People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1893 — THE CURSE OF USURY. [ARTICLE]

THE CURSE OF USURY.

I It Will Impoverish and Enslave Any People With Whom It Comes Into Contact. The widow’s mite spoken of by our , Saviour is supposed to have been a half* | penny. If that half-penny had been j put out at interest at 0 per cent and j compounded from the commencement of the Christian era until the present { time it would have amounted to the j sum of $51,200, 000,000,000,000,000,000,i 000,000,000,000,000,000,00 a The above j amount if in pure gold would make | fourteen solid globes of gold as large as ! this earth. From these illustrations it must be I perfectly apparent that usury or interest If tolerated and persisted in for any considerable length of time must destroy the present civilization and bankrupt the world. The question to be determined is, is it right to collect interest for the use of money? Is that one of the purposes for which money is created? If it is, and if the general welfare of the community will be promoted by the continuance of the present system of usury or interest then it ought not to be interfered with. But if it is not right, and if the general welfare of the people would be promoted by the abolishment of interest then it should be abolished, no matter how long it may have been practiced, or who may suffer individual inconvenience by its abolishment The pirate may have invested all his money in the construction of a vessel in which he proposes to carry on the business of piracy, but when we capture him we do not allow the fact that his all is so invested, and that he has no other way of making a living to influence our conduct in dealing with him. We know that piracyJls wrong and we not only inhibit further acts of piracy by him but we confiscate the vessel. Usury is condemned by the Bible. The word usury as used in the Bible means interest, it means increase, it means anything paid for the use of money. The distinction between interest and usury is a modern invention, an improvement by bankers and brokers on the law of God. The Bible is full of inhibitions against usury. I will quote a few of them. “If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as a usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury. ” —Exodus, 22d chapter, 25. “If thy brother be waxen poor and fallen in decay with thee, then shalt thou relieve him. Yea though he be a stranger and a sojourner; that he may live with thee. Take thou no usury of him, or increase but fear thy God that thy brother, may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury or lend him thy victuals for inI crease.”—Leviticus, 25th chapter, 85-80-87.

In the fifth chapter of Nehemiah it is recorded that certain of the Jews informed the prophet that their brethren had been charging them usury, that they had obtained mortgages upon ; their lands, their houses, their vinej yards and their olive orchards by virtue ; of which many had been dispossessed of their homes. Nehemiah called the usurers together and addressed them as follows: "I pray you let us leave off this usury. Restore I pray you to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive yards and their homes, also the hundreth part of the money, and of the corn, and the wine oil that ye exacted of them. Then said they we will restore them and will require nothing of them.” “Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacles, who shall dwell in thy holy hills? He that putteth not out his money to usury nor taketh reward agains the innocent.’’—Psalms 15,1-5. “He that hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath taken any increase, that hath withdrawn his hand from inequity, hath executed true judgment between man and man, hath walked in my statutes and hath kept my judgments to deal truly; he is just; he shall Burely live, saith the Lord God. He that hath oppressed the poor and needy, hath lifted up his eyes to the idolß,hath committed abomination, hath given forth upon usury, hath taken increase; shall he then live? He shall not live. He hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him.”—Ezekiel 18, 8-9-12-18. The only time Christ ever manifested anger was when he found the money changers in the temple. He made a scourge of small cords, drove them out of the temple and overthrew their tables. From foregoing quotations it must be perfectly apparent that usury is condemned by the Holy Writ Not only was usury prohibited among the Jews, but to prevent the concentration of wealth in the bands of a few a law was promulgated by Divine command which provided that every fiftieth year there should be a year of jubilee, in which all debts should be wiped out, all lands that had been seized by the creditor should be restored to the former owner, all slaves should be set at liberty and every body given a fair and even start in the world again. Our modern bankers and money kings have managed to have this law, given by God to Moses, repealed, not by a new revelation, but by congress and legislatures controlled by them We will look in vain for a year of jubilee so long as the legislation of the country is controlled by bankers and broken. Instead of lending to their poor brethren without usury or increase their rule is, the poorer the brother the greater the interest demanded. That his necessity is their opportunity. Kitto, in his Cyclopedia of Bibical Literature, voL 2, page 802, in speaking of the inhibition against usury, says: “The Israelites were, however, permitted to take usury from strangers, .from the Canaanites, and other people devoted to subjugation. This was one of the many means they adopted for oppressing and ruining the Canaanites who remained in the land. After the return of the Jews from captivity they were required by Nehemiah to ‘leave off this usury,’ and restore to their brethren what they had extorted from them” In the early days of the Christian church, in fact until a comparatively recent period, usury was condemned by the church. It was not until a worldly

j and sordid interest became dominant in j the church that usury was tolerated. For the purpose of showing the position of the church on the subject of usury I quote from Schaff-Herzog’s Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, voL 3, page 2788, the following: “The fathers unanimously condemned the taking of interest Turtillion: Adversus Marcionem, 4-17; Cyprian: De lapsis; Ambrose: De bono mortis, 12; Augustine: Contra Faustum, 19-25; Jerome: Ezech, 6-18. The popes followed the track of the fathers; the canon law forbade, first the clergy, and afterwards every member of the church to take interest The penalty was for the clergy suspension; for the laity excommunication. Interest paid could be reclaimed not only from him who received it but also from his heirs. An oath never to reclaim back interest was not binding.” The private, municipal and corporate debt in the United States is over SBO,000,000,000. The interest on this debt at 6 per cent amounts to $1,800,000,000 per annum. This amount of money is taken from the wealth producers of this country every year under our present money system and handed over to the bankers, brokers and money kings for interest Unless interest can be abolished or materially reduced no power on earth can save the middle classes from bankruptcy and ruin. If interest could be abolished or transferred to the government, which would amount to nearly the same thing, this $1,800,000,000 would remain in the hands of those who produced it; it would soon enable them to pay their debts and redeem their homes from mortgage; it would soon lift them from indigence and want and make them prosperous and happy. But with a constantly increasing volume of debt, and a constantly diminishing volume of money there is no hope for the people. Then let us reform our money system. Let the government issue the money direct to the people, without the intervention of banks, and at a rate of interest not to exceed 2 per cent Let enough money be issued to enable the people to do business on a cash basis. Let us abolish interest in all cases, except to the governmebt on government loans and let the maximum of such interest be 2 per cent. With such a money system tramps would disappear from the land, debts would b? wiped out, want and destitution would be known no more forever, and the people would become prosperous and happy.— A. J. Utley, in California Farmer.