The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1913-01-20
DECLARE WAR ON
luxurious MONEY
LENDERS
MERIDIAN LAWYERS WILL INsTL
TUTE FORTY SUITS AGAINST
LOAN SHARKS.
(From Meridian Star. }

war on the loan shark mas Deen
declared by Attorneys Bonds G. Null
10y, who announced that beginning
Monday morning they would institute
approximately forty suits, charging
usury against alleged money lending
concerns and credit houses, which
have been doing a thriving business
in this city.
Messrs. Bonds G. Mulloy declare
they have the evidence to carry out
the plans made by them to eXtermi-
nate this evil from the city of Me
ridian and that they will leave no
stone unturned in their efforts to rid
Meridian of the many concerns doing
an illegitimate bushes under the.
guise of credit, supply and money buy
ing concerns The attorneys also de-
clare that they have received COM
plant after complaint from negroes
who have patronized these concerns
and some of the tales of extortion and
blood-money wrung from the poor and
helpless, is enough to melt a block
of ice,
The lawyers declare that some of
these concerns practice their nefari-
GUS business in various ways, Some
of them claim that they buy so much
of a mans salary, not considering any
thing paid thereon as interest. They
never give receipts, so that there is
nothing to prove that interest has
been paid, except the bare word of
the victim. An alleged assignment is
taken on the victim, who when once
in the tolls, grinds day and night,
while the shark gloats and rubs his
hands, and counts the dollars that
are taken out of the mouth of little
children, and the food out of the
mouth of the poor q
The poor creature, who gets in the
tolls of the shark, pays interest upon
interest at the rate of ten, fifteen and
twenty-five per cent. per month on
each dollar. For instance a loan of
IS is secured. An assignment of $3.50
is given. This $1.60 is not by the
year, but must be paid each month. If
it is not paid then the shark presents
his assignment, which covers the
wages of a whole year. collects the
money and grimaces at his victim,
who in all probability loses his job,
while the shark grows sleek and fat
on the sweat of his victims brow.
The lawyers have accumulated
statements where the victim borrowed
$500 He claims that he paid on this
$500 various sums ranging from $3.50
per month to 81. In all the victim
claims that he paid $35 in one year
and yet the money lender at the end
of the year attempts to collect the full
amount of the assignment which is
$3.50. In other words this shark want
ed $1,000 interest on $500 in one year.
Another method is to take chatteT
mortgages on the furniture of ne
gro. The rates of interest run in al
most unbelievable figures. The negro
pays on this furniture, or the mort
gage which he has given the shark
until he reaches the breaking point.
There and then the emissaries of the
lender follow the victim from
point to point and have been known
to enter homes at the point of pistol
and take therefrom goods on the pre-
text of legal authority. Some of the
collectors for these concerns have &C
tually assaulted the victims with
weapons to collect the pound of flesh
demanded by the shark.
Attorneys Bonds & MulIoy desire
all the information they can obtain
rom every source and want all per-
sons who are doing business with any
,oncern charging more than the legal
ate of interest, which is per cent.
Ter year in Mississippi, to get into
with them and aid
hem in the determination of an evil
hat has grown worse than cancer in
he city of Meridian.
These concerns wreak more evil
han the .whiskey shop or the blind
iger and should be fought relent1essly |
nd no mercy shown until they are