Legislators Target Predatory 'Loan Sharks'
Senator Cotterill introduces a bill to curb abusive salary-assignment lending practices.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Olympia, Jan. 22.—Senator Cotterill of King County has a bill designed to put the loan sharks out of business, and before the session is over he will present other measures with this end in view. The bill he has prepared provides that no assignment of salary shall be legal unless it is signed by the employer and the wife of the employee.
“no assignment of salary shall be legal unless it is signed by the employer and the wife of the employe.”
Predatory lending remains a central issue in Washington politics, reflecting the same struggle to protect vulnerable workers from usurious debt traps that Senator Cotterill fought over a century ago. The requirement for spousal consent, while archaic in context, highlights the historical recognition that high-interest debt was a structural threat to the stability of the entire household.
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