MONEY-LENDING WOMEN

Evening Star, Issue 18159, 27 December 1922, Page 6

MONEY-LENDING WOMEN

SOME HUMAN STORIES. Much interest has been aroused by the story of the East End woman who committed suicide, it was alleged, because she could not meet tho demands of a woman money-lender; and public attention has been focussed upon the whole question of usury as practised 1 by those money-lenders who ply their business in poor, workingclass districts. Whilo there is little doubt that there exists a class of money-Jcndcr—both men and women —who exact a good deal more than their legal pound of flesh, it is also true (writes a ‘Daily Herald’ representative) that there arc money-lenders who carry on, under the present system, legitimate businesses, and are themselves often the victims of unscrupulous borrowers. At the request of two registered moneylenders in, this latter class, both, of them women, 1 had an oportunity yesterday of seeing something of their operations. AGENTS’ VICTIMS,

One of the women said; “I have been engaged in money-lending for some years, first as an agent for a money-lender, and latterly on my own account. “From what I know of money-lenders’ agents, it is they who are responsible for the heavy rates of interest which are often charged l . “Often the agents’ employer does not know that the agent is making exorbitant interest charges, 'for the agent himself is pocketing the difference! “ One effect of the attack in the Press upon the money-lenders, and particularly the remarks attributed to a well-known County Court judge, in the case of a married woman sued by a money-lender—-‘now. as she is a married woman with no separate estate, she can pay nothing, and you can get nothing ’ —one effect of this attack has been to make some of my worst clients very much less inclined to repay their borrowings. BOOKS OF DEBTS. “I have a lot of bad debts on ray books. “As to the suggestion that moneylenders ‘ tempt ’ women to borrow, it may bo true of some, but in my own case I of ben. refuse to lend where I suspect that extravagance exists. I “You must remember that all we can legally recover is a penny in the shilling per week. “There is one aspect of the business | which is, perhaps, not appreciated by the public. Wo money-lenders often prevent women from having to pawn their clothing or their oliildren’s clothing.” Au examination of this woman’s books, which, by the -way, seemed' to bo kept in a somewhat unbusinesslike way, showed that there were many debts which had been owing for month after month. “ When I find that a borrower cannot pay the interest I convert the outstanding amount into a loan without interest, and so, in time, get back zny own capital,” she explained. The other woman money-lender whom I interviewed said that tho amount she had out, which she would never recover, was so great that if she could get it in she would certainly give up the business. EXCEPTIONAL CASE.