8 MUTUAL BANKING. 



wagons, etc., and applies to j'ou for money to buy them with; you 

 can lend the money for 6 per cent interest, and no more; but you 

 can purchase the articles the man desires, and let them out to him 

 at any rate of remuneration upon which you mutually agree. 

 Every sound argument in favor of the intervention of the legisla- 

 ture to fix by law the charge for the use of money bears with equal 

 force in favor of legislative intervention to fix by law the rent of 

 lands and houses, the freight of ships, the hire of horses and car- 

 riages, or the profit on merchandise sold. Legislative interference, 

 fixing the rate of interest by law, appears, therefore, to be both im- 

 politic and unjust. 



EFFECT OF THE REPEAT. OF THE USURY LAWS. 



But let logic have her perfect work. Suppose the usury laws 

 were repealed today, would justice prevail tomorrow? By no 

 means. The government says to yon: "I leave you and your 

 neighbor to compete with each other; fight out your battles 

 between yourselves; I will have nothing more to do with your quar- 

 rels." You act upon this hint of the legislature: yon enter into 

 competition with your neighbor. But you find the government has 

 lied to you; you find the legislature has no intention of letting you 

 and your neighbor settle your quarrels between yourselves. Far 

 from it; when the struggle attains its height, behold! the govern- 

 ment quietly steps up to your antagonist, and furnishes him with a 

 bowie knife and a revolver. IIow can you, an unarmed man, con- 

 tend with one to whom the legislature sees fit to furnisli bowie 

 knives and revolvers? In fact, you enter the market with your 

 silver dollar, while another man enters the market with his silver 

 dollar. Your dollar is a plain silver dollar, nothing more or noth- 

 ing less; but his dollar is something very different, for, by permission 

 of the legislature, he can issue bank-l)ills to the amount of ILS.^ 

 and loan money to the extent of double his or your capital. You tel 

 your customer that you can afford to lend your dollar, if he wil 

 return it after a cei'tain time, with four cents for the use of it, but 

 that you cannot h^nd it for anything less. Your neighbor comea 

 between you and your customer, and says to him, "I can do better 

 by you than that. Don't take his dollar on any such terms, for I 

 will lend you a dollar and charge you only three cents for the use 

 of it." Thus he gets your customer away from you; the worst of 

 It is that he still retains another dollar to seduce away the next 

 customer to whom you apply. Nay, more, when he has loaned out 

 his two dollars, he still has 25 cents in specie in his pocket to fall 

 back u[)on and ciirry t(i Texas in case of accident, while you, if you 

 succeed in lending your dollar, must go without money till your 

 debtor pays it back. Yet you and he entered the market, each with 

 a silver flollar; how is it that he thus obtains the advantage over 

 you in every transaction? Th<? h.v.nki.no i'iuvileoe which the gov- 

 ernment has given him, is a murderous weapon against which you 

 cannot contend. 



