THE USURY LAWS. 



THE USURY LAWS ARE NECESSARY UNDER PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES. 



A just balance and just weights! Very well; but if we have an 

 unjust balance, is it not necessary that the weights should be un- 

 just also? A just balance and unjust weights give false measure, 

 and just weights with an unjust balance give false measure in like 

 manner, but an unjust balance and unjust weights* may be so ad- 

 JUST-ed as to give true measure. Under our present system, the 

 lender who is not connected with the banks may be oppressed, but 

 the usury laws (unjust as they are when considered without rela- 

 tion to the false system under which we live) afford some protec- 

 tion, at least to the borrower. They are the unjust weights, which, 

 to a certain extent, justify the false balance. It would be well to 

 have a just balance and just weights; that is, it would be well to re- 

 peal the usury laws, and to abolish, not only the banking privilege, 

 but also, as we shall proceed to show, the exclusively specie basis of 

 the currency; but it will not do to put new wine into old bottles, nor 

 to mend old garments with new cloth. When the bank lends two do\- 

 lars, while it owns only one, it gets twice the interest it is actually 

 entitled to. Insist, if you will, upon retaining your peculiar priv- 

 ileges; but consent in the name of moderation and justice, to let me 

 protect myself by the usury laws; for they are not very severe 

 against you after all. The usury laws confine you to 6 per cent in- 

 terest on whatever you loan, but, as the banking laws enable you 

 to loan twice as much as you actually possess, you obtain 12 per 

 cent interest on all the capital you really own. You cannot com- 

 plain that in your case the usury laws violate, and without due 

 compensation, the right of property; for you only own one dollar, 

 and yet receive interest and transact business, as though you owned 

 two dollars. The usury laws are necessary, not to interfere in your 

 right to your own property, but to limit you in the abuse of the un- 

 just and exclusive privileges granted you by the legislature. The 

 antagonism between the usury and the banking laws is like the 

 division of Satan against Satan; and, through their internal con- 

 flict and opposition, the modern Hebrew kingdom may one day be 

 brought to destruction. 



ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF THE REPEAL OF THE USURY LAWS. 



But let US now examine the great argument in favor of the 

 immediate repeal of the usury laws— an argument which, according 

 to those who adduce it, is in every way unanswerable. It is saidthat 

 all the above considerations, though important and certainly to the 

 point, ought to have very little weight in our minds, and that for 

 the following reason: Men do, notwithstanding the present laws, 

 take exorbitant interest; and whatever usury laws may be passed, 

 they will continue so to do. If it be acknowledged that it is wrong 

 to take too high interest, that acknowledgement will not help the 



*Take the steelyard for example. 



