CRUSHED TRUTH WILL RISE AGAIN.
The practice of usury is so general, and it is apparently so fully
approved and sanctioned by many of the most intelligent and virtuous
of our people, that those who believe in its prohibition and are
disposed to pessimism may be utterly discouraged.
Truth must eventually prevail. Any custom or system built upon
falsehood must sooner or later yield. The house built upon the sand
must in time fall. It may be undermined by years of instruction and so
gradually give way that the date of its overthrow can hardly be
determined, or it may in its strength be taken in a storm and fall.
The whole commercial credit system built on this monstrous falsehood
must either crumble or tumble.
The prophet Isaiah was hopeful and happy in the midst of the most
unfavorable conditions of corruption and alienation from the truth,
for he was able with his prophetic eye to catch a glimpse of the good
time coming, when righteousness should completely triumph. "He shall
teach us of His ways and we shall walk in His steps." "With
righteousness shall He judge the poor." "Righteousness shall be the
girdle of His loins."
No prophet has fixed a date for the suppression of usury, yet no
intelligent man of faith, familiar with the reforms of the past, when
as thoroughly entrenched and as giant evils were attacked and
overthrown, need be in despair.
We were enslaved by superstitions. Haunted houses were numerous and
the bewitching of people was frequent. Two hundred arrests for
witchcraft were made in a single year, 1692, and twenty of these
persons were put to death. These persecutions were urged and defended
by Cotton Mather, a representative of the highest intelligence and
culture of the times. His mother was a daughter of John Cotton, and
his father the President of Harvard College. Now black cats and
epilepsy inspire no fear, and ghost stories do not now terrify and
unnerve our children.
Duelling prevailed among men of honor. Public opinion made it
compulsory that personal differences between gentlemen should be
settled in this way. Persons were branded as cowards who would not put
their lives in jeopardy. Few had the courage to resist. Duels were
common among the political leaders at Washington. Many a shot rang out
at sunrise in the little valley at Bladensburg, the noted duelling
ground. Jackson and Benton and Clay and De Witt Clinton were
duellists. After the killing of Alexander Hamilton by Aaron Burr, in
1804, the whole country was aroused and an agitation began against the
custom, but it yielded slowly. In 1838 and 1841 there were duels
between distinguished congressmen. But now public opinion is so
transformed that the "honorable and brave" duellist is a moral coward.
Gambling was a common sin. There were lotteries organized for the
raising of funds for state and municipal expenses. There were raffles
at church fairs to support the ordinances in the sanctuary. The rules
of the games were protected by the laws of the state. No one who had
lost in a game could recover by law unless he proved that the rules of
the game had not been followed. The rules for gambling were regarded
as legitimate as the regulations of any business. The gambler was only
a law-breaker when he "cheated." Now gambling is unlawful in every
state and territory, and any newspaper advertising a lottery is shut
out of our mails. Even an "honest" gambler is now classed among
robbers.
Intemperance was rampant through the eighteenth century and more than
half the nineteenth. Whisky was king. Through a false physiology it
became the almost universal opinion that in the great portion of the
United States the climate required the use of "ardent spirit."
Ministers and all classes of the people were thus deluded, and almost
every person, adult or child, was a consumer.
"Upon rising in the morning a glass of liquor must be taken to give an
appetite for breakfast. At eleven o'clock the merchant in his
counting-room, the blacksmith at his forge, the mower in the hay
field, took a dram to give them strength till the ringing of the bell
or the sounding of the horn for dinner. In mid-afternoon they drank
again. When work for the day was done, before going to bed, they
quaffed another glass. It was the regular routine of drinking in
well-regulated and temperate families. Hospitalities began with
drinking. 'What will you take?' was the question of host to visitor.
Not to accept the proffered hospitality was disrespectful. Was there
the raising of a meeting house, there must be hospitality for all the
parish: no lack of liquor; and when the last timber was in its place a
bottle of rum must be broken upon the ridge-place. In winter men drank
to keep themselves warm; in summer to keep themselves cool; on rainy
days to keep out the wet, and on dry days to keep the body in
moisture. Friends, meeting or parting, drank to perpetuate their
friendship. Huskers around the corn-stack, workmen in the field,
master and apprentice in the shop, passed the brown jug from lip to
lip. The lawyer drank before writing his brief or pleading at the bar;
the minister, while preparing his sermon or before delivering it from
the pulpit. At weddings bridegroom, bride, groomsman, and guest
quaffed sparkling wines. At funerals minister, friend, neighbor,
mourner, all except the corpse, drank of the bountiful supply of
liquors always provided. Not to drink was disrespectful to living and
dead, and depriving themselves of comfort and consolation. In every
community there were blear-eyed men with bloated, haggard faces;
weeping women, starving children." (Building of a Nation. Page 271.)
While "temperate" men were grieved at the tide of wretchedness and
protested, they did not think it possible to get on without whisky.
Dr. Prime, for so many years editor of the New York Observer, told of
the meeting of the family physician and the pastor at his father's
home in a case of severe illness. When the physician took his leave
the pastor followed him into the yard, where they had a long
consultation. The pastor was anxiously seeking advice. Three drinks
made his head swim, and the problem was how he could make more than
three calls and not become unsteady. The doctor gave directions and
Dr. Prime said that neither the minister nor the physician thought of
the simple remedy, "not drinking."
It has taken two generations, but the transformation is marvelous. The
minister can now call in every home in his parish and never once have
an opportunity to drink. If Rev. John Pierpont was yet living, who was
put out of his pulpit in Boston by an ecclesiastical council because
he publicly protested against the use of the basement of his church as
a storeroom for whisky, he would see every minister losing his pulpit
who would not publicly protest against such a desecration. Rev. George
B. Cheever, the dreamer, in 1830, woke up the stupid consciences of
the fuddled men and women; he wrote out his dream and published it,
"Deacon Giles' Distillery," and went to jail for it, but even he never
dreamed of the greatness of the temperance reform that has followed.
The overthrow of chattel slavery is complete and the human rights of
the inferior peoples are recognized. Human slavery was of old, as
ancient as history; it was widespread over the world; there was an
immense and profitable commerce in human flesh; luxurious wealth and
ease was secured by appropriating labor without compensation; it was
thought that the Scriptures in both Testaments approved the holding of
bondmen; there was a consciousness of superior gifts; there was a firm
belief that the negroes, especially, needed the care of the superior
race; that they were better off and happier than they would be in
freedom; there was a deep-seated race prejudice that remains
unyielding till this day. Yet the slave trade has ceased, stopped by
armed vessels patroling the seas. The slaves, eight hundred thousand,
in the West Indies were set free; the shackles were stricken off by
the sword in the United States; Brazil adopted gradual emancipation,
and chattel slavery disappeared forever from the civilized world.
The reform battles fought and won are assurances that victory shall
also reward those who contend against this sin of usury. There are
also other good grounds for confidence.
1. They are seeking only a return--a reform: "a restoration to a
former state;" they are not seeking for the establishment of some new
and untried theory, but they are seeking a return to the faith and
conduct of the righteous from the beginning and up seventeen centuries
of the Christian era. The race is but temporarily deflected to the
worship of the golden calf.
2. There is coming forward a great army of intelligent, virtuous young
people. They are made intelligent by our high schools, seminaries and
colleges. They are made students of the Bible and stimulated in
righteousness by Sunday Schools, Christian Associations, Endeavors,
Leagues and Unions. From these there shall rise up defenders of the
truth, free from the burden of debt and unbiassed by life-long
association with conditions familiar to those older. The reformers in
all ages have been young, and this reform will be no exception. There
is a rashness in youth that needs direction, but there is also a dash
and hope and confidence that is necessary to break away from old
customs. One generation of intelligent, virtuous young people could
give this evil its fatal blow.
Usury cannot flourish among the vicious and the unreliable. Other
evils may flourish among the idle, the indolent, the treacherous, the
deceitful and the dishonest, but industry and economy and integrity
and faithfulness and honor and even God-fearing piety are desirable
qualities in the usurer's victims. The higher the civilization, yes
Christian civilization, the more is produced and the richer the
harvest. The usurer has no use for a savage. This worm thrives in the
living body and sucks its vitality. It cannot flourish in putrid
flesh. Let the highest types of our young manhood avoid this sin and
its death knell is sounded.
3. Present conditions stimulate an interest in this question. The
unequal distribution of the vast wealth now being produced: the
earnings of the many turned into the coffers of a few; the struggles
between the employers and their employees; organized labor and
combinations of wealth; lead to a closer study of this and allied
economic questions than they have ever received before. The solution
of these questions will expose the fraud of usury.
4. The patriotic spirit has not decayed in our people and rulers. They
are as strongly attached to our free, popular institutions as were the
patriots of '76. There is alarm at the tendency to slip away from the
early traditions, at the centralization of power, at class
legislation. The influence of usury is so strong to promote a favored
class and to concentrate power, that it must be resisted as an enemy
to our republican institutions. It gradually undermined and then
destroyed the republic of Venice, and it is now doing its first work
with us. It must soon emerge from its cover. Then our people will
arouse with their patriotic fervor and fell it with one blow, and then
bury it with the other enemies of the government that have from time
to time arisen.
5. In the studies in sociology there is now a strong current toward
Socialism. There is a desire to preserve the individual's interests
and yet a stronger disposition to merge him in the general welfare.
There is a conviction that the privileges of individuals have been
unduly guarded while the rights of the public were neglected, that the
rights of individuals have received an excess of protection while the
welfare of the great mass of the people has been sacrificed. The
present problem of the student of sociology is, How can the rights of
individuals be adjusted, yet so as to maintain the superior interests
of all the people? This can be accomplished largely, if not
completely, by the abolition of usury.
Let the Government receive on deposit the surplus wealth of the
individuals for safe keeping and subject to their orders. Let the
Postal Savings Bank be established. The Government is the best
possible security. The certificates of deposit would be as good as
Government bonds. They could take the place of the National Bank
currency. The Postal Department now transfers money and in a manner
receives deposits and issues postal notes.
These deposits as they accumulated would lift from the people the
burden of the interest bearing debt. As they increased the Government
could invest them in public utilities to be operated for the general
welfare. The Government thus caring for the surplus wealth the people
are entitled to any benefits that may accrue from its use. All would
have an interest in preserving and all would share in the advantages
of the property thus cared for by the State, while each would have his
individual earnings subject to draft for his personal needs or
pleasure.
This would preserve the rights of the individual and secure to him
perfectly his surplus earnings, and at the same time the whole people,
through the Government, would have the use of this accumulated wealth
for its safe-keeping. This will preserve the stimulating incentives of
individualism and also gain, practically, the blessings of Socialism.
This will be the natural conclusion in the balancing and adjustment of
the present sociological discussion.
6. The prohibition of usury would be to the material advantage of the
great mass of our people. It would be a blessing to all, though it
might hinder the material gain of a few, but the hindered would not be
a tithe of our people. It is not easy to forsake the wrong when
appetite or passion or selfish interests plead for it. The martyrs who
will stand by the right "though the heavens fall" are not a majority
of our people. The paths of righteousness are easy, broad and smooth,
and crowded with enthusiastic shouters when self-interest can walk
hand in hand with a reform. Opposition to usury is self-defense to the
poor, the pensioners, the producers, and they form a mighty,
irresistible army.
7. Reason remains. The laws of logic have not changed nor has the
human mind lost its power of tracing premises to their conclusion. The
custom of usury was never reasoned into practice, but was permitted to
creep in while reason was diverted to abstract, abstruse, scholastic
subjects by those who claimed to be scholars. Had the fathers reasoned
more about practical subjects, and scolded less, this sin would never
have appeared in Christian society and claimed respectability. When
the people begin to think and to turn their reasoning powers to this
subject, as light dispels darkness, this gross error will flee away.
8. The conscience is yet alert to condemn the wrong and to approve the
right. The public conscience was never more tender nor more delicately
adjusted, but it is wanting in intelligence in this matter. The eye
cannot see to determine the nature of an object without light, so the
conscience must be enlightened, or made intelligent by the reason, to
enable it to give a right decision. Conscience is the same in all ages
among all peoples, and when informed by investigation and reasoning,
the condemnation of usury will be as unanimous as in the centuries of
the past.
Prayer is also a means to this righteous end. God is still on His
throne. His ear is not heavy. He hears the cry of the raven and
sparrows and lions. He hears the cry of His suffering children and
will not fail to come to their relief. In all the past, man's
extremity has been God's opportunity. Relief has come at unexpected
times and by ways that were not known. Sometimes by means that were
insignificant and inadequate in order to show that it was not by human
might or power; sometimes by the faith of one humble believer.
This writer has been familiar with the story of David and Goliath from
his infancy. To him, Mammon, whose head is usury, is the giant
Philistine who now stalks forth to defy "the armies of the living
God," and with a grain of David's faith, he flings this stone.
INDEX
Abstinence, 255
Agar--Prayer of, 219
American Revision, 87
American Statesman, 172
Aristotle, 132, 259
Average Interest, 135
Bank of England, 184, 195
Bank of Venice, 193
Bank, First in U.S., 198
Banks and Brokers, 161
Bacon, 108, 180, 266
Banking, Claim for, 56
Barriers Broken Down, 45
Borrower, 62
Borrowing, 241
Benton, Thomas H., 199
Bankruptcy, 176
Basil, 169
Beza, 71
Bible and Nature, 93
Bible Encyclopedia, 8, 21
Block Stone, 10
Brotherhood--Christian, 47
Bush, Prof. Geo., 14
Bureau of Engraving, 123
Capital Combines, 223
Catechism, 233
Cato, 261
Car Fares, 164
Calvin, Institutes of, 78
Calvin, Letter of, 73, 162, 248
Calhoun, J.C., 199
Capital Demands, 165
Cretan Bonds, 204
Chalmers, 62
Charlemagne, 70
Changed Conditions, 81
Chattel Slave, 147
Character in Fathers, 206
Cheever, Rev. Geo., 286
Creeds, 272
Croesus, 218
Covetousness, 61, 214, 273
Cooper Anecdote, 274
City Debts, 140, 168
Criminal in Court, 127
Coachman, 111
Chrysostom, 69
Christ-like Soul, 42
Council of Ten, 195
Cyrus, 36
David, 26
Debts, Discharged, 63
Debts, Stimulated, 138
Debts, Church, 141
Debts, National, 142, 189
Decay, Limits, 136
Deposit or Loan, 105
Diligence, 60
Disciples, Practice of, 58
Deacon Giles' Distillery, 286
Dives, 218
Doge, The, 194
Dueling, 282
Edward III, 263
Edward VI, 264
England, History, 262
English People, 192
Elizabeth, 264
Esau's Abstinence, 256
Equality Impossible, 222
Ethics in Bible, 94
Equity Between Thieves, 160
Exchanges, 56
Express Company, 118
Extravagance, 155
Ezekiel's Protests, 31
Ezra, 36
Family Economy, 154
Farm Preserved, 135, 247
Farm Consumed, 246
Faithful Steward, 117
Fathers, Apostolic, 69, 80
Fathers, Later, 70, 80
Financial Slavery, 150
Force in Abstract, 99
Fishers' Catechism, 235
Freight Rates, 109
"Golden Book", 194
Gambling, 283
Giving, 51
Gravity Levels, 222
Great Enterprises, 239
Greek Artist, 216
Greece, History, 258
Guile, Taken by, 104
Hebrews in Egypt, 212
Henry II, 262
Henry III, 263
Henry VII, 263
Henry VIII, 264
Hindoo Widow, 24
Honesty Hindered, 210
Hodge, Dr. Charles, 237
Home Wanted, 251
Horace, 261
Human Nature, 81
Hume, 192
Incorporated Properties, 171
Industry Discouraged, 207
Indians, Omahas, 244
Injustice, Submitted, 120
Interest Defined, 9
Insurance Company, 119, 254
Interest, Compound, 180
Installment Plan, 140
Intemperance, 283
Jackson, Andrew, 200
Jefferson, Thos., 200
Jennet, M., 182
Jeremy Bentham, 113
Jeremiah Protests, 30
Jubilee, Year of, 45
Justinian Code, 261
King Alfred, 262
Khedive, 203
Land Question, 249
Lombards, 195
London Tenants, 169
Luther, 71
Macauley, 196
Machinery, Improved, 226
Mammon, 203, 221
Melancthon, 71
Messiah's Character, 42
Moral Law, 82
Milton, 145, 203
Minuits, Peter, 181
Middle Classes, 220
Mons Sacer, 260
Money Barren, 83, 122
Moses, 57
Mosaic Laws, 11, 14
McCullough, Sec., 201
Nature and Bible, 93
Nehemiah, 36, 40, 57, 63
Nile Worship, 214
Obsolete Words, 7
One Cent Loaned, 182
Ottoman Empire, 212
Over-production, 156
Panics, 187
Paul to Timothy, 59
Paulist Fathers, 65
Pounds, Parable of, 54
Peel, Sir Robert, 196
Physicians' Charges, 115
Poor Richard, 240
Poor, Oppressed, 154
Poor, to the Spirit, 48
Popes, 70
Polygamy, 85
Production, Limited, 158
Promoter, 161
Prime, Dr., 285
Rates, Differ Why, 108
Rentals of Land, 243
Revolution, 238
Ridpath, 71
Rich Fool, 49, 137
Rights, Personal, 98
Rights, Equal, 102
Risk, 253
Robe, 111
Rome, History, 250
Ruskin, 72, 156, 255
Sands, Bishop, 70
Sabbath of Rest, 85, 171
Schaff-Herzog, 8, 69
Scripture Passages:
Genesis 21:26, 7
Exodus 32:1, 7
Exodus 22:25, 13, 20
Leviticus 19:33, 34, 21
Leviticus 22:22, 19
Leviticus 23:23, 22
Leviticus 34:10, 22
Deut. 5:14, 24
Deut. 25:19, 17
Deut. 15:7-9, 44
Numbers 15:15, 16, 19
Joshua 9:23, 22
Psalm 15, 26
Psalm 92, 7
Psalm 112:1-3, 15
Proverbs 22:4, 15
Proverbs 28:20, 15, 27
Jeremiah 31:29, 32
Isaiah 10:15, 101
Ezekiel 24:15-18, 31
Ezekiel 22:7-12, 31
Ezekiel 18:117, 33
Matthew 5:17, 43
Matthew 6:12, 45
Matthew 13:22, 48
Matthew 19:24, 49
Matthew 25:14, 52
Luke 6:35, 44
Luke 51:52, 53, 47
Luke 19:12, 52
John 15:12, 46
John 13:34, 46
Romans 1:13, 7
Romans 13:8, 62
Acts 3:17, 7
Acts 2:44, 45, 58
1 Corinthians 1:27, 28, 58
1 Corinthians 13, 8
Ephesians 4:28, 60
1 Thess. 4:15, 7
1 Timothy 5:8, 59
James 5:1-6, 61
Slaves, Happy, 148
Slaves, Chattel, 286
Self Reliance, 211
Strangers, Three Classes, 18
Shoe Plant, 128
Shylock, 121, 195
Slot Machines, 104
Solomon and Usury, 27, 144
Solon, 218, 259
Socialism, 289
Spirituality Destroyed, 216
Stevens, Thadeus, 201
Strikes, 227
Sultan, 203
Sun Worship, 214
Superstitions, 282
Taxes Off the Poor, 168
Tenantry, 250
"The Hague", 230
Talents, Parable of, 52
Thrift, 51, 209
Time, 107, 254
Temptation to Upright, 149
Timon of Athens, 146
Tools, Not Productive, 135
Trade, Profits in, 124
Trusts, 186, 224
Usury, Definition, 8
Usury and the Stranger, 18
Valet, 145
Venice, 193
Vienna, Council of, 70
War, Evils of, 229
Webster, Definition, 9
Wealth Decays, 132
Wealth, Barren, 131
William and Mary, 195, 264, 279
Wilson's Catechism, 233
Wrong Laws, 279
Young Reformers, 187
Zaccheus, 49
Zerubbabel, 36
The Anti-Usury League
The object, the purpose and work of the Anti-Usury League is to
expose the evils, the oppressions, the fraud and the sin of
usury or interest, by publications, by lectures, by conventions
and by every other practical method.
All persons in sympathy with this object, and who can in any way
co-operate by distributing its literature or by other
publications or by lecturing or by arranging for lectures or
conventions, are requested to enter into correspondence.
Also all persons who have become interested by reading the
preceding pages and who seek further information and who desire
to keep in touch with the work of this League should send their
names and addresses for enrollment.
THE ANTI-USURY LEAGUE,
Millersburg, Ohio.
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