The Washington herald., 1914-06-21

srs. Ne publicity II one Of the phrase.
lures that appeals to the unfortunate end
the foolish. Every tfAnsaetion Il done
! In Secret The borrower, usually ASHAMED
ef his misfortune or his folly, does bust.
ness with the lender In . whisper ana
though ultimately he may Be robbed In
Q most outrageous manner, he makes nc
| complaint. except once In Q long while,
to the law ofacsrS Of the city. Every.
thing, therefore, works 70 the disadvan.
tags Of the borrower and let me tell You
that the average borrower everywhsrs.
except In Washington. IL Q workinemAn
or the wife Of workinEman.
BerssF's story OF n Shark.
Victor Berger, the Socialist. spoke 70
me OF . case that came under his notice
in Milwaukee. A mechanic whom he
knew borrowed teo. After he had paid
ss5o In interest. the lender threatened to
take his furniture. Berger told the me-
chanie to tell the lender that he. Victor
Berger. had advised the mechanic to
borrow q shotgun and shoot the lender.
When the shark Berger said. was In
formed Of the sound legal adviCs I had
given the mechanic. he hurriedly closed
the transaction and returned the note
Berger, Of course, spoke in jocuIar
sense. It Is q fact. however, that most
small borrowers are wage earners tenn
porarily in Strengthened circumstances.
In all cities the loans are for small
amounts. say from SO to $50 each. though
larger sums are often borrowed when
chattels can be given as security. The
figures we obtained In Washington are IL
Illustrative Of the rest of the country.
Here loans average 80. have said that
t20oo.o 900 was loaned out by 100 corpora
lions and individuals. OF this sum, t10o.-
900 had been borrowed at per cent a
month, or "a per cent a year; $4,000 at
~ per cent q month. or % per cent a
year: seoo,0 at per cent month, or 3s
per cent a year. and 81. 10000 at from s
per cent to 30 per cent month. or from
50 per cent to $50 per cent a year. I dare
say the 100000 of capital earned more
than tl,ooo.ooO in dividends It is no
wonder then that lenders in New York
and Chicago hurried money to Washing
ton In the hope OF beating my bill.
"A woman who had to send her .daugh-
ter away because she had tuberculosis
borrowed 500 and paid interest at the
rate Of "a per cent q year. A young
government clerk paid III per cent Tor q
loan of S35. We investigated the case OF
q man who paid 81 per cent a year on q
loan OF $40 which was secured by a
mortgage on chattels worth q great deal
more than the face Of the note. One OF
the worst cases showed that the borrower
of IS was actually paying the lender 81
per cent a year.
Conditions Are Rad Everywhere.
Conditions in Washington are no dif-
ferent from what they are In most Amer
lean cities Our inquiries showed that
over 90 loan sharks in New York were
from 10 to 800 per cent a year.
Pennsylvania has a Law limiting interest
to 6 per cent. but we discovered one lend
er in that State who was collecting more
than 100 per cent on the money borrowed
Of him by the poor. Victor Berger says
that from 900 to 500 per cent used to be |
the ruling rates in Milwaukee.
After got the facts assembled" Mr.. |
Dyer continued. n wrote my bill. Con-
sress. ! thought made up of picked men /
from all over the United States. could |
enact q law that would be a model for
The whole country. The bill was debated.