The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1896-05-16
LOANS WITHOUT INTEREST.
a Peculiar Jewish Institution Carried on
In New York. Ag

a Peculiar Jewish Institution Carried on
In New York. Ia
A loan Office where the only security
required is honor 10 surely novel
enough to notice. Such an institution
can be found here. For years il has
carried on business on the theory that
vast majorities of men are honest in
money matters. A total stranger, by
merely leaving his name and address, can
borrow from IS 10 $25 In cash. No
pledge 10 taken, no interest is charged.
As proof of the fact that people are hon
est, it may be stated that this Office has
put sec, 1000 annually into circulation in
small loans during the last four years.
The books show that but $3.50 has been
lost, because people failed to return
what they had borrowed. In many
cases people try to return more than
they have received, but the rules of the
Office forbid their making this sacrifice.
OF course, this remarkable loan Office Is
not managed by an individual or q firm.
It's leaders are optimistic Hebrews who
believe that the poor are honest. It's
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.
ing people-push cartmen, tailors.
street peddlers, etc. Their wages will
not average $40 q week. The $50 bust
ness men paid in $40 as dues the first
year and the $50 working people gave
So each. This made fund of about
$1,000 with which to start the loan
Office. The same amount has been paid
in every year, and the association has
received many donations. To-day the
association has about $4,000 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 100000 is loaned annually.
This helpful institution which double
discounts the church pawnshop estab-
lished 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
whether the borrower ia
honest until after 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 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. II
does not seek notoriety, and few outside
the territory which profits by it's help
know that such n worthy institu-
ton exists. When 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 1t is
not necessary to relate his or her
troubles. If n person has borrowed
SIS and repaid it, SO will be loaned; il
$40, then SIS will be given, and so on up
to S25. The ward in which this loan
office is located has 100000 people
packed into radius of one mile, a
greater population to the area than can
be found in any other city in the coun-
try.-N. Y. Cor. Pittsburgh Dispatch.