Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1896-05-23
LOANS WITHOUT INTEREST.


4 Peculiar Jewish Institution Carried On
in New York.
A loan Office where the only security
required is honor is surely novel
enough to notice. Such an institution
can be found here. For years it has
carried on business on the theory that
vast najorities of men are honest in
money matters A total stranger, b.
merely leaving his name and address, can
borrow from SIS to SIS in cash. No
pledge is taken, no interest is charged.
As proof of the fact that people are hon
est, it may be stated that this office has
put S6O,OOO annually into circulation III
small loans during the last four years
The books show that but S4S9 has been
lost, because people failed to return
what they had borrowed. In many
cases people try to return more han
they have received, but the rules OF tho
office forbid their making this sacrifice
OF course, this remarkable loan office is
not managed by an individual or firm
Its leaders are optimistic Hebrews who
believe that the poor are honest Its
membership embraces 400 residents of
the lower East Side. About $50 are
proprietors of small East Side business
houses and are in easy circumstances
The other $50 members are poor work
street peddlers, etc. Their wages viii
not average SO week. The $50 busi-
ness men paid in SO as dues the first
year and the $50 working people gave
So each. This made a fund of about
81, 900 with which to start the loaE
Office. The same amount has been paid
in every year, and the association has
received many donations. To-day the
association has about SIS, 900 loans out
and about $4,000 in cash on hand. The
society puts out its money on an aver
age of about four times year. Count
ing it every time it is put in circulation,
about 1000 is loaned annually.
This helpful institution which double
discounts the church pawnshop estab-
ished here two years ago, bears He
braic name which in English means
that money is loaned according to the
law laid down in the Bible, namely with
out security, without interest, without
knowledge whether the borrower e
honest until after a trial has been given.
and without allowing any one man to
know that brother needs help. OF the
money loaned not a cent has ever gone
to a member, the deserving poor alone
being aided. All an applicant has to do
is to leave his or her name and address
No Endorsement or certificate of honesty
is needed. No religious distinctions arr
made, all applicants being treated alike
For four years this remarkable loan
Office has been quietly doing good l.
does not seek notoriety, and few outside
the territory which profits by its help
fitness know that such a worthy institu-
ton exists. When a borrower enters
the office and begins to tell a tale of woe.
the secretary protests. If he sees that
the person is needy, money is handed
out and the borrower is told that it is
not necessary to relate his or her
troubles. If person has borrowed
SIS and repaid it, so will be loaned; if
$40, then SIS will be given, and so on ur
to S25. The ward in which this loan
office is located has 100000 people
packed into radius of one mile, 4
greater population to the area than can
be found in any other city in the coun-
try. Y Cor. Pittsburgh Dispatch