The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1903-07-16
BOOK 2.-Chapter x.
All Rights Reserved.


Moreover, it is of usury we now
speak; and to the long list of loans
must be added the longer list Of un-
satisfied judgments and delinquent tax
levies the world over, all Of which are
bearing usury. And since 1t is with
the quantity of usury, and not of
amounts loaned, that we are here con-
Cerned, if we add to the mountain al
ready enumerated, the vast difference
of rate of usury on the loans based
upon the needs of the poor, as COM
pared with those of the borrowings for
business or speculative purposes, it
at least doubles that mountain.
Nor is this ALL In the final result,
it is the poor and helpless whose toll
and sweat pays the usury prom :
s d by all those great mercantile,
manufacturing and transportation
companies; for they fix the prices of
their products and their charges for
service so as to include the usury they
have promised, and it must finally be
raid by the dumb, defenseless cOnsum-
ers of the products and users of the
means of transportation.
1t is tribute paid by the poor to
the rich, and which is upheld and en-
forced by statutes enacted for that
purpose.
But more important and unanswer-
able objection to permitting the TAX
ing of usury than any of these, is
disclosed when we consider what it is
the lender lends, and the position in
which secure lending places the lender
ir. his relations to society and human
ity at large.
The usurer who lends incurs no
risks. He makes repayment certain.
What he lends is "coin." The life of
sn American gold eagle is said to be
twenty years. But though the gold
eagle be worn and wasted, the lender
receives back e W one fresh from
the mint; for SO it is nominated in
the bond. What he lends in the
coin" or tax receipt" and his con-
tract calls not for the return of the
identical piece of metal, but of IDOL
lar" coined under such conditions as
give it power at the time of payment
to cancel, by it's tender, any tax levy
or Judgment of an amount equal to
that expressed by it. The borrower
nust stand the abrasion and wear of
use and pay ustlry besides.
Every element of risk or uncertain
ty to the lender is or may be elimi
mated.
While all men engaged in any useful
Vocation must meet and grapple with
the unknown and uncertain, the US
urer alone, under the ages of unjust
laws and subservient courts, deals
with certainties. He sells nothing but
the resistless flight of time, for which
the borrower mu7t pay coin procured
by the toll of his body or brain.
The usurer shifts the uncertainties
Of life upon the shoulders of others
and takes no chances in the battle
Whatever changes may be wrought BY
the movements of time, pass over
without effect upon the claim of the
GSurer.
The combined efforts of all the hui
man race are directed toward the bet
terment Of human conditions This
they accomplish by extending mans
dominion over nature and her forces.
Improved appliances and improved
methods in all departments of pro-
auction and distribution, tend to abund-
ance and a lessening of the service or
power to serve required to obtain pos
session, in exchange, of needful things
endowed with power to perform ben
eficial service for man. This means
that the effect of improved appliances
and methods in all departments of in
Gustry is to reduce human valuation
of the force of demand for those
needful things.
1t means decrease in the intensity
of the force of demand for all those
| things. 1t means a reduction of the
quantity of human energy required
to be expended to obtain possession of
them.
This decrease of intensity of the
force Of demand can only be expressed
in the money" symbol.
But the usurers coin, which he
lends, has the statutory valuation"
of the degree of intensity of the force
Of demand fixed by law and stamped
upon it in that money symbol, and the