Chapter XXVIII - 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?”