The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1873-02-28

ses. Every six months they invest the
money thus earned at seven per cent.
/ interest, the interest payable half
/ yearly. These men earn an average of
4 dollar day beside their expenses,
three hundred days in each year, during
forty years and four months. Theirage
IS thus sixty years and four months.
Zach earns by labor $500 per year for
| lOrty years, or for the whole period,
ol2,luO-tOgetheT, S2l 200. But the in
terest on their returns loaned half yearly
for period of forty years and four
months, doubling at seven per cent,
paid and re-invested half yearly, in ten
years and four months amounts to
SlOl,55O 80, which added TO the amount
of 81, 200 earned by their labor, makes
the aggregate SIPS, $50 20. The interest
on the sum, S24, 200, earned by their
, labor is SlS4, $50 20, more than four and
quarter times greater than the amount
they have earned by their labor Sup
pose the two men to live twenty years
and two months longer, that Is to the
age OF eighty-one years and six months,
and continue TO loan their money Dur
ing this period it would double twice,
making the total accumulation i'm sixty
years and six months S5lJ, ,O02 so. The
two men do not labor during the last
twenty years and two months, and ex-
pend of their income for living during
that period Sl5,O02 so, leaving to their
heirs S500,000. In forty years and four
months they earn $4,000, and live
twenty years and two months on their
money without labor. Subtract the
money earned by labor, $50 POO and the
remainder accumulated by interest is
$40, 500. Now, not one dollar of this
S4I5, 800 is earned by the labor Of these
men. 1t is the legal interest upon S2l,-
2OO. These men live laboriously, snd
work for u very moderate compensation.
They take only the legal rate of interest.
Neither do they enter into any specu-
lations.
The amount 30 which these nations,
municipalities, and corporations, as well
as individuals are indebted, is q subject
of general complaint. We see here the
cause. 1t is an accumulation Of inter
est. 1t is an accumulation Of interest
from which no adequate equivalent is
obtained, or else il is lost by unjust
management. There is due to the es-
tate of these two men from the small
savings of dollar day, q sum of S5Oa,-
600. 1t would take the labor of a single
man for more than 1866 years to pay his
principal ; and it would require, at one
dollar per day, the constant toll of more
than ll6 men to pay the yearly interest
of S35, 900. From generation to genera
tion these men might continue to pay
the interest, and still the burden be un-
diminished, and yet in the space Of
sixty years and six months, two men,
from the small savings of d0llara day,
aided by the power of interest, have ac-
cumulated this amount
Take one more example on 4 national
scale:
Interest of money at six per cent. per
annum, payable half-yearly, will double
the principal in eleven years, eight
months and twenty days; but for con-
venience we will call it twelve wears.
One thousand dollars loaned at six per
cent. in twelve years will accumulate to
$1,000; in twenty-fOur Years to $1,000; i'm
thirty-siX years to $1,000; in forty-eight
years to So, 200; in seventy-twO years to
S64, 600; in eighty-fOur Years to Sl2S, 900;
in ninety-siX years to S356, goo; in los
years to S5l2, 600; in 120 years to S1,024,-
600. Multiply this sum by 1924 and it
will give the accumulation for 20 years
more, or Sl,O4S,5 600. Multiply this
product by 1924, and we shall have the
accumulation during the next 20 years,
or period of 500 years-Sl, ,O73, "A, ,S24,
O00-One trillion, seventy-three billions,
seven hundred and forty-One millions,
eight hundred and twenty-four thousand
dollars.
This is rather an incompreheusible
amount for even nation 10 manage,
but perhaps we can make use of one
years interest on the sum, which
amounts to SGf, 42i,5 ,504 4O or over
$50 minute for every minute i'm the
age of the world, allowing it to be G,OO0
years old. Or if this calculation is too
complicated to be readily comprehended.
we can take the interest of it for four
months and pay Oft our whole national
debt. So much for the power of legal
interest.-MOHtreaI Transcript.