The independent., 1903-07-09
BOOK 2.-Chapter TX.


The overpowering force of demand
for coin thus limited, created by
world-embracing statutes and thus ex-
clusively empowered, drives mankind,
helpless, to the feet of the gold trust.
1t is here that the foul den of the
usurer is excavated. The power thus
conferred upon the gold owner to COM
nit the crime of usury (Which is a
crime violative OF natural law is an
accursed incident attending the evil
and iniquitous system of taxi g
ALL things and dse epriving- ALL
things of the power to PAY tax
levies and judgments, except the tax
receipts conferred as gift and
stamped upon the gold owners gold
alone.
Iniquity thus crowned and en-
throned, brings forth after its kind.
The gold owner refuses to sell the tax
raying power, made gift to him, and
by means of his monopoly Of it COM
pels mankind to borrow 1t and
pay him usury for it.
II was reserved for our own time to
produce men of sufficient effrontery
I'd attempt defense of usury in the
forum of reason.
1t has heretofore, when submitted
to, been merely tolerated as a con-
fessed but necessary evil and crime
against mankind. But latterly the
triumph of Mammon has been SO COM
plete, that men have been found cap
able Of actually writing and speaking
il. favor of this crime as a righteous
system.
Let us look into this sinister and
insidious crime and discover if possi-
lie what is the secret of its malign
power, which brands it with the curse
of mankind and of God.
Moses forbade the taking of any re-
turn whatever for the loan of coin.
This is a great authority. While the
laws of Moses in their details, and in
the method of their application, have
been greatly modified, yet there is not
q single great principle laid down by
him which has ever been repudiated
without being followed by train of
evils to the common mass of men.
He was wise enough to devise a
system of land tenures, supported by
limitations upon the greed of credit
ors, contained in an automatic bank
ruptcy law relieving hapless debtors
by it's own proper vigor, without ex-
rense or aid of courts, every seventh
year; and eliminating in the resti-
tuition of the land inheritance, when
lost through mortgage or otherwise,
at the end of each fifty years. thus
making a semi-centennial jubilee and
year of universal deliverance, thereby
defeating the tendency toward con-
centration of wealth on the one hand
and toward pauperism, crime and con-
sequenta social decay and ruin on the
other-found in every governmental
system. Surely such man is en-
titled to respectful attention.
The fact that one who displayed
such deep insight into human con-
duct, and such a far glancing eye to
guard against its evil consequences,
prohibited the taking of usury or in
terest, as a high crime against the
community, should cause us to pause
and hesitate before we agree that it
may be done without public injury.
1t appears to me that the weakest
reasons against usury alone have been
put forward. And yet, weak as they
are, they are strong against any ar
guments offered in it's favor. Bacon
~he had felt its malign power to de-
stroy it's victims, in his own sexper-
ience, points out such reasons as he
found. These are weighty and cor
rectlv stated. The avoiding of all
chances of loss Incurred by enf.:ag giEg
in useful enterprises and compelling
those. who do so to pay tribute; the
,tsurer's share depending upon the
flight Of time alone, and not upon any
accidents of trade, must end in put
ting all coin in the hands of the us
urer. H' s
The argument in the Merchant of
Venice (if also written, as many be-
lieve, by Bacon) is along the same
line, and contrasts the lack of repro
uuctive power of barren metal" with
the fecundity of animals and plants.
A statement by another represents
the agriculturist using as his imple-
Gz22zz1zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz