The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1899-02-02
SOLON OF CHICAGO
iscources on Usury and Other Mon
etary Propositions.
WEEKLY POLITICAL LETTER
bmments on the Dangerous Growth of
Great Trusts.
copyrighted by the Mcclure News Dureau,)

"A copyrighted by the Mcclure News Bureau) /
/ Chicago, Jan. 30, 1899.
There is an old sage living on
Loomis street in this city who has
runk deep of the wisdom of human
PHILOSOPHY. No one knows anything
is to his history, nor can any infor-
nation on that sui ject be obtained
from him. But when properly APP
broached he will talk freely about
political economy and kindred sub
: ects. No one can he in bis presence
long without being impressed that he
Is no ordinary man. He is of full
4gure, forid complexion and long,
howing white beard, having the APP
pearance of youthfulness combined
with ripened knowledge.
4 He lays all our troubles to usury.
&He thinks that if usury had not been
Ire introduced into the affairs of man.
kind within the past three centuries
!Hhat all our troubles would have been
Xsolved wisely.
n "The commonly accepted idea,
BE said to me, sis that usury as
Condemned in the bible has reference
10 excessive inter, st on money. 1t,
however, meant interest ON money
Tor any amount One per cent per
8hnnum was regarded as usury. 1t
6is only recently that a different def
$nition has been given to the word
1t is now used to mean interest in eX
cess of the legal rate.
& "Usury," he continued, ''has cru
CITED the people Of the world twice,
and it was so recognize d by the peo-
pie of the two periods refer TO 1t
tore down their civiliz ,tions. But.
in time, coming generations failed to
b profit by the experience of their
fathers, and are now about to learn it
4 all over again by the painful process
of experience AS the son, too often,
fails to CLEAN knowledge by Inform
ing himself of the experience of his
father, so have the people of the last
three hundred years overlooked, il
they ever knew, the cause of the past
misery of their progenitors
He took down from shelf vol
ume of the Encyclopedia Britannica
and read me The sentence under the
title of Usury: 'Cicero mentions
that Cato, being asked what he thought
of usury, made no other answer tc
the question than by asking the per
son who spoke to him what he thought
of murder.
The sage then selected from a dusty
shelf, filed with old books, a volume
entitled Capital and Interest, by
Bohm- Bawerk, translation from N
old German edition, published by
Mcmillan & Co., of New York city
From it lie read several passages
Here is one of them 'In the sew
teenth century it was publicly pro
claimed that lenders atinterest should
be punished by criminal law lik'
thieves.
These were startling words tha
might arouse strife and deep seated
prejudice if dragged from the toni
of the past and displayed in print il
this day of universal usury and, on
of excessive caution, | took the bool
into my hands. There, sure enough
staring up at me out of the depths o
the long distant centuries, were thes
hot, blsi ering words. Had it no
been for at he SAID to me later
would not a5w be writing this inter
view with him.
1t appears from the writings 0
that day that all the religious demon
nations were against the practice @
loaning money for interest, and tina
for at least the first fifteen centurie
of the Chritian era interest on none
was forbidden by law. 1t seem
that the religious orders could nc
give the philosophy of it, but belieS
ed from bible teaching that some
where in the practice Of loaning fc
interest lurked danger fatal to civ
ilization.
1t was as late as the eighteent
century when money lending agal
became common under protection
law.
| said to the old sage and philo
opher:
"Were your views laid before Il
public the money lenders of toda,
grown fat and numerous, won
crush those who opposed them as
would crush an egg shell in my hand
''No, he replied, ''f the dang
is seen in time and properly treate
we would escape the appalling resul
that ensued from this cause ty
thousand years ago.
"What do you mean" l aske
las to the question being proper
treated?"
''rhe men now engaged in mon
sending5 " he replied ''are not respo