The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1873-06-07
MONEY GETS MORE THAN ITS
SHARE.

MONEY GETS MORE THAN ITS
SHARE.
II there il one subject more than another
in the study Of which the producing classes
are befogged-so much at Sea-or manifest
50 little interest-thAt subject is the ques-
ton Of money And yet there is no ques-
ton of more vital Importance in
which they should be more deeply interest
cd, and none in the intelligent considers
ton of which their future progress and
welfare is more deeply involved
It has been, and il to-day, the study Of
the political trickster to throw a halo Of
mysticism around this question, to assure
them that it Is problem far too obtuSe for
their limited understanding, that our most
profound statesmen and fnanciers have been
unable 70 unravel its mysteries, and that
the best thing they can do, is to leave it
severely alone. And the bait, We are sorry
70 say, has taken, only too we'll +; while the
I truth of the matter is, so long as they con
tinue to accept and act on this teaching,
they will remain, IS they deserve to re-
main, "hs,cers y rood, and drdtoers Of
tC ter.
Money, Of itself. has no value. 1t is
not wealth, but the legal representative Of
wealth Money and the interest on money,
are in all civillsed nations the creation Of
law 1t is the province of government
Of value and legal tender for the pay
nent Of debts, and what per centage shall
lie paid as interest for the use Of money
! during given period And as all interest
paid for the use Of money, whether on
public securities or private obligations,
must, in the end, be borne by labor,
when the average rate Of interest exceeds
the aggregate rate of increase IN the ma
tional wealth, the inevitable result is to
centralize the wealth Of the country in the
possession Of the few nOLproducers, and
impoverlsh the whole producing element.
The wealth of the nation by productive in
dustry the only source Of wealth-ln-
creases at the rate Of three and third per
cent. per snnum, while interest often claims
that amount per month. 1t is IN the power
Ct the Government to provide this repre-
sentative Of value SO that the use of it may
be obtained upon the pledge Of actual
value, to secure its payment at the actual
cost Of issue But the Government has
failed TO do that, and the result Of this fail
ure is the unequal distribution Of property
among the people, the pinching poverty Of
laborers and the overgrown estates of the
non-producing classes, with all the monop-
oily, extorEon, pride, vanity, extravag ance,
fraud and hbertinism which always results
from the combined influences Of wealth and
idleness
In the city Of New York, and in nearly
every town in the Republic, which contains
more than FIVE thousand inhabitants, five
I per cent. Of them own more property than
the remaining ninety-hve per cent.
If, when Virginia Was first settled in
1907 England had sold to the first settler
the whole territory now covered by the
United States for 81 OO0, and had taken q
mortgage for this sum covering the whole
property, but instead Of paying the inter
est yearly at per cent. the settlers had
agreed TO take mp their note at the end Of
every SIX months, and add in the interest
and thus continued compromising the in
terest until the year 1860. the whole real
and personal property of the United States
would scarcely be sufficient to pay the
debt. Up to 1859 the sum would amount
to thirty-three billions, i've hundred
and hfty-four millions, four hun
bred and thirty-two thousand dol
lars, or about eleven times the amount
of our national debt, after the rebellion
had been subdued All the surplus earn
ings of all the people of the United States,
with all the wealth that has been brought
into this country by foreign emigration has
not equalled the sum produced by one
thousand dollars at per cent, compound
ed ANNUALLY from 1907 to 1859. With
these facts before them, we insist every la
boring man in the country ought to make
the subject of money and interest for ITS
use-a special subject Of study. He may
thus learn Why the unequal distribution Of
wealth which he everywhere behoi,-s-why
it is that the rich are viewed by their
wealth, and the poor by their Pc-srtyl
Why laborers who work hard are destitute
Of the necessaries Of life, whila those who
do nothing revel in this worlds Injuries.
and are made sickly and wretched by a
Iurfeiting abundance.