The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1894-09-22
The Curse of Usury.
From the National Waterman.

From the National Waterman.
According to the director of the U. S.
mint there is S3,7OO, 900, 900 gold money
in the world. A cubic yard of gold is
worth $l0,000,000. Hence all the gold
in the world could be placed in room 25
feet square and 10! feet high. Veto pay
cent invested at 6 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 IL years. If one
cent were invested in the year |, at the
end of the year 1898 it would take 46
figures to express the amount of principal
and interest in dollars. If every man,
woman and child in the world were ''worth :"
one hundred million dollars, it would take
three hundred billion such earths with an
equal population to pay one hundred bill
ionth part of the annual 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 Capital is only the pro-
duct of labor. Labor is the superior of
capital and deserves by far the higher con-
sideration."
No one will dispute this.
But granted, as it is claimed, that Soap
ital and labor are friends, not enemies.
Their if they are friends and allies, reason
and common sense would show that they
should divide equally and equitably. If
the increase of the wealth of the country
is only 3per 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 panics and bankruptcy.
1t has been estimated that all the debts
of the United States, public and private,
aggregate $4,000, 100000. Some au-
thorities figure them at nearly double that
amount, and as nearly every certificate of
stock is an Understanding (dividend-pay
ing) debt, printed on paper, this estimate
is probably correct But let us figure it
at thirty-two billions.
Both Charles Foster and John G. Carl
isle, one Republican, the other Demo
cratic Secretary of the Treasury, claim that
there is 81, SOC, 000, 600 of money in circu-
lation in the United States. In this they
include about $500 100000 of $500,
$1,000, $4,000, and $4,000 notes that
are certainly not part of the money Sin
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 circulation at one billion, we get
these figures;
Debts of all kinds $50 900 600 600
Money in actual circulation lI0O000OOOO
Then, at 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 pa per
cent.
This exceeds the extortion of the most
heartless chattel mortgage shark in the
world.
,000O0O,000 are invested at 225
per cent. 1--WE add l per cent for convent
ence in figuring, it would amount to $780,
697 $50 900, 900 in ten years.
In eleven years it will be sum three
and quarter times greater, and in twelve
years-well, what is the use of figuring
impossibilities?
The point is that capital so-called in
ereases under present conditions with such
frightful rapidity that at regularly recurr
ing periods there must be general repu
diation of debts-principal and interest
and this is what we call financial crisis,
usually brought about by panic. lndi-
vidual and local reputation of debt in the
form of individual failures and bankruptcies
are going on all the time, else the general
regulations Financial crisis) would come
closer together.
While these facts are so plain that he
who runs may read, they are not understood
by the masses, and the people who do
understand them and profit by the system
can spend immense sums to keep the
masses in ignorance.
If then, as these facts plainly show,
usury is the cause, the evil can be rooted
out by removing the cause. Usury laws
will never do. There is but one remedy
the government composed of all the people,
must assume its sovereign right to issue
money not only to the privileged banks
but to all its members. By loaning money
to all who can furnish security at cost of
issue, no man will be able to extort unjust
profits or usury from any of his fellow-men,
and panics with their following of fnan-
cial ruin, want of employment, misery,
starvation, and multiplied crime and vice
will be known no more forever