Mr. CHAMBERS, Tell me how to do it, and
I will accomplish that.
Mr. NEGLEY. You cannot do it; and it is
utterly useless to attempt to curb him in one
direction when he squanders his money like
water in every other imaginable way. That
very thing shows the utter folly, the utter
absurdity of trying by legislation to make a
man keep money when he has a disposition
to spend it. If you do not allow him to bor-
row money at a greater rate than six per cent.
is there no way of whipping the devil around
the stump? Is it not done every day?
JUDICIARY REPORT.
The hour having arrived for taking up the
order of the day, being the report of the com-
mittee on the judiciary department,
On motion of Mr. STIRLING,
The order of the day was postponed until
after the consideration of the matter pend-
ing.
LEGAL RATE OF INTEREST.
Mr. NEGLEY resumed: Why are there
such men in the world as have been described
by the gentleman from Kent? Why are
there money lenders that have secret places
with by-ways by which men can get to their
offices to get money? Why has it been so
for centuries? It is because the government
has not placed money upon the proper level
with other things. Allow a man to borrow
money as he is allowed to buy a horse, and
you destroy these obnoxious characters. You
take up the evil by the root. At one fell
swoop you destroy the entire class of money
lenders, if you allow a man to go into the
market and borrow money, as you allow him
to go into the market and buy a peck of ap-
ples, a ham, or anything else.
What is money? It has a commercial value
like anything else. A man who goes to the
mines of California and digs out the precious
metal, by the time that metal goes through
all the processes and receives the stamp
of the United States upon it, finds that
it costs him one hundred cents to the
dollar, just as much as it costs one hundred
cents for the man to go into the field and
plough his land and raise a bushel of wheat,
At the same time that it is a commercial me-
dium for the disposition of things between
man and man; it has another character. It
has a value in itself. It has a double charac-
ter. It has an intrinsic value at the same
time that it is used as a means of exchange.
Hence it is that money is governed by the
game laws which govern other things, the
perpetual and unchanging laws of supply
and demand.
If money in the community is abundant, if
the supply is increased, the demand being the
same, what is the result? The interest goes
down. We are way behind England. We
are way behind France. We are way behind |
the German States. Has not the Bank of
England a sliding scale? When money is
abundant it goes down; just like the scale
that operates of itself in the community.
When any commodity is abundant, and the
supply remains the same, the value of the
article goes down. It is so every day in the
streets of New York and Philadelphia and
Baltimore, Why is it that you see money
quoted at seven per cent. one day and seven
and a half per cent. amother? Not all the leg-
islation in creation would affect these rates.
You cannot trample the eternal laws of politi-
cal economy under foot. It is utterly absurd
and preposterous to attempt to hedge in and
prevent the obtaining of more than six per
cent. or seven per cent., or eight per cent.,
by any legal enactments.
What do you do in the present constitu-
tion I You license a set of men—this very
class that the gentleman from Kent talks
about—to take the paper which you will not
allow me to negotiate myself, and hawk it
about the streets, and sell it at six, eight and
ten per cent.; whereas if you would allow me
to do it myself, without any interference by
statutory enactments, or constitutional pro-
hibitions, I would go to my neighbor who
has money, and I would make a contract
with him to suit my own convenience. If he
asks me more than I choose to give, it is no
bargain. It is just upon the same principle
as if I wanted to buy a horse, and you should
make me apply to a licensed broker .to buy
that horse, under a constitutional provision
that a man who sells horses shall not be
allowed to ask more than so much for them.
You might as well fix a maximum value upon
every horse that is sold, and every carriage,
and every bushel of wheat, and everything
else that you get money for. You might as
well say that a livery man shall not have
more than a dollar and a half a day for his
horse, or his buggy, as to say to me that 1
shall not have more than six dollars a year
for the use of a hundred dollars. Is there
any difference in principle? I hire my money
to a man who gives me a certain reward for
it. I hire my horse and buggy to a man
who gives me a certain reward for it. What
is the difference in the principle? There is
none'. It is governed by the same law. If
there are many livery stables, and an abun-
dance of horses and vehicles, I can hire at a
low rate. If there is an abundance of money
in the market, I can hire many at a low rate.
If Ilcorses and carriages are scarce, and there
is a great desire to ride, the rate increases.
The demand being increased, and the supply
remaining the same, they will command a
higher price. Just so it is with money.
Our sister States are getting awake to this
fact. Shall we go trudging along in this old
beaten path, and force away the capital from
our own State? I tell you that capital, like
water, will seek its level. Wherever capital |
