The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-07
"Open s to 6; Saturday s to S."

Make the calculation. The inter est" on the loan of $10 would amount to s1S2O in one year. hut that is not all The S5 cents would be compounded 5o times during the year, and you can compute what the gross total wouid be. The interest" on a $50 loan would be S75.4O in one year, and the 4o weekly interest would be compounded 50 times, and leave, you to make that calculation, too.
 These vile wretches call that "rea- sonable rates" There is authority for 1t that Charles Dickens immortal ms creant, Seth Pecksniff, was satlshed that he was a perfectly good man ana m ornament to virtuous society great poet tells us that the good God would not allow the devil to exist 1T there was not some righteous end TOT him to suEserve. But these usurers who prey on the weak and the thrllt- less of this town-what are they cre- sted for? What were venemouS rep tiles and noxious insects made for? Why are there disease, pain, misery, a battle, and the jackal must nave sfls a battle, and the jackal must have ms prey It is universally asseNed 10 that avarice is the 'basest of the passions and a man who would charge the rates of usury set forth in the fore going communication would not hesi- tate to pick his victims pocket or Its miserable contents if 1t were as safe to rob him in that way as 1t IS to TOD him at 10 per cent month
 How many suicides these money sharks have caused in the District Of Columbia will never be known, but the number is far into the hundreds, and the wanr, woe, agony they nave puf- veyed cannot be computed. was 1n- terested in a young man, one or thelr victims, and took charge of his affalrs, having him out of debt, employing his salary to. that end. This I did repeat edly. He insisted on paying to the nt- most farthing, and that was done too I beseeched one of his remorseless creditors not to Tend" him again, and got his promise; but man who Will lend money at 10 per cent a month for gain will lie for gain, or steal for gain: and this fellow lied, while his trade was thievery.
 
 The heads of government depart ments are in some measure to blame, and they hark back to General Jack son. who indorsed, without his knowi- edge, the note in bank of a government clerk payable to his boarding house. keeper The clerk was a scamp, and considered the thing closed account when he made the note; but when he found out the President of tue United States niu -DecOlHe Secuiity i'i the payment he bestirred himself and met the obligation.
 John F'orsythe A was Secretary or State at the time. and q creditor went to him and asked that a clerk in the department be forced to pay debt. Forsythe put it this way: But sup pose you owed the clerk? I could not force you to pay him, neither will l force him to pay you. The State De- partment is not a collection agency: certainly I am not a collection agent"
 There is an argument on both sides. The late Logan Carlisle was in charge of the administrative features of the Treasury Department when his father was at the head of it-and he differen- tiated He put it this way: Clerks must pay debts contracted for neces- saries. The department insists on that. But this establishment will not lend itself to the collection of usurious in terest, or other debt improvidently contracted by a clerk, and especially so when the creditor knows his GUS toner is reckless in the contracting of unnecessary obligations"
 Sometimes the bloedsuckers are sued