USURY OPPRESSES THE POOR--Concluded.
Usury increases its burdens in proportion to the poverty. It is the
most oppressive upon the poorest. Property in any measure is a relief.
However small the amount may be, to that degree it assists in bearing
the burden. Those who have a home are relieved of the burden of usury
by rent. Those who own their shops or farms on which they can employ
their labor are relieved of the usury of tools and material. From the
conditions now prevailing the burden of usury rests on all those, the
half of whose income is the product of their own labor. The one who
receives one-half his income from the interest on property and
one-half from his own labor has no advantage from usury. The income of
his labor would bring him as many of the comforts of life as his labor
now does, plus the income from his property. There is no advantage
until a greater part of the income is derived from property. A small
savings account, adding a few dollars annually to the income, is a
very small offset to the constant drain from usury in all that we buy
and upon all our earnings. The full burden however is upon those who
have nothing but their own productive energy; who receive only wages
and must buy in the market. As the relief afforded by property
decreases, the oppressive burden of usury in present conditions
increases.
It is a fair estimate that usury is oppressive until relieved by the
income from property to the amount of one-half of the entire income
received. When less, the oppression begins and leans its full weight
and without pity upon the poorest and most helpless.
He that has no property is dependent upon others for employment and in
his wages must give a part of his product as tribute to the capital he
uses. This, in the case of the average wage earner in this country, is
not less than one-third, that is, he who earns one dollar and a half
will receive as wages one dollar, the other half dollar is retained by
the employer as due for the capital invested. Then having no home he
must pay tribute to property in shelter for himself and family. The
rent will be higher in proportion to the poverty of the apartments.
The poorest tenement returns the highest rate of interest to the
landlord.
His decreased wages do not make the necessities of life
proportionately cheap to him. He pays usury in the price of the fuel
which he burns, of the oil, gas or electric light in his home. In the
price of vegetables, bread and clothes and shoes. There is an
increased outgo at every turn which he cannot avoid. He is helpless to
resist.
He can but struggle staggering along while work is given and his
health and strength remain. When these fail he falls and must become
entangled in debt, from which there is no hope of being able to
extricate himself.
The state recognizes the hopelessness of the poor man who is in debt
and has provided a relief by bankruptcy, by which he may again arise
and struggle on. This discharge in bankruptcy is an act of mercy but
the relief from the oppressions of usury would be an act of justice.
Grinding the helpless poor between low wages and high prices and then
relieving them by the act of bankruptcy is only pulling them out of
the mill to throw them into the hopper again, for the wage earner who
has no protection from any property is between these upper and nether
mill stones.
Those who defend the fraud of usury always take to cover behind the
widow and the fatherless. They plausibly pretend to be zealous for
their protection while endeavoring to hide their own greed. Their
pleas are often touchingly pathetic. "A thrifty loving father was
taken away by death from a dear wife and sweet little ones. They had
always leaned on his strong arms. He was their joy, their protector
and their support. This widow and her fatherless children are left
with nothing to support them except the saved hard earnings of this
husband's life. As these earnings are their only support they are
deposited with care with the 'Security Co.' for safety and that the
regular interest dues may be received without fail. If there should be
one failure they would suffer. The 'Security Co.' loan their deposits
as opportunity offers. They take some local mortgages and also some
mortgages on western lands. They buy some bonds of a milling trust and
also of a railroad and street car line and some national bonds and
loan on personal security to local merchants and traders. From all
these sources the interest is regularly collected and regularly paid
to this widowed mother, without which she and her little fatherless
dear ones must suffer. 'Certainly,' they say 'usury is not oppressive
to the widow and the fatherless. Usury comes to the help of the
helpless.'"
Another faithful industrious father was taken away from his wife and
his little ones. He had been their stay and support. He was sober and
thrifty but sickness and untoward conditions made accumulations
impossible. When he, the head of the home, was taken away there was
nothing for the support of these helpless little ones and their
widowed mother but her own arms and head and heart. There was no time
for sentiment and tears. These little ones must be sheltered and their
hungry mouths must be fed. Restraining her grief, she bravely
undertakes the heavy task.
She rents a room but the rental is high, for the interest must be paid
on a mortgage held by the Security Co. She finally finds a shop where
she secures employment but the wages are low, for the shop is heavily
mortgaged to the Security Co. and the interest must be paid or the
shop will be closed and even this opportunity for scant wages will be
lost. The distance requires that she shall ride to her work but the
round trip costs two nickels and one of them goes to the Security Co.
for interest on their bonds and stock. She buys a loaf of bread but
the wheat was raised on a western farm mortgaged to the Security Co.
and the interest was charged up against the wheat. The wheat was
floured in a trust mill and the interest on the Security Co. bonds
were charged up against the flour. It was transported by a railroad
that charged up against it the interest on the bonds held by the
Security Co. It was baked in a mortgaged oven and handled by a local
dealer doing business on capital he had borrowed of the Security Co.
How much of her bread money went for interests is an intricate
problem. She only notices that her loaf is small.
The same oppressive tribute must be paid on all that she buys to feed
and clothe herself and her little ones.
The first widow does not live upon the earnings of her husband. They
are untouched at the end of a year nor diminished as the years pass.
By the operation of usury she has lived upon the hard earnings of this
poor widow. The laborers on the western farms contributed to her
support in decreases of wages; the operatives of the railways, the
workmen in the mill, the baker and merchant all contribute a portion,
but it cannot be denied that the heaviest burden comes upon the
poorest. The rich widow has fed her children with the bread which the
poor widow earned.
The flaunting sympathy for the poor of those who themselves feed upon
them, is rank hypocracy. Nor can those who have grown fat by the
practice of usury, condone the crime by tossing back to them a portion
of the unjust gain.
"Is it such a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his
soul?... Is not this the fast that I have chosen?... To undo the heavy
burdens and to let the oppressed go free?... Is it not to deal thy
bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to
thy house?"