The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-01-25

Many farmers who had never known what it was to borrow money below 12 per cent, even on cotton, through the operations of the Feder- al reserve system are now enabled to borrow from their local banks at 6 per cent, and the small local banks are able to borrow in their turn from the Federal reserve banks at to 4 1-2 per cent, and the business men throughout the country. I am sure are prepared to testify that in the past l2 months, despite the very active condition of business, which usually brings tight money, that in all our important cities merchants and manufacturers have been able to place their commercial paper at lower rates than ever known be- fore
 To overcome the whole trouble and rid the farmer and the small mer- chants in the rural districts Of the exacuons which have often crippled and sometimes destroyed them, a bill has been introduced in Congress, re- quiring all national banks to keep a record showing the rate of interest charged on each and every loan, and authorizing and directing the De- partment of Justice to bring suit against usurers, upon information secured by the department from the Comptroller of the Currency, or from ether sources. If this becomes a law, 1t will be- possible to eradicate en- tirely usury from national banks l. would be difficult to overestimate the blessings which will come to many thousands of borrowers in all parts | oe the country if the maximum rate of interest throughout the states 1 should be reduced from 100 per 1 cent. and more, which has been 1 charged in the recent past in many l banks, to a maximum of or or | even 10 per cent, according to the legal rate in the respective states. The subject of usury has been l discussed. as I have shown you, | through thousands of years and by 1 countless learned men. After the 1 Hebrew prophets and law gfvers, | Caesar and Cato and later Justinian | in Rome. and the Greek philoso- l qhers, debated on it; prelates, kings
 and great judges of great courts 1 have studied and expounded it; par i liaments, congresses, legislatures
 have turned 1t inside up and outside
 down; discourses on it in such
 bodies, in the pulpit. from the l bench, have been innumeralble in | numbers, infinite in extent.
 Yet in some parts of the country we found we were in worse condi-
 ton in this respect than were the
 people of 50 centuries ago, and men ! and women in the United States, in | the twentieth century were bitten
 more deeply than were the ancient 1 Hebrews; were destroyed and enslav-
 ed more grievously than were the 1 Canaanites, declared enemies of Gods
 chosen people. There is no organ
 ized ecclesiastical protest against it
 and the executive officers of the law
 stood inert and apparently power | less. In some of the newest and 1 freshest parts of our land, American
 citizens were practically in the po-
 sition of the poor of Rome under the 1 expressions of usurers of distinguish ed families
 l No fire when Tiber freezes,
 No air in Summers heat;
 But stores of rods for freeborn backs And stocks for freeborn feet.
 Let us earnestly hope that the
 conscience of the country and the
 protest of the self-respecting and
 forward-looking bankers may be tru.
 ly aroused to renew the old, old f1ght against the old, old instinct of tyran
 ny and oppression, so cruelty con. , trary to all the teachings of Chris : tianity, the lessons and purposes O.
 civilization, and all the trend O
 modern thought
 The good old rule, the simple plan,
 That he shall take who has tht power
 And he shall keep who can.
 NO country can live, much les 7 prosper; no people can keep thei strength and maintain that unity 0
 thought and purpose that makes na