Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1895-02-20
THE CURSE OF INTEREST.

Let the Function of Banking BE Adj
ministered by and SS9 EAo People.
The Philadelphia Evening Item, a
daily paper of 100000 circulation, pub
fishes the following brave and lucid
editorial utterances:
There is a halo of glory and re-
nown' around the brow of the bank
president, which requires analysis in
order to understand it's true worth.
I'm England this halo is far larger
than III this country; mainly, because
we have had so many wildcat bank
presidents in our midst who have
thrown considerable dirt upon the pro-
fesSion.
In England the bank president 10
recognized in society as the next doo'
to lord, and in cases he, in the gen.
eral estimation, takes rank with ever
higher titled people.
All this glory is part and partial o.
that which belongs to the pawnbroker
nothing more or less.
Now, the only difference between
the bank president and the pawnbroker
is the size of the loan; there is no
other
If it be said that the bank president
does not charge usurious rates of in
terest, it is replied here that such a
speaker is not very we'll posted in the
rates charged in this country in distant
and outlying districts; few years ago
40 per cent was common enough in
Texas and elsewhere, and thought all
right by neighboring national banks;
but this rate busted" the borrowers
in very short time. During the last
few years the rate of the same bank
presidents has been reduced 20 per
cent, and even Is in cases, and all these
rates were to farmers who gave their
property in security, property they
then held free from membranes; in
other words, they gave strictly first
class security.
Even the per cent which prevails
here in the east is greater than the
earnings of the average industry. Stat
istics prove that statement beyond all
reasonable question.
This is well known and admitted
by any well-infromed insurance CON-
pany.
Therefore what is the difference be-
tween the pawnbroker who swamps his
victim inside Of few days or months,
and the bank president who is gradu-
ally but surely sapping the life blood
out of industrial enterprise?
1T is high time that the halo and
glory surrounding the banking bust
ness should be relegated to the rear,
because it is greatly the cause of the
ignorance of the people as to what
these usurers are actually doing in
their own behalf and at the peoples ex-
pense.
"A large part of the press which sup
ports these usurers really toady to this
glory and halo they are now naming
it conservatism; but this word is used
to denote precisely what the average
pawnbroker is doing, nothing more nor
less.
There is nothing whatever of per-
sonal nature in this article, it's only
purpose being a clear statement Of
facts which the people should compre-
bend for their own financial preserva-
ton just as soon as possible.
Every one of these money lenders
should either invest their money in the
industries of the country, and take
their chances with producers, manu-
facturers and traders, or openly retire
from the field of money lenders, for
under the prevailing system they earn
nothing-except, perhaps, in clerk
work, an occupation that forms a very
small fraction Of the usury they i'm
pose upon all forms of trade for an ac-
commodation which can far better and
at a greatly decreased cost be conduct
ed by the government.
1.-THE day is not far distant when it
will be disgrace to an honest man to
demand interest, beyond actual cost
for the use of loaned money"