The Washington herald., 1922-03-19

q ONE misapprehenson seems to exist among
members of the House District Committee
as to the intent of the Commissioners and
the citizens committee remedial loan law in ad-
vocating that the regulatory act OF 1913 be so
amended to allow pawnbrokers rate of per
cent month on loans. AT the present time,
during the Sixty-srxth Congress, the District Com
mttee is behind measure which would threaten,
should it be passed, return of the very conditions
OF usury the legislation of nine years ago put
end to.
Pawn shops under proper restriction are in
many cases first aid to persons who may be tenn
porariy impoverished through fault of their own.
, Ii was not these establishments that aimed
in the 1913 bill, but the lowering of legal interest
rates small advances to I per cent operated to
drive them from the city. Both Congress and ct-
realized that the shops far from being
an unalloyed evil and sentiment for several years
has been for allowing them to return. 1t has been
the cross purposes Of Representatives and Commits
sioners that have thwarted this.
bill introduced in 1920 by Representative
Dyer ito regulate pawnbrokers and their business
in the District would have served to repeal that
OF 1918 and opposed by the Commissioners on
many grounds, of which the following may be cited:
The present law contains ample provisions as
to licenses, and the protection of borrowers
The meaning of the existing law has been
made clear by numerous decisions of the Court OF
Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United
States, and it would be mistake to needessly
change it for another act which might need similar
litigation in effort to enforce it.
Because it relates only to pawnbrokers, and
takes account of loans to borrowers on indorsed
notes other security who may be just as de-
serving those who have jewelry to offer, this
bill would permit the return of all the loan sharks
who have been driven out by the existing law,
which it would repeal This would be calamity
for the District. The Commissioners have been we'll
aware that certain loan sharks have been anxious
to return to Washington, but they hardly be-
lieve that anyone would in their interest intention
ally nhict upon the community the evils from which
it delivered by the present law. The result
which would follow the enactment of this bill seems
rather to show the unintentional harm which may
be done by any effort to change the~exsting law
e except as to the rate"
In the present session. Chairman Focht of the
District Committee has introduced bill similar to
that Of Mr.. Dyer, and the same opposition has
been voiced by Commissioners and the aforemen-
toned citizens committee.
The matter should be simple to dispatch Since
all the parties to the discussion sanction return
OF the pawn shops properly regulated let Congress
accede to the will of spokesmen for the people of
Washington and pass the amendatory bill advocated
That regulation will follow the re-entry is assured
by the terms Of the existing law. Fears that unless
new regulatory enactment is secured the hated
loan shark will creep in unfounded; fears of his
return temporarily at least may we'll be entertained
if the law of 1913 is nued by substitute measure