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Show llanki for tha l'oor. The announcement tbat the Merchants Mer-chants Club Is about to establish a company with 1100.000 capital to loan money In small suras on collateral security se-curity at a fair rate of Interest will be hailed with Joy by many poor people, some of whom are now obliged to pay nt the rate of 120 per cent a year for smnll sums of money. The movement to prevent tho necessities ot tho poor being mado tho profit of usurers began, so far aa this country Is conccrnod, In Boston in 1803. The original association associa-tion Is still In oxlstonce as the Collateral Collat-eral Loan Company,, 168 Tremont street. Loans are made as low as fifty cents. The rate of Interest charged Is lis per cent a month. At 1 Beacon street, Boston, is the Worklngman'a Loan Association. This association eharges Interest on its loans at the rate ot 1 per cent a month. It reports that over four-fifths ot nil loans made by It are repaid, aud Its losses are comparatively compara-tively trivial. Both thase associations, though originally started as charities, pay an annual dividend ot 6 per cent to stockholders, In New York the first start In this direction was made by the St. Bartholemew MUslon and the various church settlements. With the last few years, however, n numbor ot wealthy men have organized companies compa-nies which loan money on chattels at fair rates ot interest. They also have found tho Investment profitable In many European countries there are pawnshops conducted by tho government. |