The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1931-07-17
Friday. July II, 1881.
TO THE END OF THE ROPE
By HANS RASMUSSEN

BY HANS RASMUSSEN
If you go back into the dark ages, hundreds of
years before Christ bOrn you will find that
The lending of money for interest, called usurv.
was practised and has been more or less, ever
since
Jus; far back you will find that the philoso
pers of high standing, the more farsghted people
saw the danger of it. Year $50 B. c. Aristotle
said "Usury is most reasonably detested" In the
Roman republic, year 594 B. c., "Usury had given
all the power of the state to a small plutocracy'-
Inc Roman republic had its ups and downs At
times the money lenders would own practically ev-
erything and the people would be starving When
the poor people could stand it no longer thew would
rebel. II they stuck together and fought together
they would win because they were the many
against the few
Then they would have their Jubilee wear whom
all debt was cancelled and the land divided I'M The
history says: From this time began the COLDER,
age But the golden age did not last simplv
could not last with money lenders again being al
lowed 70 charge interest. Finally the great Ro-
man empire bursted-the cause of it can be laid
at the money lenders door
Inc Bible and the early Christians condemned
uSury and preached against it. for that reason
many Christians died painful death. Martin
Luther said about the money lender: "He sits the
~hile on his stool when he ought rather to be
hanged from the gallOws." Under Richard of
england money lenders were regarded as outlaws
ana were not protected from mob violence Under
Games J. Attorney General Noy said: "Usur.,s
are well ranked with murderers" l-I
Times have changed-today the monav .anndor :;
the most respected among us. We max, hin, our
political leader. We let him make o,r Iou,~ r.
is Inc pillar of our church. He sits on our school
boards and controls our educational institutions
we let nm have plenty of rope md he has mode
plenty OF use of it. Let us take a look at the 70
suits ~ ' ~
ACCORDING to government figures this free CONN.,
Try OF ours is worth in cold cash $50 billion dnI
AaISi Chat includes land, railroads. skvscrapers and
Ste1ythLlg, Dut all the debt in the country also
amounts 10 LOO billion dollars. In other words we
nave borrowed all the whole country is worth and
we are now paying interest to the money lenders
on the cash value of the whole United States.
IL might be fair to say that we pay an average
OF go interest. At that rate each and everv wear
we pay tc the money lenders nine billion dollars in
interest alone, which is billion dollars more
Ghan all the money the United States. II has
been estimated that in 1928 the gross value Of
everything raised on farms amounted to little
over nine billion dollars. This means that each
and every year we turn over to the money lenders
-
Just to pay interest money borrowed It also
means that every person in the United States each
year pays SIS to some money lender in the form
of interest.
interest money is not always paid direct Some
OF It, anC probably most Of it, is paid thru taxes:
part CT 1t We dc not know we are paying at all.
When We buy a can of tobacco We see the govern
mene stamp and we know it means taxes ard tax
eS means interest. On other things We buy we do
not sec the stamp, but the interest is there lust
the same.
The lou billions we have borrowed anG are pav-
ing interest on amounts to $1,250 for each and
every person in the United States. Amounts tn
twenty times all the gold, silver and paper money
IN the cOuntry Do you think we will ever be able
to pay the principal? Do you think we can keep
on paying the interest? Nine billions per YEAR
or should we do like the old Romans have a 1ubi-
lee year and wipe it off the slate? The old Ro-
mans did it but the money lenders did not like il.
They only gave in when the producers got too
strong fOr them and there was no other wav ont
Whenever the rank and file, the producers. organ
1zed and refused to pay taxes and interest. the
money lenders knew they had more trouble on
their hands than they could handle