The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-07-25

ItefOrm tluh, having taken the tariff re-
form bill proposed by that club to Wash
ington for distribution among congress
men, is reported to have said upon April !,
1898:
The question, however which is of i'm
mediate moment IS the currency question:
The settlement OF which should be arrived
at with ali possible haste commensurate
with good judgment and its momentous
importance. The financial question is i'm
mediately pressing upon the pablo, and
they expect ana demand relief
1t IS, indeed, of momentous Importance
and the occasion demands not mere
attempt to patch worn out and pernicious
system of finance, but the erection of a
new SYSTEM based upon reason and eX-
perience, and competent to give genuine
relief. For many centuries the world has
been conducting its business upon an ever
increasing system of credits. Demosthe-
neS said: IF YOU We're ignorant of this
that credit is the greatest capital of all to-
wards the acquisition of wealth. you would
be utterly ignorant" All modern states
men agree to this view. We have reached
u point in industry where credit is greater
in volume and more important than at
any former period
during the centuries which have developed
credit to its present proportions, the sys-
tenn has been and now is based upon usury :
that is it has been and is entirely a credit
extended by individuals or corporations to
other individuals and corporal lions for inter
est, and never has been system of ma
fional cooperative credit extended by the
nation without interest
Now have this universal system of
individual or private credits. based upon
uSury. and We have its results. 1t is either
right or wrong. true false. good or bad
If it is morally wrong, it is scientifically
wrong, and legally wrong.
Tba .hn1n
is 50 allied with usury Interest on money!
that at the very threshold we must exam
Inc that question. Is usury right? The
school of mammon says, yes. Many mod
ern writers say, yes But the precepts
deemed divine by the great mass of interest
takers say no; and the sages of the ages
say, no.
II the ancient precepts against usury are
hiNine. 1t is because they are true. The di-
Vinity of a precept lies in its truth. All
truth is scientific. All truth is morally bind
ing. The divine truth of any precept can be
proved by the result of violating the same
persistently. If such violation produce good
results ana is beneficial to the masses of
the people, to society at large in a national
sense the precept is not true, for BY their
fruits We shall know them" =
As the writer has said elsewhere eff p
people has wise laws. in accord with
science and the great moral maxims, there
Will be general justice, and the fruit will
be good But if injustice, poverty shame
crime. insanity. ignorance, luxury for the
few, and toll and despair for the many re-
suit from our laws, then the fruit is evil
the tree IS corrupt" Moses asserts that the
laws given by him We're by command of
the Divine Being. That upon usury is as
follows: Thou shalt not lend upon usllry
to thy brother; uHIry of money usury of
victuals, usury of anything that is lent
upon usury." This law was not ceremonial
hence not transitory. If founded in eternal
Justice, and to prevent social and indus
trial evils and disorders, it is binding upon
every age and nation, just as much as the
law against incest. In its rational opera
ton the brother" was the national broth
erhood, and its force is not limited by the
permission to accept usury from ''strane-
ers. That word is in the English version
used by the Jews, rendered allen" or for
eigner. The permission to accept interest
of an alien was founded upon the fact that
an allen in those times borrowing money
without security and passing to his own ma
ton left no legal remedy to collect the debt
Hence loans to aliens stood upon an en-
tirey different footing from those made
within the Hebrew nation. 1t is agreed that
the decree against usury was national S.
Mendelsohn, in his Criminal Jurisprudence
of the Ancient Hebrews" QS9D, says: The
Hebrew commonwealth was based upon the
principle of national unity and equality"
The prophets lay especial stress upon this
law, CHASING It's violation among high
crimes. Ezekiel. in describing those who
are just and whom God hath said shall
surely live, says: OS:S) He that hath not
given forth upon usury, neither hath taken
any increase, that hath withdrawn his
hand from iniquity, hath executed true
judgment between man and man" And in
describing those that have done abomina-
tons, he includes him that Hath given
forth upon usury, and hath taken increase
shall he live? he shall not live he hath
done all these denominations; he shall sure
ly die; his blood shall be upon him. And
again (22:12), I'm thee have they taken
gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury
and increase. and thou hast greedily gained
of thy neighbors by extortion and hast for
gotten me, saith the Lord God" Isaiah,
in declaring that the earth shall be empty
and waste. and is defed by transgressons,
says it shall be with the taker of usury
so with the given of usury to him. 1t is
declared in Proverbs, 2S:S that to increase
substance by usury is unjust gain. Nehe-
miah who found the people ruined by mort
cages and themselves and their children
brought to slavery by usury compelled re-
stitution and denounced the practice King
David also recognizes the force Of this law
Usurers were punishable by faggelation,
and not competent to give testimony under
Jewish law. Coming to later Jewish ac-
acknowledgement Josephus says of the poity
of Moses: The reason why the constitu-
ton of this legislation was ever better di
rected to the utility of all, than other legs-
la lions were. is in this, that Moses saw
and he ordained other virtues to be part
of religion, l mean justice, and fortitude
and temperance, and universal agreement
of the members with one another. =
For we made for fellowship one with
another, and he who prefers the common
good before what is peculiar to himself is
above all acceptable to God. He
that lends money must not demand usury
for its loan. These and many more of the
like sort are the rules that unite US in the
bonds Of society, one with another"
That this is also the view of
the highest Hebrew authority in the
United States at this day appears
from the writings of Rabbi Isaac
NJ. Wise in his Judaism and Christianity
Their Agreements and Disagreements''
usS3). At page he quotes from psalm 10,
where King David enumerates the laws
which, If men keep. they shall never be
moved to eternity, and includes 'he who
siveth not his money for usury" To
which DR.. Wise adds his opinion as fol-
lows: THANK your King David for this
universal catechism; whereas neither rab-
BIZ nor priest, nor dervish can improve it."
Having shown that Jewish authority to
this day stands firmly by the divinity of
very briefly show that the whole competent
Christian authority is 70 the same effect
Jesus expressly asserted that he would
not destroy the law or the prophets, both
of which denounce usury. He commands
the keeping Of the precepts of Moses, say
Ing: For had We believed Moses We would
have believed me-"
The fathers Of the church were all agreed,