The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1913-02-27
How Poor of British Cities Are
Continually Made Poorer.
Most of the Money Lenders Are
Women Who often Exact Nine
Hundred Per Cent.-Big Fees
FOR Small Loans.

interest winch was pa4Q Dy pour
woman In Bermondsey, who lately
poisoned herself by drinking oxalic
acid, writer in London Tit-Blts
states She had borrowed the sum of
14s and had contracted to pay interest
at the rate of one penny in the shill-
ing per week! That is to say, she
had undertaken to pay Is I'd for the
loan of las for one week. AS the
coroner said, that rate of interest
seems excessive"
Going to Bermondsey recently, the
writer called on the Rev. H. Williams
of st Johns Horsleydown, who has
studied the problem of money lending
closely and then discovered that the
shylocks of the slums do not confine
their operations to Bermondsey; they
exist all over the country and are as
troublesome in Liverpool and Green
ock as they are in London. They are
not money lenders in the sense in
which the late Isaac Gordon was a
money lender; they do not rent Of
fees, nor do they advertise them
selves as ffnanciers willing to accom-
modate necessitous persons ION note
of hand only with loans ranging from
95 to G5,000 nor do they circularize
sch0olboys, undergraduates and cler-
gynlen, as is the habit of the shylocks
of the middle classes. Most of them
in fact, are unregistered, and there
fore if detected in money lending
transactions, are liable to heavy fines.
The license costs G10, and the shy
lock of the slum is not sufficiently sup
money on licenses when 1t can be
more profitably employed.
The bulk of these slum money lend
ers are women. AS a rule, they are Of
the class to which their clients be-
long. In one case the money lender
was woman so poor that in order to
obtain capital she pawned her
clothes There was a streak Of imam
cisl genius in this woman, for she
was able to obtain money from a
In the shilling; she lent it to her
clients at the rate of twopence in the
shilling In Bermondsey the rate of
interest charged by these money lend
efs is generally a penny in the shill-
ing; in Liverpool it is frequently two
pence But in practice the rate in
Bermondsey is often twopence. This
IS due to the fact that Saturday, the
day on which repayment is generally
made, is always treated as the begin
ming of another week. For example,
II a client borrows shillings on
Thursday afternoon and repays that
sum on the following Saturday she
is said to have had the loan for two
weeks. The amount of interest due
from her, therefore, Is tenpence! AS
we are usually paid on Saturday, 1t is
clearly impossible for a women in
urgent need of money on Thursday to
repay the borrowed sum on Friday,
when f1vepence interest is due.
If the borrower wishes to retain the
principal for an additional week, she
is allowed to do so at double rates of
interest Thus woman borrowing IS
on the Thursday of one week and re-
paying, it on the Saturday Of the next
week owes interest for three weeks,
although she has only had the money,
in fact, for nine days, and the amount
of interest due from her is Is Id
In some places, notably in Liver
pool. the money lender expects the
borrower, even if the amount Of the
loan is only a shilling, to spend por-
ton of it in buying fish, steak and
other edibles or beer. The charges
made for these goods are heavy,
usually two or three times their
value. One money lender used to sell
bedding and furniture to her clients,
lending the money to them to pay for
it. She and other money lenders
have carried the work of the tally
man. beyond the usual practice, and
appear, in consequence, to have made
it more profitable.
1t may be asked: How can these
unregistered, and therefore illegal,
money lenders make their business
pay. in view of the high rate of inter-
est charged, and also of the fact that
they do not obtain security for their
loans?" Strange as it may seem,
their losses through defaulting clients
are very few The sums lent are gen.
orally small, seldom more than Ell
and usually under los. The loan is, in
most cases. contracted by a woman
without the knowledge of her hus-
band. This fact gives the money lend
er a hold over the borrower, and the
supposititious question stated above
may be answered thus: by methods
of bluff and terrorism"
The borrowers do not know that an
unregistered money lender is subject
to a heavy fine, but even if they were
aware of this fact they would prob
ably hesitate a long while before re-
pudiating loans or defaulting in pay.
ments. Usually a threat to county
court" the borrower, or TO inform her
husband, is effectual; but in the case
of the obstinate sterner methods are
adopted, The defaulting borrower
may suddenly find that her moral
character is being aspersed, but she
Is more likely to end herself assault
ed on the first suitable occasion. Or
she may find that her furniture has
been smashed during her absence
from home.