The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1894-09-07
QUESTIONS OF THE DAY.
The Curse of Usury.

| HIblioiiH'i i''.tllti,N dt S1'tl'iN " Aiith
takes away the breath of the reader
aud demonstrates the awful, earth
consuming power of interest and
money Here it is. Let every one
read il and remember the facts
given in ii h:
According to the director of the
U. $. mint there is So, 1000,
600 gold money in the world. A
cubic yard OF gold is worth $l0,-
| 100000. Hence all the gold in the
/ world could be placed in room 20
feet square and 16! feet high. Yet
to pay cent invested at per cent
compound interest at the beginning
of the Christian era at present
would require eighty three Jumps
of gold the size of the earth.
If you doubt it figure it out
yourself. At per cent compound
interest money will double in less
than y years. If one cent were
invested in the year l, at the end
of the year 1898 it would take As
figures to express the amount of
principal and interest in do'lars. If
every man. woman and child in the
world were "wOrthn one hundred
million dollars, it would take three
| hundred billion such earths with
an equal population to pay one
hundred billionth part of the an
nual interest.
The census returns show that the
wealth of the nation increases at
the rate of 3 per cent per annum.
Abraham Lincoln said in his
message to Congress- December,
1861: "Capital could not have
existed if labor had not first exist
ed. Capital is only the product of
labor. Labor is the superior of
capital and deserves by far the
higher considerations
No one will dispute this.
But granted as it is claimed,
that capital and labor are friends,
not enemies.' Then if they are
friends and allies, reason and COM
mon sense would show that they
should divide equally and equita-
bly,. If the increase of the wealth
of the country is only 8 per cent,
capital So-called is at the best not
entitled TO more than half of that,
which would be ! per cent. If it
takes more it not only robs labor,
but inevitably produces panies and
bankruptcy.
1t has been estimated that all the
debts of the United States, public
and private, aggregate $32, 900, 900,
600. Some authorities figure them
at nearly double that amount, and
as nearly every certificate of stock
is an interest bearing dividend
paying) debt, printed on paper,
this estimate is probably correct.
But let us figure it at thirty two
billions.
Both Charles Foster and John G.
Carlisle, one a Republican, the
other Democratic Secretary of the
Treasury, claim that there Is
81, 900, 200, 900 of money in circu-
lation in the United States. In this
they include about 100000, 900 of
$500, $1,000, $1,000, and $4,000
notes that are certainly not part OF
the money Gin circulation. These
gentlemen also fail to deduct the
money lost by fires, shipwrecks,
and other accidents, which in the
course of many years amounts to
large sums. If, then, we estimate
the total amount of money in cir
culation at one billion, we get these
figures
Debts of all kinds $50 600. 900 OOC
Money in actual circulation 1,OOO,OOO OOC
Then, at a low estimate, as
shown, the debts exceed the money
in circulation thirty two times. In
other words, every dollar of money
in circulation pays interest thirty
two times each year, which, at an
average rate Of per cent, makes
224 per cent.
This exceeds the extortion of the
most heartless chattel mortgage
shark in the world.
If 81 900, 10000 are invested at
225 per cent (we add l per cent fol
convenience in tiguring), it would
amount to S120,697, $50, ,OOO,O 900 in
ten years.
In eleven years it will be Il sum
three and quarter times greater,
and in twelve years-well, what is
the use of figuring impossibilities
The point is that capital so o-called
increases under present conditions
with such frightful rapidity that at
regularly recurring periods there
must be general reputation OF
debts-principal and interest-and
this is what we call a financial
crisis, usually brought about by a
panic. Individual and local pepu-
diation of debt in the form of indi-
Vidual failures and bankruptcies
I.are going on all the time, else the
general repudiations (fnancial
crisis) would come closer together.
While these facts are so plain
Ithaf hn "a tha ,nnc ,,.nxr nooI khnxr