When Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath announced proposed legislation to curb payday loan excesses last week, the industry was less than amused, saying the measure would shut down the 114 such lenders in the state.

We're trying to be sympathetic, but it's tough. According to the state Banking and Financial Institutions Division, the typical payday loan in Montana is a 14-day loan of $300 -- at an absolutely ridiculous annual rate of 650 percent.

No wonder payday and title loan businesses are springing up all over the place. And no wonder they're digging people -- always poor people -- deeply into debt.

The new rules, to be introduced in the Legislature by Rep. John Parker, D-Great Falls, would cap the annual percentage rate at 36 percent and require that no borrower have more than one loan at a time. Title loans -- loans secured by the borrower's vehicle -- would have a minimum 30-day term for repayment.

The 36 percent annual interest limit is the same as the limit that was recently imposed by Congress for companies that lend to military service personnel. A Defense Department study in August found that 13 to 19 percent of military people took out high-interest, short-term loans last year, and that many of them were so deeply in debt as a result that their military effectiveness was compromised.

The industry insists such loans are vital to their customers, who need the money to tide them over when times are tight. But as McGrath pointed out, the companies' advertising shows they depend on people getting trapped in debt. He quoted a Great Falls radio ad telling customers that "every sixth loan" has a discounted interest rate.

There's no doubt people need and want loans -- otherwise those "You drive the car!" signs wouldn't be all over the place. But the less-well-off Montanans who take them out deserve the same protection from widely inflated interest rates that Congress gave military families.