The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-02-20
FOREIGN CAPITAL.
How 1t Has This Country by the
Throat.

To the Editor:
There is great howl today by the pluto
cratic press because English capitalists are
mot investing their capital here, and be-
cause they Withdrawing what they
have here. This is how the enormous ex-
port of gold is accounted for in the face
of large balance of trade in our favor.
And so the press urges us to destroy all
oGr legal tender money and rely entirely
on gold for medium of exchange in
order to tempt foreign capital to stay here.
We are told in the same strain that the
development of country is due to for
eisn capital brought in here by the thou
sands Of millions
II must be admitted that foreign capital
has got this country by the throat and
We are feeling the grip now. And the great
and astounding blunder of our economic
policy as a nation consists in having al
lowed foreign capital to enter and capture
us. We do not need foreign capital any
more than wagon needs a fifth wheel.
How has this foreign capital come here?
Have English soveregns been shipped
here? Oh, no. European banking firms and
money syndicates have simply sent us their
simply used to get money-our own money
or our own bank checks-to pay for labor
and material to start the enterprise going
such railroads and manufactures, and
then the enterprise or plant bonded for
its cost of construction and the bonds hand
ed over to the foreign syndicate. The mo-
ment the enterprise was started profit or
rates were charged high enough to pay in
terest on the bonds. and very often also
on the capital stock for which nothing had
been paid in, except perhaps the organza-
ton expenses. Thus this foreign capital
did not come in the form or shape of mon
ey, as many common people are apt to
believe, and the plutocratic press pretend
to believe. There We're in the great ma
Jcrity of cases no foreign money in the
deal at all. In very many instances there
was neither home nor foreign capital, only
organization and credit. But the result was
in every case interest bearing bonds and
dividend paying stock, and the people have
been and now are paying the interest and
dividends not on capital actually invest
ed-thiS is true of most of railroads,
anyway-but simply genius of organ
zation.' These great organizers of stock
companies of Industrial enterprises
thus became loaded with dividend paying
stock and the foreigners that lent them
their credit with interest bearing bonds,
and in many if not most cases, as 1 have
said, without any capital to start with.
have become multi millionaires in a lifetime
Fl ON nothing. And this is how this social
ed foreign capital got it's foothold in this
country.
But after quarter of century of this
process of developing industrial enter
prises, another concomitant circumstance
is making itself felt--the accumulation of
interest on these bonds Foreigners have
rule allowed the accumulated interest
on the securities they hold to stay here
Hat ino Nn oil lynn
we think about it, that the accumulation
of interest at the rates we paying in
this country is out of all proportion to the
Increase of wealth in productive industry.
Interest at per cent doubles the princi-
pal in 10 years. 1t quadruples it in 20 years
In so years it amounts to eight times the
first principal. Let me give a graphic il
lustration of the enormous accumulation
of interest. If England had sold the whole
of this continent to the colonistS of Vir-
gnia in 1907 for 81 600 and let the principal
and interest accumulate to this day, all the
present wealth of this country could not be-
gin to pay it. The accumulation Of interest
is at the bottom of our industrial trouble
today. 1t is at the bottom of gold
export, too. Foreigners who hold our bonds
that if interest is allowed to accumulate
any longer we never shall be able to pay
1t. After this they will never invest any
more in this country. The putocra tic
press may howl itself hoarse about the
resources of this country, they may talk
about Democratic tariff reform and Re-
publican confidence, and Cleveland-Sher-
man money reform, but 1t will not deceive
European capitalists. They will keep on
drawing wheat and cotton at their
own figures and all our precious metals
besides, and faster than dig it out
of the mines, and still there will be enough
unpaid interest accommodating to finally
transfer the title of the whole United
States to these foreign bondholders. And
still the process of money slavery to for
eigners is not going on fast enough to suit
our hireling press 1t wants more foreign
capital invested here to hasten COM
plete bondage to foreign capital
But how could have developed this
country without this foreign capital, for
eign credit, l mean. I answer, by employ
ing home credit, home capital if you
please. How so, do you ask? Where is the
home capital? There is $4,000, COO 900 of cap
ital in this country, true capital and not
empty credit, either And we have the or
ganization, too, that controls all this
wealth-the governn ent of the United
States of America. But l am told that the
United States government has money
to expend in such enterprises as building
railroads, etc. Grant. for the sake of argu-
ment that it has not. / answer that it
takes no money to build railroads. only
credit. And no one will deny that the
credit of the United States government is
better than the credit of any banking firm,
of all the banking firms of the world
combined. The government could and
should, have built our railroads ard other
large public enterprises. Or. as a second
best, it should have furnished the credit tC
build with and have taken the first mort
gage on them. In that case the people
would at least have been paying interest
to themselves. This is what some fourth
rate government in Europe, not wholly
entranced by English gold bugs, would have
done. And yet gravely told thai
this country cannot do it! o you cod fish
cowardly soft-brained American states
manshp! l am beginning to be ashamed
of American citizenship. And there sits
Grover Cleveland shaking all over an6
kneeling in supplication to his political enc
mics to help him save the national treasury
and honor from few braZen faced Shy
locks; Holy Jehosaphat! What a specta
cle Will not God in His mercy raise w
Andrew jackson to save his country anC
American honor once more from this money
demon? Or cannot some Portia be fount
who can plead for poor Antonio-the Amer
lean people? ! say, and you all feel it
that this money policy Of this ma
ton for the last 80 years at least
and more now than ever before, is dis
grace to civilization. Nay, it would be {
disgrace to Zulu administration. In any
other age, any other nation, except the
English, the advocates of such an economic
money policy as uphold would be hurled
from power and riven out of the country
Patience has long ceased to be a virtue
Eusiness stands stock still. The savings o
a life time, the reward of diligence of hane
and brain, is vanishing into thin air. TIL,
well-to-do of the land are now suffering