The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-14
ATLANTA BEGINS
 LOAN SHARK WAR Company Formed to Care
 for Small Borrower PITIFJJL STORIES TOLD
PITIFUL STORIES TOLL
Investigations Reveal Cases of AL most Abject Slavery of Widows and Men Who Were Forced
 Into Tolls of Sharks

Atlanta, April 2.-(Special. )-Actual steps are now being taken in Atlanta to provide a remedy against the loan sharks, tual Savings and Trust company, with S50,000 capital stock, for the specific pur- pose of taking care of the small bor- rower who cannot offer the class of se- curty demanded by the banks.
 This is the class that has been driven to the loan sharks. and many are the piti- full stories almost of abject slavery which have come to light during the investiga- tions-stores of widows with children on their hands, paying 10 and 20 per cent a month interest for five or ten years and then having all their little household fur niture levied on because they could pay no longer; stories of ablebodied men who made barely enough to support their fam lilies, paying similar interest anywhere from or 3 to 20 years, never having money enough at one time to meet the principal, and finally being forced to jail because they could not discharge the usurious obligation.
 The company's stock books have been
 
 subscriptions will be soon made up. for it is proposed to run the concern on a substantial business basis that will ulti- mately net the stockholders from to 10 per cent. It is stated the outside limit of profit to stockholders will be 10 per cent.
 At the same time money will be sup piled the small borrower on a basis of s per cent per annum-very different from the 10 to 20 per cent month which the money sharks have collected from him. A borrower who gets $50. for instance. will be given the amount less per cent and pay back the loan including principal and interest, at the rate of s1 per week for 50 weeks.
 It is true this figures a slightly higher rate than the legal contract rate of Q per cent, but this is considered neces- sary in the conduct of business where the loans are much more uncertain than in regular banking, and the difference to the borrower is almost infinite.
 It is proposed to lend money on per sonal indorsement or on assignment of salaries with the full cognizance of the employer. It is to be made an institu-
  afraid to go, where he will not have to sneak up a back staircase to avoid being seen, and where he can go and come without the feeling that he is bar tering his soul or smirching his man. hood.
 Savings and investment features are to be incorpora ted in the plan paying some thing like s per cent, which is double the usual savings bank rate. These fea- lures are all to be developed later as the plan is unfounded and the business gets under way.
 Effort is being made especially to en- list the interest of employers of labor in the company, because they have ex- perienced most trouble through the op- erations of the money sharks in attaching the salaries of their employees; and many employers have been forced to make 1t rule to discharge any employe who assigns his salary to a money lender One railroad here alone discharges from 100 to POO employees a year the result of salary attachments by the money sharks. Under the plan which has been evolved by number of prominent Atlanta bus- ness men, anxious to relieve this situation, there would be no necessity, it Is believed, for salary attachments because of tie cosy payment permitted, both of principal and interest, and because in case of de- linuuency a word to an employer would probably be all that would ever be neces- sary.
 Atlanta's agitation of the subject has brought it to the front In other cities of the south, notably Augusta and Savannah, and indications are that similar movements will be inaugurated in both of these cities in the near future.