The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-10-25
THE USURY LAW.
An Explicit Statement of the
Rights 1t COnfers Upon
the Citizen.

In these hard times I get great
many letters of inquiry about the
working of the usury law.
Our state law provides that if any
man receives or contracts to receive
more than 10 per cent per year, for
the use or hire of money, the note,
bond, mortgage, or other instrument
given to secure the debt is void, and
no part of it can be enforced or collect
ed, and the debtor goes scott-free as
if no such debt had ever been con-
tracted.
But the law provides that the
payment of one years interest in
advance is not usury; and that no
merely clerical error in computing
interest shall make the paper usuri-
Gus. A man can purchase another
mans note for less than it's face.
and it shall not constitute usury.
But if A charges usurious interest
to B, al then sells the note to G, an
innocent third yarty, while G holds
it clear of the defense of usury
from B, B can sue and recover back
from A the whole amount he has to
pay G. If A lends money at usuri-
Gus rates to B and B pays the note,
he can any time, within two years,
sue A, for all the interest he paid,
(but not the principaD, and recover
it back; but One-half Of the sum, so
received, goes to the county treas
ury for the use of the common
schools of the county. Either party
to suit for usury can be witness
in his own behalf: unless one of the
parties is deceased and then the
other must prove his case by other
witnesses. II note provides for a
higher rate of interest after matur-
ity than before all interest on such
note is forfeited.
1t is an easy thing for the borrow
er to figure up how much he actual
ly received, and how much ten per
cent per year could be upon that
sum: and if he has paid more than
that, except as herein just stated,
the note, mortgage, ETC., is void,
and cannot be collected.
The man who charges more than
10 per cent interest violates the law
as much as the man who steals or
murders, and he is therefore crina-
inal. There is no use in mincing
words about it. A spade should be
called a spade. He takes advantage
of the desperate necessities of his fell
lOwmen and cOmpels him to hand
over his property, against the provis-
ions of the statutes of the stale.
Morally there is no difference be-
tween this act and putting pistol
to mans head, with the cry Of
"your money or your life" Usury
should be broken up, smashed; and
the usurers should be impoverished
and imprisoned. They are running
the country. They seize upon the
governmental medium of exchange,
provided by the nation to facilitate
the exchange of commodities among
the people,-and turn it into COM
modify and hire it out to the people
to whom it belongs at ruinous and
cruel rates, which labor cannot pay
but wears it's life. out trying to pay.
The an lent Jews were right when
they prohibited all profit on the loan
of money; and the Christian church
for ages denounced it as deadly sin.
That lustful old brute, Henry WILL,
who hung three. hundred starving
men in London for begging; and who
sent every unemployed man back to
his tithing, scourged and bloody,
whipped at every village and cross
road: he it was who first legalized
susury in England, and set one part
of the people sucking the blood out
of the rest.
The usury lawsis right, and should
be enforced. 1t is not half strong
enOugh:-it should impriSOn the
usurers. We hope the next legisla-
ture will so amend the law.
Some of our correspondents say
that they are too poor to employ law
yers, and ask our advice. We would
say to them that great many law
yers to-day, in this region of country,
are living by sucking the skin Of
their teeth, and absorbing the north
wind. We don't pity them, for this
afflicted land has been, for century,
a lawyer-governed land, and horri-
BILE mess they have made Of it. We
have no doubt that those starved
brethren of acumen will be very
glad to take all such cases for one
fourth of what they can save the bor-
rover. There are lawyers and law
yers; some of them would sell out
client for a five dollar bill; and 9TH
ets are rs honorable as their con-
scienceless profession will permit