ages seemed great and the evils small. But looking at the
welfare of the generations its evils might have been clearly
discerned.

7. The evil was never before so great. The vast accumulations of
wealth, so sure to follow the operation of usury, was hitherto
unknown. Corporations, combinations for the handling of great
interests, grasping the natural resources and monopolizing the natural
wealth, gaining franchises covering a monopoly of privileges in
transportation, light and communication by the telephone or telegraph,
are comparatively recent.

8. The first appearance of indebtedness is a seeming, but false,
prosperity. The young man who takes possession of a tract of land and
then, with borrowed capital, improves it, building his house and his
barns and his permanent buildings, and stocking it with animals that
please his taste, has the appearance of abounding prosperity, but as
the unending grind of usury continues, these, he comes to feel, are
but weights to which he is chained, and in an agony of sweat he is
compelled to wear out his life.

A city incurring debt is seemingly prosperous. Bonds are issued for
the erection of attractive public buildings, for the paving of muddy
streets, for the beautifying of public parks. These bond issues are
signs of the prosperity of only one class, the usurers. The ultimate
burden is upon the laborers, who must pay every bond, interest and
principal.

9. The opponents of usury have not always been wise. They have
indulged in bitter invective rather than solid argument. The language
of the fathers, especially, was unqualified in severity.

When the absurdity and unmitigated evil of usury is seen, and one
feels that adequacy requires superlatives, it is not easy to restrain
language and use mild terms. The divine prohibition was so clear and
the effects so oppressive, especially to the poor, that it did not
appear to the fathers to require argument. The divine authority was
not, therefore, followed up with the economic basis or reasons for the
prohibitions.

Usury crept in because it was not barred out by the sound reasoning of
those who knew its evils. The vituperations were ignored as the
rantings of ill-balanced minds.

10. Like every other wrong, it feeds upon itself. The very conditions
it produces fosters and promotes its growth. At first directing effort
and thought along material lines, ultimately the ideals become
groveling. The purposes of a worthy life and th