The Delta independent., 1914-03-06
THE sHYLocKs
IN THE SHADOW

The rural credit measure as it now
looms up in congress has been con-
centrated into what is known as the
committee having the matter IN
charge is holding hearings every few
days. These sittings are good deal
of a joke inasmuch as they are at
tended not by the farmers who are
supposed to be the beneficiaries OF
the law but by the hard faced shy
locks of fortune who stand in the
shadow and direct this or that. fea-
ture of the bill to suit their own
whims and predictions for plunder.
the public good but are always on
hand TO further their own selfish
ends ard thus it will be even after
the law is passed and has become
operative throughout the country.
The farmers are never sticking
themselves in at the initiation OF
these laws to dictate anything as do
the money sharks. Farmers are not
asking for special privileges in any
national legislation nor have they ever
been numbered among the classes
seeking special privileges as have the
promoters of all the large industrial
and cooperative interests. So then we
see the cooks of prosperity making
their broth for them. They not only
concoct the soup but will see that it
i grt 1aftf
and it is on this hypothesis that we
are not altogether pleased with the
context of the rural banking bill as
it is now being juggled in congress
As the bill now reads it contains some
clauses in the way of exemptions that
will positively nullify its purpose and
place the money loaning business in
hands of the very shysters from whom
We are trying to escape when it
comes to securing farm money at rea-
sonable rates OF interest.
As a general class the money lend
ers are responsible for much OBJ
struction TO our agricultural progress
Many OF Them are the simon-pure
shylocks OF the country. These men
like the gophers that they are, know
the open highways and underground
routes TO the money market They
know the lending game in all its sin
lister aspects and are farther from be-
ing philauthropists than any other
men in the world They know the
devious methods by which interest
rates have been augmented by the
cost of money and all the petty and
tricky ways by which this cost
has been increased to their profit
They know the laws forbidding usury
have been circumvented in Colorado
and every other state and they know
how to do it better than any other
class of people. From these men Will
come the investors in a private bank
farm credit plan If the law suits them
They will be at the money counter
and their familiar faces will greet the
farmer narrower wherever these pro-
posed banks are established.
The main difference will be that
they will represent themselves to their
victims as possessing brand of vir-
tue duly certified and endorsed by
the government If the law does not
suit them and is not for them, they
will not invest. These people care
nothing for the government policy in
trusted to their tender mercies. No
law can be made that will prevent
such a banker from telling an appli-
cant that the funds are all loaned
up" regardless of whether they are
or not and turning the borrower into
the clutches of one of these side-line
lenders which are adjnncts of most OF
the banks of today.-Field and Farm.