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The wealth makers of the world. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1896, August 01, 1895, Image 4

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THE WEALTH MAKERS.
August 1, 1895
THE WEALTH MAKERS.
Raw Sari ot
TUB ALUANCE-IXDEPESDEST.
' Coaaotldattoa of tb
Tumen AIMdc and Neb. Independent.
PUBLISH ID EVERY TH0RSDAT BI
& health Maker Publiihing Ownpany,
11 II St, Uaeola. Xabraakai
Otoaaa Bow abb Oimoi
J. V, HiiTT
Editor
..Bnala
i Maaiuctr
jv. z p. a-
"If an naa noat Ml for mt to rl,
Thn awk I not to climb. Another' pals
1 ehooa not for my good. A golden chain,
A rob of honor. It too good a prla
To tempt mj bast hand to do a wrong
Unto a tallow maa. Thli lift bath wo
RafflcUnt, wrought by roan'i aatanle to;
And who that hath a hnart wonld dan prolong
Or add a sorrow to a itrlcktn aoal
That aaaka a baallog balm to mac It wholaT
H boaom owaa tba brothwhood of man."
Publishers' Announcement.
Tb Bber!ptlon pries of Tbi Wiamw 1Ub
IU la Sl.W par yai In ad ran.
Agaata In aollcltlng aubacrlpttona ihoold ba
vary earafut tbat all name art correctly applied
and proper poatofflc jtlvao. Blanka for retnra
abacrlptlona, ivtorn envotopaa, ate, can b bad
on application to thti oltlca.
Alwitc alga yonr nam. No matter how often
yon write ne do not noKlact tbi Important mat
ter. Krery week we recelr letter with Incom.
pltte addreese or without algnatnrea and It la
aomatlmea difficult to locate them.
CaiRaa or addmcd. Bobacrlber wlehlng to
ehanw their poetoffloe addreaa moat alwaya kItc
their former a well as their preaent addreaa wbea
change will be promptly made.
Advertlalng Rate.
fl.ll per Inch. I cent per Agate line, 14 llnea
to the Inch. Liberal illaoonnt on large apace or
long time contract.
Addreaa all adrerttalng communication to
WEALTH UAKEHS P0BX1HHIN0 CO.,
J. B. Hyatt, Bua. llgr.
NOTICE.
All delinquent subscribers to
THE WEALTH MAKERS are
fisked to pay their subscription
Immediately. DON'T be negli
gent about this matter, friends.
We know that times are hard
and it is not EASY to get
money; but you must make
SOME EFFORT to pay us. Re
member the responsibility that
rests upon you. It is the ONE
DOLLAR that we get from
each one of our subscribers
that makes it possible for us
ta keep up and make valuable
this paper. We are wholly in
your power, and we want you
to realize it. Again we say,
DON'T be thoughtless negli
gent. If you care anything at
all for the success of the Pop
ulist party and this paper,
RIGHT NOW is the time to
"show your faith by your
works."
For the 'past two years we
have battled against fearful
odds. We have had to fight
enemies without and foes with
in. Designing men, selfish men,
unprincipled men, in and out of
the party, have done everything
they could to destroy us; but
we are here yet, and how well
we have "kept the faith" the
"middle of the road" you your
self know. Is the paper worthy
your support? Then let us have
it NOW WHEN WE NEED IT.
All through fhe pania of '93
and the crop failure of '94 we
have fought a battle royal: but
our hardest time is yet to come
before this year's crop is har
vested. Friends, we depend on
you. Let every man who owes
us a dollar on back subscrip
tion pay up now and renew for
another year. Let every man
who Is able, pay for a few
copies of THE WEALTH MAKERS
tfl hfl cant tn rlniiMfnl vnfarc
W WW VVI1. V UVUUIIUI IU(VI0
- during the campaign. There
cught to be five hundred men
.In Nebraska who would give
C5.00 each to pay for cam
paign subscriptions to this
paper. How many will do this
cr.d do it NOW?
Address,
THE HEALTH MAKERS,
, J. S. HYATT, Bus. Mgr.
LIICOLI, IEB.
WORSE THAT! CHATTEL SLAVERY
A few days ago the colamna of tba
daily papers contained a telegram dated
at Spring Valley, 111., which stated that
several hundred miner of that town had
offered to enter a state of slavery, by
permanently signing away their liberty
to the mine owners, if they wonld
guarantee them the necessities of life. It
was a startling revelation of what so
called freedom amounts to for the land
less, wage-earning . class, the class which
now includes a majority of our popula
tion. P-ople who rftd the telegram did
not wish to believe it, and communicated
with Mayor Delmngro of Spring Valley
to see if it were true. His reply was:
"I am unable toay whether or notour
miners would accept such an offer as was
described in the telegram. I firmly be
lieve, however, that one-half would be
willing to sign such an ironclad contract.'
Now bear in mind that the conditions
at Spring Valley are not worse than for
the coal diggers in all other coal mining
regions of the country; and that one in
dustry does not offer workers better re
wards than another: we are therefore
forced to the conclusion tbat common
laborers of all kinds in the United States
are on or below the level of slaves, many
of them being so much worse off tbat
they are willing to contract away once
for all their sinews and brains, their
bodies and wills, their alleged priceless
boon of liberty for a taskmaster's agree
ment to keep them in the bare necessities
of life, such as slaves must have to en
able them to work.
Here is another revelation of the con
ditions of human life in the United
States, taken from the columns of the
San Francisco Examiner. It reads:
State Labor Commissioner Fitzgerald
went to the dumps yesterday for labor
statistics. He got them. He found
from 200 to 800 men who sleep on the
dumps and eat of the refuse food thrown
there by the scavengers. '
Bid you ever bear of slaves being re
fused work and obliged to fight like dogs
over the filthy stinking bones and rotten
vegetable leavings of a city's garbage
heap? Do you people in the country get
any idea of the sort of place a city garb
age dump is? Why, the scavengers who
empty the garbage barrels and boxes of
the alleys carry so much rotten vegetable
and animal effluvia in their clothes that
their presence within a few feet is scarcely
endurable.
Tho blacks before the war were as well
cared for as a man's horses. They were
provided healthful huts and whitewashed
cabins to live in, and enough clothing
and palatable nutritious food to keep
them strong and well. If they were sick
they were auxiously doctored, and nurs
ed back to health. But now, as a result
of so-called freedom, through the greed
of the strong and cunning, we have a
great class unemployed who must live
upon garbage, beg or steal, and another
class, vast in numbers, intermittently
employed, whose poverty is so great and
their condition so hopeless tbat thev beg
for the old time chattel slavery and are
worse off than chattels because they can
not find a permanent piaster who will
provide them a slave's necessities.
Something over a year ago a young
man twenty-five years of age, strong
and healthy, put an advertisement in a
New York paper to the effect that he
would sell himself, soul and body, to any
man to be his slave to do anything, if his
master would provide him and hjs aged
mother food, clothing and shelter. He
could get no employment, could find no
master, could not even sell himself into
slavery, but must remain a beggar.
Are not these facts enough to arouse
the people of this country to a realiza
tion that our laws do not prevent con
ditions worse than chattel slavery? The
concentration of capital, the control of
machinery, of exchange, and largely
that of production, and the reduction of
the people to the proletariat (landless)
class is in rapid process now. We ought
to be alarmed even if we have not yet as
individuals felt the pressure. The power
of monopoly and greed must be broken,
or all liberty will be lost and plutocracy,
the meanest, cruelest despotism that
ever cursed mankind, will shortly make
renters, wage-slaves and beggars of us
all, and our children after us. If we have
not mauhood enough to defend the peo
ple's inalienable right to land, and to
demand equal benefits from government
and law, the landlords and capitalists
will go on sweating the life out of us,
and at last nine-tenths of the workers
will live below the chattel slave standard
of animal existence. To reach that con
dition quickly all we have got to do is to
keep out of politics, keep voting old
party tickets, be selfish with the rest and
work hard to make other people rich.
ORGANIZE, OK BE ENSLAVED
Let us repeat it, the truth you do not
like, the truth which must be accepted,
that want, anxiety, dependence, virtual
slavery to monopoly power, are condi
tions that the great majority of indivi
duals can no longer escape from single
handed. They cannot be independent
and stand alone. Combination gives
advantage, increases power; and it is
reaching out to grasp the earth and all
the men, women and children on it who
can be exploited. Combine or be slaves,
is the decree of fate. The managers of
the great corporations get together and
decree what they will charge for carry
ing freight and passengers and what
wages they will give employers. The
coal monopolists meet in the parlor of a
New York hotel and agree as to how
much coal shall be mined, what the price
shall be to us all, and how much work
and wages shall be" allowed the half
starved miners. Rockefeller the Oil king
has ao monopolized the oil business as
to force ns to pay him in twenty-five
years about $200,000,000 more than
the oil cost him, and others associated
with him have robbed labor of many
additional scores of millions. The As
ters and other great and lesser landlords
are taking from a third to one-half of all
the products of the labor of about seven
million families, or 35,000,000 people.
We are forced to raise or manufacture
and sell each year labor products to
meet an interest demand amounting to
about 12,000,000,000, and if we fail to
do our individual part as contracted, the
interest is added to the principal for a
short time, and all we have is then sold
or taken to pay the debt. .
Do not doubt it friends, with all free
arable land taken, conditions are get
ting worse in America. With manu
facturing in the hands of capitalists who
own the labor-saving machines, there is
each decade coming to be less and less
demand for labor and a corresponding
reduction in the working time and earn
ings of the people. The wealth produced
is being concentrated into few hands.
The people who once had homes are los
ing tbem. The. landless, homeless ones
are now in the majority, and the census
reports of each decade prove that the
per cent of landless people is steadily
increasing. '
Organization must meet organization
or the present organizations of capitalists
will gradually gather up everything in
sight.
The farmer whose land is mortgaged
would better sell a part of bis land and
get from under the cancerous incumb
rance. But he cannot escape large tri
bute even when out of debt. Every trust
in the country is preying upon him
directly or indirectly. The railroads
stand between him and his market and
compel him to Bweat for them. The
wage earners in the . city are in even
worse fix. Few of them own their homes,
and those who have to rent both land
capital are as bad off as the mortgaged
farmers. Organization at the ballot box
would be the first, most sensible thing
for the workers, but they do not know
their common interest well enough to
get together. Here in Nebraska every
farmer and city worker should unite to
send to the legislature and to congress
honest representatives of their class. In
stead, they vote in three or four parties,
so neutralizing their political power, and
send corporation lawyers to the halls of
legislation who serve their clients at the
expense of the liberties of the people.
If the people will not unite at the ballot
box there is still one way for them to
uuitein helpfulness and defense. That
way is business co-operation. If they
will drop their selfishness they can organ
ise Industry, economize expense and
make their labor mneh more effective.
They must unite at the ballot box, they
must co-operate in business, in produc
tion and distribution, or they will, the
great mass of them, be forced lower and
lower under the power of monopoly.
There is no other alternative. Unite
politically, unite industrially and com
mercially, unite as equals; or be slaves
and your children after you. Cease to be
selfish, or beground to powder by the
wheels of selfishness. Love your neigh
bor as yourself, or be unloved and miser
able, anxious and burdened, so long as
you continue to exist. The law of God
is the one practicable law of the universe
So long as men throw themselves against
it they will be broken. It must be obeyed,
or we cannot be saved from the conse
quences of transgression.
THE GOVEBNOB'S APPEAL
Governor Holcomb July 27th addressed
a letter to Attorney-General Churchill
and Land Commissioner Russell, calling
their attention to the danger of a dual
government being forced upon the people
of Omaha under the law passed at the
last legislature, the A. P. A. partisan
measure which was carried over the
governor's veto; and urged them to unite
with hkn to secure an early decision from
the Supreme court touching the validity
of the law, known as House Holl No. 139.
There is a contest pending as to the
legality of the law, and eminent lawyers
have declared the statute in question in
valid. The court sooner or later must
pronounce upon it, and the governor is
anxious to avoid threatened conflict of
authority, with possible riot and blood
shed, by obtaining the decision speedily.
But it can hardly be expected that Re
publican officials will respond to his most
reasonable and courteous appeal.
The law in question was one of the
most barefacedly partisan and contemp
tibly mean measures that spoilshunters
ever had brass to carry through. Other
measures of the kind passed by the same
body are tjheonly acts known with which
to compare it. The law which it repealed
was a Republican measure, a law of their
own party's making. It was all right
until the old Rep. machine was knocked
out and the people elected a governor to
do the selecting and appointing of the
members of the fire and, police board of
the metropolis. Then, to save the party
the needed fat fryiugs aud the political
pull and power of the police force of
Omaha, a political power oh which party
success would largely depend, the party,
the gang known as the Republican legis
lature, without demand from the people,
without precedent, without reason, with
out decency, dropped their own legal
child and enacted as law a measure tak
ing from the first Populist governor the
power entrusted to him by the people.
The passing of House Roll No. 139 ex
posed the nakedness and shamelessness
of the Republican party leaders. It
made tbam visibly vile and destitute of
any lingering sense of decency and self
respect The Omaha fire and police board bill is
known as the A. P. A. bill. Omaha is
now in the grasp of that politico-religious
secret organization, an organization
whose secrecy invites corruption and
may cover no end of selfish office bunting
and deviltry. '
THE GOVERNOR DEHIES IT
Governor Holcomb, in the following
letter, flatly denies the statement of
Land Commissioner Russell tbat the
penitentiary appraisul was satisfactory
to him, or tbat he bad so expressed him
self. The whole matter is shown by the
Governor's letter to be a Republican job,
or a Republican and Mosher-Dorgan job.
The Republican board of public lands
and buildings named one of the ap
praisers, Dorgan the other, and Gover
nor Holcomb appointed Hon. J. N.
Gaffin umpire to pass upon differences of
judgment on the part of the appraisers.
They agreed all too well, however. And
now Russell, speaking for the board, is
trying to involve the Governor in the
game, or make him appear as sanction
ing it, by declaring that he was satisfied
with the appraisement. The following
public letter addressed to Mr. Russell by
the Governor gives flat contradiction to
the Commissioner's published statement:
Lincoln, July 25, 1895. Hon. H. C.
Russell, Secretary Board of Public Lands
and Buildings, Lincoln, Neb. Dear Sir:
My attention has just geen called to a
Eamphlet purporting to be issued by the
oard of public lands and buildings, en
titled: "Report of Appraisers for the
Purchase Prison Contract, 1895," in
which I notice that the statement is
made that at a meeting of the board I
expressed myself as "well pleased" as to
the report and findings of the appraisers.
I was present at the meeting of the
board mentioned in this pamphlet upon
the invitation of the members of the
board and listened to the informal talk
concerning the appraisement which was
submitted. This meeting lasted for a
period of about thirty minutes. I
glanced hastily over the voluminous
typewritten report of the appraisers and
was asked by Treasurer Bartley, a mem
ber of the board, for my opinion concern
ing the findings. I replied to him, in
substance, that it would require consid
erable time to examine the report care
fully and, as I was not at all conversant
with the appraisement by information
from any other source, I would be unable
to give an intelligent opinion. I did not
at that time nor have I at any time
since expressed myself as being "well
pleased" with the appraisement, but on
the contrary, I declined to give an
opinion at that time and having since
personally examined into the matter
more thoroughly, I am constrained to
say that I do not approve of a nurber
of items of appraisement as reported by
the appraisers.
I have at all times been strongly in fa
vor of terminating the contract between
the state and the prison contractor by
which the convict labor was farmed out
to an individual for personal gain and
what I conceive to be against the welfare
of the prison management, and approved
the bill looking to this end, believing
that this could be done with credit to
the state and without doing an injustice
to the contracter.
I took no part in the appraisement of
this property and, as I am informed, the
umpire appointed by me was in no in
stance called in to arbitrate any differ
ferences as to values between the two ap
praisers selected respectively by the
board of public lands and buildings and
the contractor.
In this alleged report of the proceed
ings of the board of public lands and
buildings at the special meeting held
June 8, 1895, and published in the pam
phlet, the title of which is given above, I
am done a great injustice by the board,
and wo.uld respectfully request that the
records of the board' be so altered as to
conform to the facts in the case and that
before these pamphlets are distributed
that the correction be made. I am very
truly yours,
Silas A. Holcomb.
COACHING THE PAR IT LEADEBS
The Chicago Dispatch of July 27th,
quotes in its "Politics of the Day" col
umns, paragraph by paragraph, com
menting on each, our editorial of two
weeks agoon "TheComing Convention,"
and introducing the matter says:
"The Populists of Nebraska are to meet
in their state convention on Aug. 28, at
Lincoln under very favorable conditions.
The chief organ of the party, The
Wealth Makers, published at Lincoln,
points out tbat the rapid march of events
has prepared the way for a national
movement to command the attention
and inspire the hope of the people."
It then prints what we had to say
about the 51 per cent of landless people,
the evidence in the railroad strike a year
ago that the railroads run the govern
ment as well as rob the people, and by
owning the courts of justice, so-called, a
new use of injunctions gives them power
to imprison strike leaders and destroy
the power of labor organizations; also
that the bankers' panic and hard times
had awakened millions to realize that
something must be done to deliver the
industries of the nation from the money
loaners' power.
The following significant comment by
the Dispatch follows the first paragraph
quoted: 1
"Democratic managers will do well to
make some notes from the above. The
platform of 1896 must be equal to the
wants of the people, or the Popnlists
will take the place of the old parties en
tirely, so far as the people are concerned.
The comment on the Populist situation,
which is printed here for the information
and guidance of Democratic managers,
and which they will do well to heed, con
tinues" Here follows another paragraph from
The Wealth Makers on the land, money
and transportation monopolies and the
lesser trusts and combines of corporate
power. It then says, by way of Demo
cratic comment: ,
"The Dispatch cannot too strongly
urge upon the Democratic party the
necessity of incorporating the doctrine
of governmental control of the quasi-
public service."
Continuing it adopts the following
language of The Wealth Makers as its
own, not using quotation marks:
"The Populist party has gained
strength from the utterances of such men
as Lyman Trumbull, Judge Gaynor and
Justices Harlan and Brown of tbe Su
preme court of the nation. The words
of the latterespeciaiiyareof great weight
in advertising the necessity of swift ac
tion to secure public ownership and ope
ration of public utilities, such as rail
roads, telegraphs, telephones, express
business, street railways, water works,
city lighting, etc., etc."
And the Dispatch after using these sen
tences of ours as its own, winds up the
paragraph with the following significant
original remark:
''This public contral of natural mono"
polies is a very important part of the
true Democratic creed."
We have taken the liberty to italicise
this remarkable sentence, and call at
tention of tbe National Watchman, Gen.
Weaver, Mr. Taubeneck and other silver
single plank advocates, to tbe force of it.
its source being considered. Why, the
whole country is fast coming to see the
strength of the great Populist demands.
The man who proposes to yield any one
of them has either taken little note of
the lessons of recent events, or he is not
true to the cause of the people. We have
but to hold firm to our party principles
and demands to force the other parties
to adopt them in self defense, and when
they do we shall easily win. The Dis
patch in closing said:
"The great growth of the Populist
party is proof that the Democratic party
has departed from the people. Tbe Re
publican party stands for monopoly and
the money power. Democracy must get
back into line with the masses and with
Jeffersonian principles or it will perish
itsplatrorm in 18'Jb must be broad
enough to include all wholesome Populist
doctrines. Upon this the Dispatch will
insist."
There are lots of preachers who fancy
they "know nothing but to preach
Christ and him crucified" who do not
even know that. Christ is not dead but
living, and to know Christ we must know
the present forms under which he suffers.
The preachers of forty and fifty years
ago thought they were preaching "Christ
and him crucified," while unmoved by
and unmindful of the stripes he was re
ceiving from the whips of brutal slave
drivers. To preach Christ we must bring
good tidings to the oppressed, not of
love that shall promise to deliver and
ift up after death, but love that shall
throw off every yoke now, and save in a
substantial, tangible, unmistakably real
way. Christ was anointed "to preach
the gospel to the poor," and he did not
do it by telling them about heaven. He
came to love and serve them now and
here. He came to tell men in power, and
tell them to their face, that they were
extortioners, that' they were devouring
the substance of the poor. He came to
introduce brotherhood and industrial
equality. He who preaches Christ today
must preach these doctrines.
The Democrats of Lancaster county
would better drop their party if they
must needs go outside of their ranks to
find men to represent them in office.
The Wealth Makers Is free to say that
it is disgusted with the tactics of the
Democratic leaders in Tuesday's conven
tion. It was an effort to force fusion up
on us. It puts us in the box of having
to endorse men whom they seem to claim
as Democrats, men who, if they do not
refuse to run on the Democratic ticket,
will be known as Democrats on the bal
lots, we must endorse these Democratic
candidates, I say, if one or more of them
are men we desired to nominate as Popu
lists, or we must refuse to run them be
cause they permit themselves to be called
Democrats. Before this reaches the pub
lic the Lancaster county Populist con
vention will have done its work, and we
will not anticipate it.
We are all born in debt to society. He
who has received most of talent, strength
capacity of mind or power or body, owes
most to society. Each one owes
all he has and is, and to pay the debt
must give all. This doctrine is funda
mental. A theory of social justice which
disregards this foundation and builds on
the false conception that a man has a
right to himself and what he can compel
society or other men to give him, is
building on what cannot stand. There
is a storm approaching which will sweep
away what now seems the strongest
thing on earth.
Chauncey Depew is hobnobbing with
the lords and ladies of London, the
papers Bay that he "has renewed his
annual social success in London. The
lord mayor gave him a luncheon on
Wednesday and he has taken part in all
the great social functions of the week.
But what is the real difference between
an American lord (railroad or other
monopoly ruler) and an English lord?
Neither is better nor worse than the
other, and there is is no reason why
they should not associate as equals, as
lords and masters of the common people.
This issue of The Wealth Makers
gives the closing part of Mr. Thomp
son's speech before the recent state con
vention of the Prohibitionists. It is a
very remarkable address.crammed full of
tact and truth, and makes the best kind
of Populist literature. Mr. Thompson
makes it very plain that tbe money
question, the railroad question, and
every other form of monopoly oppres
sion are moral questions, aye, and ques
tions of life and death to the masses.
The Wealth Makers desires to hear
from every county in the state regarding
the corn crop situation and the crop of
small grain harvested. Will our readers
take pains to give ns a reliable, conser
vative statement of the harvest gathered
and the corn prospects, each in his lo
cality? The Nebraska congressional delega
tion sitting at Pender, has wired Secre
tary Smith urging him to suspend further
evictions of settlers on Winnebago
lands, because it will result in tremen
dous loss of crops to innocent settlers.
Arthur Kitson of Philadelphia, author
of a recent notable work on money, has
challenged Mr. Horr to debate with him
the question, "Can gold or silver, singly
or conjointly, perform the function of a
standard or measure of value?"
If "the love of money is a root of all
evil," would we get rid of the evil by
abolishing money?' We might, if we
organized to serve one anotherandmade
all service free. So only could money be
dispensed with.
Send to The Kingdom, HOG Lumber
Exchange, Minneapolis, Minn., for a copy
of Prof. Herron's last book, "The Chris
tian State." The price in cloth is 75
cents, in paper 40 cents.
The farmers of the province of Ontario
Canada, are in acondition of destitution.
The ruin of the hay crop is forcing them
to shoot their cows and appeal to the
government for aid.
The treatment that Editor Raker has
received from the high and mighty Oma
ha judge, is receiving severe condemna
tion from the Nebraska press.
The Ram's Horn says: "The man who
believes better than he tries to do, is as
mean a hypocrite as the man who tries
to appear better than he is."
We are indebted to Mr. White and
others of Omaha for communications re
ceived. '
Senator Allen will speak in O'Neill
August 26th, the day of the judicial con
vention. "He prayeth best who loveth best all
things both great and small."
Broken Bow has a Populist club.
BOOKS AND MAGAZINES
Psychology; Descriptive and Explana
tory, by George Trumbull Ladd.
This is the second in the series of psy
chological works by Dr. Ladd and is a
work of especial value. It is largely used
as a text book in colleges and univer
sities, having been adopted by the Neb
raska State University.
It will be found of especial value to
advanced students and teachers and is
highly recommended to them.
Published by Scribner's, New York.
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Sbow This to Yonr Minister
Bearing in mind that what is meant by
usury in the Bible is the taking of in
crease for the loan of money, read the
following texts and ask your pastor to
preach on the Bible doctrine of usury:
If thou lend money to any of my peo
ple that is poor by thee, thou shalt not
be to him a usurer,neither shalt thou lay
upon him usury. Exodusxxii: 25-26.
And if thy brother be waxen poor, and
fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt
relieve him; yea, though he be a stranger
or a sojourner.that he may live with thee
Take thou no usury of him, or increase;
bnt fear thy God; that tby brother may
live with thee. Thou shalt not give him
thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy
victuals for increase. Leviticus xxv;
35-37.
Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy
brother; usury of money, usury of victu
als, usury of anything that is lent upon
usury. Deuteronomy xxiii: 19.
And there was a great cry of the people
and of their wives against their brethren
the Jews. For there were that said: we,
our sons and our daughters are many;
therefore we take up corn for them that
we may eat and live. Some also there
were tbat said, we have mortgaged our
land, vineyards and houses, that w
might buy corn because of the dearth.
There were also that said, we have bor
rowed money for the king's tribute, and
that upon our lands and vineyards. Yet
now our flesh is as the flesh of our breth
ren, our children as their children: and
lo, we bring into bondage our sons and
our daughters to be servants, and some
of our daughters are brought into bond
age already; neither is it in our power to
redeem tbem; for other men have our
lands and vineyards. And I was very
angry when I learned their cry and thesp
words. Then 1 consulted with myself and
rebuked the rulers and the nobles and
said unto them, Ye exact usury, every
one of his brother. And I set a great
assembly against them. Aud I said unto
tbem, we after our ability have redeemed
our brethren the Jews, which were sold
unto the heathen; and will ye sell even
your brethren? or shall they be sold un
to us? Then held they their peace and
found nothing to answer. And I said, It
is not good that ye do; ought ye not to
walk in the fear of our God, because of
the reproach of the heathen, our enemies?
I likewise, and my brethren and my ser
vants, might exact of their money and
corn. I pray you let us leave of this
usury. Restore, I pray you, to them,
even this day, their laud.their vineyards,
their olivegroves and their houses, also
the hundreth part of the money this
looks as if the usury was only one per
cent interest and of tbe corn, the wine,
d the oil, that ye exact of them. Then
iey said, We will restore them.
4 And the people did according to
their promise. Nehemiah v: 1-13. .

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