Askov American., 1943-05-27

''loan shark" evil and exposed the
fostering cancer in our economic
life with both candor and fairness
Mr. Lewis felt that this was toe
much and so he did what he could
to give the loan sharks a clean bill
of health in the same column that
Mr.. Kieran used to criticize the whole
system. The writer wonders just
what impels the editor of the Dis
patch to rush to the defense of these
nefarious Shylocks.
Mr. Kieran referred to an adver-
tising card in which the loan sharks
asked a rate of "a per cent a year
on loans of more than Sl00 and 80
per cent year ,ou-sums of less than
$10O This is cheaper, than the Min
nesota statute, but still Mr.. Lewis
cites the Minnesota law as proof that
things are better now
There is just one thing than can
be said with certainty and should
meet the approval of everybody. No
businessman, no capitalist, no farm
er can afford to pay the legalized
rate used by the legalized loan sharks
If they did so they would be bank
rupt in no time at all. There can
be no disagreement here.
Then why should society expect the
working man-the very poorest paid
workers at that-to pay such ex
orbitant rates for the loan of money?
Mr. Lewis offers the sanctimonious
excuse that the cost of making these
small loans is very high, and that
if "legalized" loan sharks are not
permitted to charge these poor peo-
pie such high rates the borrower will
have to go to the unscrupulous "loan
shark" operating in utter disregard
of the usury laws.
Here is one thought for Mr.. Lewis
to ponder. If the worker borroWs
from a legalized loan shark, the law
compels him to repay this loan at
the excessive rates allowed by the
law. But if he borrows from the
unscrupulous "loan shark, operating
in utter disregard of the usury laws, y
the borrower does not have to repay
anything. The laws have specifically
punished the usurer by making him
forfeit interest and principal if he
charged more than 8 per cent per
year. In Minnesota we had law
permitting IL per cent under certain
conditions for small loans. If the
newspapers of the state had given
one-tenth of the space to exposing
the penalty for usury that it used
to place the loan shark on a pedestal
of legal sanction we would not be
faced with this rotten situation.
The claim has been made that
Harold StasSen eradicated uSury in
Minnesota. It was used as polit-
ical argument in the Stassen cam
paign last fall. Mr.. Stassen never
abolished usury. He simply legal
lied usury up to 36 per cent year
and told the Shylocks to "hop to it. u
BY the same process, Mr.. Stassen
could abolish murder or any other
crime: Just make it legal to kill
your neighbor, and there is no such
thing as murder. Make it legal to
charge the poor working man SO per
cent interest on loans-and there is
no usury. Very simple!
There is nothing to prevent the
state banking examiner from issuing
licenses to "loan sharks" in the small
er cities of the state and making
hard oppressed farmers pay the same
SO per cent per year on loans OF
less than $500.
The operation of the capitalist sys-
tenn has forced many workers into
lifelong poverty, and it is truly piling
insult on injury when the apologists
for the system argue that the victim
Of the system be condemned to per-