The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1894-03-24
Milwaukee Making Ii Lively for the
Chattle Mortgage Men.
COURTS AGAINST LENDERS
The City Proposes to License Them, Limit
Their Charges and Compel the
Keeping of a Record.

MILWAUKEE, March 19-Alderman
Cornelius Corcoran, the youngest mem.
Der of the common council, has inaug-
urated crusade against the chattle-
mortgage sharks who infest the city.
Extortion have been practiced for
years and, although frequently exposed,
the public has taken comparatively
little interest in the matter until the
present time. The unusual depression
and the consequent suffering of the
poor has resulted In bringing about an
awakening, and now no subject Is more
popular than the relations that exist
between the poor borrower and the
chattle-mortgage loan broker. Cases
have been found where persons who Sc
cured small loans have, in the course of
two or three years, paid three or four
times the amount of the principal and
yet remained in the grasp of these
modern-day Shylocks. The chattle-
mortgage men charge interest at the
rate of 10 per cent month or 100 per
cent year. BY means of extra charges
and commissions the victi ms are bled
until their last dollar is paid over. The
income of some of the sharks are esti-
mated at from $685. 900 to $4,000 year.
Chief of Police Jansen, who has devoted
much time to study of the matter, has
strongly approved the stand taken by
Alderman Corcoran and says it is high
time the evil was stamped out.
The ordinance introduced by Alder
man Corcoran provides that no person
shall be allowed to conduct a chattel-
mortgage loan business until he obtains
license from the mayor and pays fee
of IS. Every person conducting such
business is required to keep a book in
which shall be entered daily the name
of a party to whom loan is made, to-
gether with his residence, the general
character of the security offered, the
name and residence of the person ad-
vancing the loan and its amount, the
interest exacted and a concise state
ment of any other transactions between
the parties pertaining to the loan.
This book shall at reasonable times be
open to the inspection of the city attor
ney and the chief of police. The taking
of fees or commissions by the brokers
in connection with loans is prohibited.
1t is provided that the rate of interest
shall not exceed SO per year upon a
loan of 800. The penalty for viola
tion of the ordinance is a fine of not
less than 81 nor more than $50 for each
offense or imprisonment in the house of
correction for not less than ten days
nor more than ninety days, in addition
TO revocation of the license.
Although the chattel-mortgage men
have retained counsel and are making
a vigorous fight upon the ordinance,
public sentiment is almost unanimous in
favor of the measure and there is prac-
tically no doubt of its passage at the
next meeting of the council.
That every one of the mortgage
sharks violates the law there is no
doubt, but they have enjoyed practical
Immunity because their victims are
always so poor that they cannot afford
TO go into the courts and fight the
usurious demands of the money lenders
In the only case in recent years in
which salt was brought against a
chattel-mortgage man the plaintiff was
successful and when an appeal was
taken to the supreme court the iudg-
ment of the lower court was promptly
affirmed, and the supreme court Justice
who wrote the decision took occasion
10 score the lender for the devices he
had employed in an attempt TO conceal
his usurious acts.