1893 - State Library Information Center

462 STATISTICS OF LABOR AND INDUSTRIES.times as to appear almost logically partial to the associations, wehave more than once come out of litigation with such ugly scarsthat legislation cannot efface them. We must fall back andlegislate over again.Immediate and specific remedial amendments are suggested toour existing building and loan statutes because their presentgauge is too broad. They should define— ,When interest begins; what premium is; limit fines, andcircumscribe speculation.Interest, Vice-Chancellor Van.Fleet says, in the case of theLincoln Loan Association v. Bowen and otters,, should begin and runagainst a loan, on, at and of the time of every actual paymentthereof to the borrower, and not otherwise. This is right, per se >for borrower and lender alike.Premiums now constitute the most slippery ground upon whichany part of our structure stands. Every association in the State,I believe, has been playing with high premiums, like childrenplaying with fire, and leaning meantime over this brink—doublytempting fate. Premium is a consideration for priority of loan,and should be bid as a price for month per share loan, payablet monthly. Thus the borrower pays for what he uses and whilehe uses it—the loan; no more, no longer; and may repay theloan at any time, without discount or loss. If the considerationfor priority be paid in advance or in gross, by being deductedfrom or added to the real sum of a loan, the borrower is robbedof his interest on a fictitious sum which he never receives. Thereare no fictions in figures. More than this, limit this considerationof price, by fixing it upon each share of, say $200, at notless than twenty-five cents nor more than one dollar per month.Fines are danger signals to borrowers and lenders alike,Vice-Chancellor Van Fleet says, in the opinion before cited:"The complainant has a right to collect a reasonable fine, Idoubt whether the fine originally imposed was reasonable, butcomplainant has reduced it one-half. Such reduction I thinkmakes it reasonable/' He says: u I doubt if the fine originallyimposed was reasonable." But they returned one-half, and thatmade it "reasonable." I doubt if the learned Chancellor wouldwrite that opinion or use that logic over again.