The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-10-30
SOMETHING ABOUT UsuRY.

SOMETHING ABOUT USURY.
To the Editor Of the Eagle.
"Hath not jew eyes? Hath not a
Jew passions. affections? fed with the
some food, hurt with the same weapons,
subject to the same diseases, healed by
the same means, warmed and cooled by
the same winter aud summer as a
Christian is? If you prick us, do we not
bleed: If you tickle us, do we not
laugh? If you wrong us, shall we not
revenge? He was wont to call
me usurer; let him look to his Lord"
The price of the use of money origi-
nally was usury and was synonymous
with interest. Usury has now come to
mean an interest charge in excess of the
rate allowed by law. The term usury
is one of opprobrium, and usurer per-
son to be hated and despised. Shylock
says she was wont to call me usurer. y
and therefore "slall we not revenge?"
The prejudice that has existed against
the money loaner may be traced to the
dawn of history. ''Thou hast taken
usury and hast greediIy gained of thy
neighbor by extortion." Thou shalt
not lend upon usury to thy brother:
usury of money, asury of victuals, usury
of anything that is lent upon usury."
Money lending was odious among the
Greeks and Romans as among the Jews.
1t was especially and intensely con.
demned by the early Christians. Christ
had gone into the temple and cast
out all them that bought and
sold and had overthrown the
money changing and said: "My house
shall be called tho house of prayer; but
ye have made it den of thieves" The
early Christians while industrious were
so poor and simple in their wants as to
have little need of the money lender and
thus their self interest did not deter
their intensest hatred Of money lending.
"The money changers" had made Of the
temple of God ''a den of thieves !" It is
easy to account for the Christian preju-
dice against money lending, but it is not
so easy to account for the illogical argu-
ments against usury or interest offered
by the early philosophers. Why there
should be made the distinction between
usury and rent, for illustration, the one
abhorred and the other permitted, is
strange. Interest is wealth made from
the poverty of Others" they say. True,
MANY a borrower borrows from hard
necessity, and finds his condition made
the worse thereby. Borrowers, however.
have the Idea of lettering their condi-
ton. Sometimes they do and sometimes
they fail.
1t NAV be well to remember that the
prejudice against the money lender
comes down to the present time. and
like any other well defined prejudice, if
men can make use of it to get into pub
lie favor or office there he those who
will attempt to do so. So ctrong is the
prejudice that he who speaks with the
least favor of the banking or money
lending class is set down as the tool of
plutocracy, or shylock Of the gold bug.
The history of usury laws is contem-
peraneous with the history of legislation.
This legislation varied with the times
and temper Of the people. Very fire.
quently all interest was forbidden under
severe penalties and again liberal rates
of interests were allowed.
As time and reason demonstrated bor-
rowing money under many circum-
stances is necessary part of nations
commercial interests and enterprises and
the recognition of the right of individual
ownership of property and the right to
let that property for hire, involved the
expediency and the right of money lend
ing as legitimate business-permittlng
fair and prohibiting extortionate rates or
usurv. However at every returning
cycle of depression the man who Is pay
ing interest finds to his mind the cause
of his distress in the fact and the walls OF
his wrath are poured out on the usurer.
On the other hand when times are good
and he finds the borrowed capital return
ing him a profit over the interest paid
out he pays his interest without COM
plant and without asking whether by
exacting profit larger than the usurers
interest he IS worse than the nsurer. We
are now passing through the period
when the oppression OF the usurer and
the sacrifice of your homes on the altar
Mammon" is the chief political cry of
one of the political parties asking the
suffrage of the American people.
This cry Is against shy lock and the APP
peal is substantially one Of prejudice
rather than one of reason. IL Is worth
while to remember that the Jews early
in the history of England monopolized
the money lending business. They were
shrewd in business, and drove sharp.
hard bargains and 10 this did they owe
their success. The Christian antipathy
to the Jew was strong and the facs that
the Jew was Insurer money changer
against the Scriptures. and the viii Of
Christ increased the hatred OF the jew.
the money lender. The jew struggled
against Christian hatred that often cost
Linn his property ard ilis life. agai:ast the
exactioTls OF the king winch more fire.
quently depicted bis purse. and against
tlsury laws. Tributes TO the crown and
the burdens Of hatred and Usury laid on
his business drove tie Jew 20 evasaons
and cunning that he might exact higher
rates of interest cccasioned bs the addi-
tionai risk imposed npon him. As money
lending became dangerous RATES OF inter-
est advanced. st last Christian hatred
OF the money lending jew couA Restrain
Itself no longer and on the silly pEetext
that the Jews had crscsfissd a csssld
in derlsson OF the crucitsxion Of thirst a
mob fell upon the nsoney lsaning jew
aud his career ended in blood and pssisge.