ten years to Irish
tenant conditions by loans at 33 per
cent per annum!
If the people ever get possession of
the government of Minnesota they
should institute an inquiry into the
number of mortgages; the number OF
foreclosures; the rate ofinterest paid,
and the present actual Indebtedness
of the people. All this has been care
fully covered up. They can tell you
how many votes there were for Jones
and Brown; how many potatoes and
grapes and apples, were raised in the
state; but ask them whether the
people of Minnesota are bankrupt
or not-whether they owe more
than their possessions would sell for
or what they owe-and there is no
answer. 1t would not do to dig up
these unpleasant facts-it might
arrest immigration, and interfere
with the railroad companies selling
their lands!
But this brings me to-
THE USURY QUESTION:.
I said in a recent circular letter to
the Alliances:
'"They, (thelast legislature refused
to pass an act to reduce interest from
10 to 8 per cent. After a fierce fight
the Sevatson usury bill passed the
House, by vote of SIS to IS, but it
was killed in the Senate, as a similar
bill was killed there two years ago.
With $175,OOO,OOO owing upon
acknowledges in this state; with
our people oppressed with debt, and
the low prices of all forms OF agricul-
tural produce, with money going beg
cling in the East at from 3 to 4 per
cent. per annum, and readily obtain
able by Minnesota cities at to 6 per
cent. on their bonds, and at and Z
on their property, the farmers of
many parts OF this state are COMPEL
ed to pay not only 10 per cent. inter
est, but such further extortion, in the
shape OF commissions, as the greed
of the lender will permit him to
charge.
There are sections of Minnesota
where the unfortunate farmers burn
straw for fuel in the winter, and pay
from 80 to go per cent. per annum
for the use of money all the year
around. And in st. Paul and Min
neapolis workingmen are compelled to
pay from SO to Is per cent. per
annum, while the bank rate for the
merchants in the same cities is per
cent.
The plea, ofcourse, is, that the farm
er's farm or the mechanics chattels
are not as good security as the mer-
chants note The answer to this is,
would any man lend money AT ANY
RATE OF INTEREST, if he did NOT
THINK HIS SECURITY WAS AMPLE? AS
if the solvency of the merchant did
not, in the long run, depend, upon the
solvency of the farmer
The vote on the final passage of
Mr.. SevatsOn's usury bill in the
House, March 2, 1889, was as fol-
lows:
Yeas, 55.-Anderson, Balm, Cross
field, Damp, Diment, Durham, Dunn,
Eastman, Ellingson, Evenson, Far
icy, Fleming, Flynn, Hagney, Hal
gren, Hanson, Harrington, Haven,
Heidemann, Holmstrom, Hompe,
Hoppin, Husher, Jacobson, James,
johnson E. c.. johnson J. N, Jones,
Kelly, Reyes, Lane, Lassow, Maland,
McGrath, Merz, Morris, Perrin, Poe,
Guam, Savage, Sevatson, Seymour,
Sinclair, Shoemaker, Smout, Sum-
mer, Swain, Taft, Temple, Thoe,
Thurber, Underwood, Vollmer, Will
son H., Wing.
Nays, 35.-Barr, Barteau, Benson,
Bickel, Brush, Buell., Capser, Grain,
Comstock, Cox, Davis c. R., Downs,
Elmquist, Estes, Forbes, Fuhrmann,
Hanke, Hay, Hoyt, Ives, Kreis, Low,
McKusick, Mcmillan, Morgan, Phil
lips, Post, Roberts, Searle, Smith,
Stebbins, Stevens F. c., Stevens, H.
F., Wilson H. H., Willrich.
1t is due to Mr.. Jacobson to say
that he opposed the bill, up to the
last vote, and then voted forit reluc-
family, saying that he was opposed to
the "Donnellyism" in it. The "Don-
nellyism' consisted in the provisions
that would make the bill effective, by
preventing the taking of usury un-
der the color of commissions. Mr..
Jacobson was like the man who was
in favor of the Maine Liquor Law but