Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1893-03-08

stranger and a sojourner; that he NAV
live with thee Take thou no usury of
him. or increase but fear thy God that
thy brother may live with thee Thou
shalt not give him thy money upon
usury or lend him thy victuals for in-
crease "-Leviticus 25th chapter, So
S6-37.
In the fifth chapter of Nehemiah it is
recorded that certain of the Jews in
formed the prophet that their brethren
had been charging them usury, that
they had obtained mortgages upon
their lands, their houses, their vine
yards and their olive orchards by virtue
of which many had been dispossessed of
their homes Nehemiah called the
usurers together and addressed them as
follows: 81 pray you let us leave off
this usury. Restore l pray you to
them, even this day, their lands, their
vineyards, their olive yards and their
homes, also the hundreth part of the
money, and of the corn, and the wine
oil that We exacted of them. Then said
they we will restore them and will re-
quire nothing of them"
Lord who shall abide in thy taber-
nacles, who shall dwell in thy holy
hills? He that putteth not out his
money to usury nor taketh reward
agains the innocent Psalms Is, 1-5
HE that hath not given forth upon
usury, neither hath taken any increase,
that hath withdrawn his hand from in
equity, hath executed true Judgment
| between man and man, hath walked in
my statutes and hath kept my judg-
ments to deal truly; he is just; he shall
surely live, saith the Lord God. He that
hath oppressed the poor and needy,
hath lifted up his eyes to the idols, hath
committed abomination, hath given
forth upon usury, hath taken increase;
shall he then live? He shall not live
He hath done all these denominations;
he shall surely die; his blood shall be
upon him. ."-Ezel1iel IS, s-9-12-13
The only time Christ ever manifested
| anger was when he found the money
changers in the temple. He made a
scourge of small cords, drove them
out of the temple and overthrew their
| tables
From foregoing quotations it must be
perfectly apparent that usury is con-
| demned by the Holy Writ. Not only
was usury prohibited among the Jews,
but to prevent the concentration of
wealth in the hands of few law was
promulgated by Divine command which
provided that every fiftieth year there
should be a year of jubilee, in which all
| debts should be wiped out, all lands that
bad been seized by the creditor should
be restored to the former owner, all
slaves should be set at liberty and every
body given a fair and even start in the
| world again. Our modern bankers and
money kings have managed to have this
law, given by God to Moses, repealed,
not by a new revelation, but by con-
gress and legislatures controlled by
them. We will look in vain for a year
OF jubilee SO long as the legislation of
| the country is controlled by bankers
and brokers. Instead of lending to
their poor brethren without usury or
increase their rule is, the poorer the
brother the greater the Interest de
manded. That his necessity is their
opportunity.
Kitto, in his Cyclopedia of Biblical
Literature, vol. 9, page SO2, in speaking
of the inhibition against usury, says:
'The Israelites were, however per-
mitted to take usury from strangers,
from the Canaanites, and other people
devoted to subjugation. This was one
of the many means they adopted for op-
pressing and running the Canaanites
who remained in the land After the
return of the Jews from captivity they
were required by Nehemiah to leave off
this usury, and restore to their brethren
what they had extorted from them"
In the early days of the Christian
church, in fact until comparatively
recent period, usury was condemned by
the church 1t was not until worldly
and sordid interest became dominant in
the church that usury was tolerated
For the purpose of showing the position
of the church on the subject of usury
quote from Schaff-Herzog's Encyclo-
! pedia of Religious knowledge, vol 8,
page 273S, the following:
"The fathers unanimously condemned
the taking of interest Turtillion: Ad-
versus Marcionem, All; Cyprian: De
lapsis; Ambrose: De bono mortis, 12; Au-
gustine: Contra Faustum, 1925; Jerome:
Ezech, els. The popes followed the
track of the fathers; the canon law
| forbade. first the clergy. and afterwards
every member of the church to take in
terest The penalty was for the clergy
suspension; for the laity excommunica=
tion. Interest paid could be reclaimed
not only from him who received it but
also from his heirs. An oath never to
reclaim back interest was not binding"
The private, municipal and corporate
debt in the United States is over $780,
000,000,000. The interest on this debt at
! 6 per cent amounts to 81, SOC, 900, 900 per
annum. This amount of money is taken
from the wealth producers of this coun-
try every year under our present money
system and handed over to the bank
ers, brokers and money kings for inter.
est
Unless interest can be abolished or
materially reduced no power on earth
can save the middle classes from bank
ruptcy and ruin If interest could be
abolished or transferred to the govern
ment, which would amount to nearly
the same thing, this 81, 800, 900, 900 would
remain in the hands OF those who pro-
duced itl it would soon enable them to
pay their debts and redeemstheir homes
from mortgage; it would soon lift them
from indigence and want and make
them prosperous and happy. But with
a constantly increasing volume of debt,
and constantly diminishing volume of
money there is no hope for the people
Then let us reform our money system.
Let the government issue the money
direct to the people, without the inter
vention of banks, and at a rate OF in
terest not 70 exceed per cent Let
enough money be issued to enable the
people to do business on cash basis
Let us abolish interest in all cases, ex-
cept to the government on government
loans and let the maximum of such in
terest be per cent With such a
money system tramps would disappear
from the land, debts would be wiped
out, want and destitution would be
known no more forever, and the people
] pEoIlld heao1ne ,anosna rn,,s q nd ha