The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-26
CRUSADE AGAINST
 TIE MONEY SHARKS
Atlanta Legal Aid Society Is
 Pushing Prosecutions
LOSSES TO MERCHANTS
to the Loan Sharks in Atlanta Is Heavy and Merchants
 Lose Thereby

Atlanta, September 25.-(Special)-A quarter of million dollars lost to legit- innate trade in Atlanta every year on ac- count of the money sharks. is the esti- mate of the situation made by W. Woods White, president of the Atlanta Legal Aid society, which is quietly engaged in push ing it's prosecution against all violations of law on the part of this gentry.
 MT. Whites estimate is not based on speculation and chance alone; he has had before him for investigation. personal investigation. some hundreds of these cases; he has gone into each of them mnutely and he is in a position to speak with authority.
 It is said there are from 3o,000 to 5000 small loans made in this city every year by the money lenders, upon Which not less than $25O.O00 in interest is collected in the twelvemonth. Practically all of this money, it is considered, is taken di- rectly out of the channels of legitimate trade; it goes to the money shark instead of the butcher, the groceryman, the dry goods merchant and the clothing house.
 In other words, the money lender gets in interest what would otherwise go for food and clothing and both the borrower and the legitimate merchant suffer ac- cordingly.
 For example, out of half a dozen ran- dom cases which were being investigated in MT. Whites office the other day, one man. skilled worker, who makes from s75 to sl00 month, was asked how often he had a suit of clothes.
 This is the only suit I have had in four years, was his reply.
 Another had worn the suit he had on for two years and had no other outer clothing
 "Your wife, another was asked, how many dresses has she had in the last five years?''
 "I don't know, sir" he replied, but I do know that she has been able to spend only $S on clothes during the last year; for myself, 1 have spent practi- cally nothing"
 Another declared that his wife had no clothes in which she was willing to ap- pear upon the streets.
 Each of these men had been in the clutches of the money sharks for pe- rods varying from three-to six years. Five of the six of them had borrowed from necessity and not for the purpose of squandering the money; the sixth man did not command the same sympathy be- cause with his income he should have paid himself out of debt before now. He was a single man with $1oo month.
 Some of them borrow because of long sickness in their families others because they were temporarily out of work and had their families to support.
 One of them, the worst case, owed half a dozen money lenders nearly S400. He had mixed Peter and Paul up in half a dozen transactions, borrowing from one lender to pay another-borrowing prin- cipal from one shark to pay another the interest. ranging from F to 20 per cent a month. He had reached point where 1t took practically his entire earnings to pay his monthly interest. One day he was arrested by a bailiff, brought in to a justice court just after he had collected his weeks wages, but instead of being taken before the justice was taken into a side room where all the money he had was taken away from him and he was allowed to go. They did have the de- cency to leave him cents to pay his car fare back home, which was near College Park, and would have been an eight mile walk.
 The grand jury has already taken hold of the situation again and now has it under consideration. It is proposed now to go to the bottom of the justice court end of the business as was recommended by the last grand jury
 As to the money lenders themselves some 30 or 40 of them are already un- der indictment and test cases are to be made of a number of different classes of schemes for avoiding the laws against usury. Those cases were to have been tried some two months ago. but court room could not be secured and the su- perior court adjourned until this month. Now the court and grand jury are in session again. The guns Of the Legal Aid society are now turned on tne evil and some early developments may be ex- nected. Trials of he indicted money lenders will be forthcoming shortly, and complete tests of the limit to which they will be allowed to go under the law will be made before the supreme court.