equires that the
insurance company shall pay the owner of the property for the
privilege of protecting it. Under usury the property given into the
care of another, and called a loan, must be perfectly protected and
preserved by the borrower, restored if lost, and returned in full to
the owner at the agreed distant date, and a price paid for the
privilege of performing the service.

The true ethical principle and equity in the relations between the
owner of a property and the one who holds, protects and preserves it,
require that the owner shall render to the holder a just compensation.
This will vary in different conditions, it may be very small, it may
in rare cases be entirely eliminated; but they also utterly forbid
that the party rendering the service shall pay for the privilege of
serving.

One may submit to an injustice in order to gain an advantage. He can
do better for himself by submitting than by resisting. His employer
may be hard and oppressive but this is the best job he can get and he
holds on, but that does not justify the oppressions of the employer up
to the breaking point. It may be to the advantage of a borrower to
submit to the exactions of usury, that is, he may gain more wealth by
borrowing upon interest than not, but that does not relieve usury of
its oppression up to the breaking point when it can no longer be
endured. There is no better ethical basis for low interest than high
interest. Low rates of interest are oppressions that may be suffered
or endured for a possible gain, but high rates are intolerable. The
principle is the same whatever the rate of interest, whether it be low
or high. They only differ in the degrees of their severity.

CHAPTER XX.

WEALTH IS BARREN.

That wealth can produce wealth is the assumption of Shylock.

Shylock--"When Jacob grazed his Uncle Laban's sheep--
This Jacob from our holy Abraham was
The third possessor; ay, he was the third."

Antonio--"And what of him? Did he take interest?"

Shylock--"No, not take interest; not as you would say,
Directly interest. Mark what Jacob did." * * *

Antonio--"This was a venture, sir, that Jacob served for;
A thing not in his power to bring to pass--
But swayed and fashioned by the hand of Heaven.
Was this inserted to make interest good?
Or is your gold and silver, ewes and rams?"

Shylock--"I can not tell; I make them breed as fast."