OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 32, 7 February 1935, Page 10

OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—This mortgage proposal of the Government is iniquitous. Mortgages should come under two headings. (1) 1 Straight out cash lent to the borrower. (2) Money allowed to remain on inter--1 est above the cash deposits for the , sale of land or properties. In the latter case, the' land or property may have changed hands at an. unfairly large 1 profit, and some adjustment might be fair. If, however, a sum of money is lent to a borrower, no one on earth has the right to say "Jones, give part of your life's earnings to Smith." Money must first belong to a person or government, before they have'the slightest right to give it away. When money is lent to a person, the house or land is only a security. The borrower is at liberty to use the money to take his family for a trip to England, send his children to expensive boarding schools, and buy up-to-date wireless sets and motorcars. If through my agreements being treated as scraps of paper the interest is lowered still more and I cannot meet my liabilities I go bankrupt, and my name is published. If the borrower.is not able to meet his liabilities, and the Government wipes a portion off, he is practically bankrupt, and his, name should certainly be in,the papers., I wonder how many of .those -.now. seeking relief \ have luxuries such' -as wireless sets. ■> I, am a "mortgagee, but I have never, been able to .afford one, and a. motor-car is out of the question. For some'years now I and my family have, had to live most- frugally in a house "very much too small, for us. I am quite beyond worlung, and s my income is derived entirely from.money saved by constant hard work and small economies. This capital is lent to persons living in very much better houses than I can afford. We all know that those in difficulties must be helped, but that is the responsibility of everyone in the Dominion not the privilege, of old men and widows who "have'toiled for their allotted, span and are quite -beyond ever earning more.—l am, etc., ■ MORTGAGEE. ,