USURY ENSLAVES THE BORROWER.
Timon of Athens said, "No usurer, but has a fool for a slave."
The borrower without usury loses his free and independent spirit and
becomes cringing and servile, but when interest is paid it increases
the severity of the servile service.
The lackey must not only care for the game taken, but he must add to
the bag from his own hunting. He not only cares for the fish his
master caught but must add to the basket from his own catching. The
valet must not only perfectly preserve the clothes of his master, but
must add to his wardrobe.
The borrower of the usurer must protect and preserve every farthing in
value of the property or goods, and must also increase the amount.
The estimate put upon the mental condition of the person who will
submit to such an imposition, by "Timon of Athens," must be admitted
as fairly just, for a heathen. From the almost universal practice of
usury, and the vast numbers enslaved, we must also admit that Solomon,
the wisest man that ever lived, knew what he was saying, when he slyly
called us all fools in his proverb, "A wise man's heart is at his
right hand but a fool's heart is at his left."
The object of the usurer in making a loan is to secure the service of
the borrower; it may be called a favor, an opportunity, an
accommodation, but that is its purpose and its effect. It may be
called capital or a tool for production, but the appropriation of the
service of the borrower is the result sought and secured.
To secure the service of a horse, there must be an outgo of wealth in
its purchase price and in its harness and the vehicle. The service
received is the return, the compensation for the payment made. That is
money invested and repaid in service. The price was in accordance with
the service the animal would be able to render. For more and better
service a higher price must be paid.
There must be an expenditure to secure the service of a chattel slave.
The purchase price must be paid and the tools and material or
plantation must be supplied before his services are available. The
price paid is in accordance with a reasonable estimate of the service
the slave will be able to render during life. The outlay is made in
consideration of an equivalent in service.
A loan is made for the same purpose and secures the same result. The
price of the horse or slave must be paid before the service can be
claimed. The loan must be made before there can be a pretext of a
claim upon the services of the borrower.
There is this difference, however, that the purchaser pays for the
services he expects to receive; he makes a real outlay for what is to
be given him. The usurer pays nothing, he does not give a farthing; he
makes no outlay; he merely changes the deposit from the bank vault, or
his strong box, to his victim, and requires from him such an ample
security that it is as safe in his hands as remaining in the vault.
That he has bought the service of the borrower as another bought the
service of the horse or chattel slave is untrue. He has given no
equivalent. He retains every farthing of his wealth safely deposited
with his victim. The service he receives does not diminish the value
of his property nor discharge any portion of his claim.
The usurer, like all those who appropriate the labors of their slaves,
claims that he is a real benefit to his borrower. He has given him an
opportunity of advancement that he could not otherwise have had. He
points to him possibly with some degree of pride, especially if he
seems greatly prospered. The owner of colored slaves pointed to his
well-fed and well-clothed and happy people, merry in their cabins, and
made a claim that was equally plausible; that these people are far
better off and far happier than they could be in freedom.
Their well-kept, happy, care-free condition did not make them freemen.
They were slaves, though they may have been happy. They were slaves,
though they preferred bondage to being their own masters. The
usurer's prosperous victim is not therefore a freeman. Though he
should prefer debt to independence, that does not make him free.
No one prefers to be in debt. Debts are chosen as the least of the
evils. The natural resources are occupied and the opportunities of
life are denied. Lands and all tools of production are withheld and
the horns of the dilemma are debt or privation. The independent spirit
shrinks from debt until the struggle of life becomes desperate, when
he turns to the other evil and is enslaved.
This is not a temptation that comes to the idle and vicious. They
could not secure a loan though they tried. An indolent, dissipated and
vicious chattel slave would not find a purchaser in the market.
It is the industrious, virtuous and economical young man that is of
value to the usurer, and the better his character, the greater his
worth. For this reason their virtues are cried up to the usurers, as
the favorable qualities of the chattel were presented in the slave
marts. To secure a loan is an evidence of confidence in his business
ability, and an evidence of the appreciation of his character. It is a
flattering compliment, and promising relief to a condition that seems
hopeless, he permits the yoke of bondage to be fastened upon him.
The usurer's slave is cheaper than the chattel. It requires less
wealth to secure an equal amount of service. A loan of five thousand
dollars at the prevailing rate of seven per cent. will bring to the
usurer more than one dollar, clear gain, for every working day. That
is as much as any one man, not professional or specially skilled, can
hope to produce with that amount of capital, after caring for himself
and his home. The borrower secures the lender from all loss, he
largely relieves him from oversight, he directs his own labors,
supports himself wholly; if sick, he supplies a substitute that the
service does not stop, and when from the infirmities of age he is no
longer able to give the required amount of service, one dollar per
day, he returns the loan in full, which may be bound upon another
victim, and thus continued forever.
In the days of chattel slavery labor was not so cheap. The price of a
strong, faithful young colored slave, and the value of the tools for
him to use, and the proportionate part of the plantation necessary for
him to work, was about equal to the above loan. Then he must be
clothed and fed; his work must be directed; if sick his labor was
lost, and he must receive medical and other care; all risks of harvest
from drouth or flood must be incurred by the owner, and the slave's
term of service was limited by his death, when his purchase cost was
lost, and there must be an outlay by a new purchase. One chattel slave
could not bring his master such enormous returns.
Not only does financial slavery exact more labor for the amount
invested, but it is more heartless than chattel bondage. The master
had a personal interest in the slave he bought. His health and
strength was an object of his care and his death a great loss. There
was also often a mutual affection developed, as is sometimes found
between a man and his horse or affectionate dog. There was sometimes
real unfeigned mutual love. The master had a tender care over his
slaves in their sicknesses and in their decrepit age, and sorrowed at
their graves. The slaves were inconsolable in their grief at the death
of their master.
The usurer has no personal interest in his slave. He has no care for
his health or his life; they are of no interest to him. He may live in
a distant state and has no anxiety about those who serve him. Their
personal ills give him no concern. When they die, there is no loss nor
any additional outlay required; the bonds are simply transferred to
others, and the service is not interrupted.
Many faithful, industrial and honest borrowers are unable to return
the loan. It is as difficult to retain property as it is to earn it.
New inventions, new processes, new methods, new legislation and the
changing fashions and customs, often sweep property from the shrewd
and careful. "Riches make themselves wings; they fly away." If for any
cause the borrower fails there is scant sympathy from the usurer. He
charges him with being deficient in business management and
thriftless. If the yoke of bondage galls and becomes so painful that
in his distress the debtor turns from the struggle in one direction to
struggle in another in hope of relief, he calls him fickle; and if at
last, after a long and hard service, he is unable to return the loan
in full, he calls him dishonest. His ear is deaf to the voice, "Is not
this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to
undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free."
There are those in debt yet struggling against hope to be free. They
are slaving at work, but making no progress toward relief. The crisis
must come. In the race with biting usury that knows no rest, night nor
day, year in and year out, that knows no sickness nor delay, that
keeps step with time, there is but one possible result. There can be
but one final result, though the debtor may have a start far in
advance, but if in the race it has become neck and neck, the end is
near. Usury will sweep on with full wind, and unslacking pace, when
the debtor falls exhausted. There is comfort, however, though the race
be lost, for the distress of poverty is less than the agony of
hopeless debt.
The old and ruined, who have lived honorable and industrious lives,
who have endeavored to do their part in all the relations of life, yet
have been in the slavery of debt all their days, and when their powers
began to fail were stripped of the earnings of years, and besides, are
compelled to bear the name of dishonorable debtors, are the most
worthy of sympathy of any the world knows. The decrepit old chattel
slave had hope of a home until the end, and a decent burial, but the
debtor has nothing, not even an honorable name.
The young, who are yet free from personal debt, should be warned, and
should not permit themselves to be beguiled by any of the allurements
held out, nor by flatteries. As one prizes his independent spirit and
freedom from the dictation of others, as he desires a successful life
and a peaceful old age, he should avoid debt. As a Christian, who
desires unrestrained Christian fellowship, whose benevolence will be
from the kindness and love of his own heart, as one who wishes to
bless all he meets, and to leave a name associated only with hallowed
memories, he should avoid debt.
"Owe no man anything, but love one another."