“SCUM OF THE EARTH”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19846, 21 May 1927, Page 14 (Supplement)

“SCUM OF THE EARTH”

M.P. SLATES MONEY-LENDERS NEW BILL WILL HALT GREEDY OPERATIONS. LONDON, May 2. There seems at last every hope that a Bill to curb the operations of moneylenders will become Jaw this year. Such a Bill, introduced in the House of Commons as a private member’s metsure by Mr. Burman (Con., Duddeston), obtained the hearty support of the Government and a second reading after meagre opposition. Under the Bill: Every money-lender must have an excise license (to cost £l5), which can be obtained only after he has satisfied the local magistrates that he is a proper person to carry on such business. His real name and that of all partners must be clearly stated in all documents relating to the business, and the title of the firm may not in any case suggest that it is a bank. Circulars are prohibited. Compound interest on transactions is forbidden, and the rate of simple interest must not, save in certain exceptional circumstances, exceed 43 per cent, a year. Money-lenders may not lend money to a man’s wife without the husbands consent. Much trouble has been caused in the past by wives borrow ing without their husband’s knowledge and being subject to a kind of blackmail. All the parties must sign a form of contract containing all particulars ns to the principal and interest, and the dates at which the interest is- payable. Mr. Burman, moving the second reading. insisted that the measure was framed in no spirit vindictive to decent money-lenders, and started with the assumption that they were an honourable body of men. It was designed to protect the unfortunate and unskilful against the shrewd, experienced and often rapacious moneylender. There are 8,648 registered money-lenders in Great Britain. Mr. Wells (Con., Bedford), who seconded, observed that money-lending was a business known to have existed 4,000 years ago in Ur of the Chaldees. He gave typical instances of the hardships suffered by borrowers to-day. clergyman whom he. knew borrowed £7O, repaid £2lO, and still owed £7O. A former *clcrk of the Bank of England, who, after forty-two years’ service, set up in business for himself, borrowed £lOO, repaid £320, was made bankrupt, and lost every penny he ever had, including his pension.

It was difficult to see the real objects or arguments of the opponents of the measure, who were led and solely represented by Commander Kenworthy (Soc., Hull), and Colonel Wedgwood ( Soc., Newcastle-under-Lyme), but apparently they were more anxious to twit Conservatives generally than to discuss the merits of the case. Colonel Wedgwood said he had received more letters reproving him for his opposition to the Bill than for anything else he bad done in his career. Commander Kenworthy suggested that it was merely a Tory pretence of action against a limited class of profiteers to hide their general sympathy with other plunderers of the public purse, and Colonel Wedgwood did not see why the working man should have any obstacles placed in the wny of his borrowing £5,000 if lie wanted to. Both these' political Don Quixote? had to confess their ineffectiveness in fare of the fact that Mr. Ramsay MacDonald mutely, and the late Socialist Solicitor-General, Sir Henry Slesser (Soc., Leeds), vocally, support the Bill.

Captain Hacking (Under-Secretary, Home Office) promised official help for the Bill.

One of the most vigorous phrases of the day was the invention of Sir R. Thomas (Lib., Anglesey), who said that money-lenders were “the scum of the earth,” easily recognisable on the street as they had the features of the devil incarnate.”