The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1896-05-29
LIVE ISSUES.
Who Owns the Country.

is, the total value OF all property OF
every kind and nature, is estimated
at $4O,OOO,OOO,OOO (forty billion
dollars,) and now we have about
1000 men who own about $25, 000,-
100000 twenty-five billion dollars')
worth oft. Query: How long will
it take these four thousand men to
get all the rest of the property in
the United States =?
Let us figure on this proposition
a little. Say they get four per cent
interest on their money per year,
then we find that twenty-five bill
lion dollars will bring them just
one billion dollars interest at four
per cent; so, as the other 65,00O,-
900 people of this country now only
own fifteen billion dollars worth Of
property in this country, it will
only take these four thousand men
fifteen years to get all of it, to say
nothing of compound interst.
In fifteen years, then, four
thousand men will own every dol
lars worth of property in this
United States.
You do not believe that, do you?
No, kind reader, that is not true;
but here is the reason of its appar-
ent falsity. If all of the workers
of the United States could stop
work for fifteen years, then these
four thousand men would, uudoubt-
eddy, own every dollars worth of
property in the United States with
in the term of fifteen years, pro-
vided they could collet the interest
on their investments.
But these four thousand men
have about 65,OOO,OOO slaves at
work for them. These slaves ought
to produce, we will say, a profit of
say $40 per head each year. This
means $3.50, 100000 per annum to
be taken out of the billion dollars
our masters are demanding from us
each year, which leaves only $780,
100000 per annum which will have
to be taken out of our property to
pay the Shylocks, after they have
taken all of the profits of all of our
labor.
If they get s35O,OOO, 900 worth of
our property every year, how long
will it take them to get all of the
rest of our fifteen billion dollars
worth still left to us?
About forty three years.
Is that all?
Yes, that is all. They will own
every dollars worth Of property in
the United States in forty three
years, provided values rise fast
enough to pay the compound inter
est; if not, then in much less time;
unless we have change in our
present financial policies.
What is interest ?
1t is the penalty we have to pay
for being poor.
But the really poor cannot Dor.
row, without security.
No, but they are better off than
the man who is just rich enough to
be able to borrow, and poor enough
to be forced to do so; for interest is
but the knife of the cold blooded
Shylock, with which he cuts out
his pound of flesh. There is no
poison so deadly to prosperity as
the poison of interest. 1t withers
up and dies as soon as the Shylock's
knife is laid at its roots. Debt is
the death dealing quagmire that
has sunk millions in the slough of
despond, after the Shylock's knife,
interest, has cut away all of the
arteries of life. Friends, flee from
debt. as you would from the demon
of destruction. 1t is the only way
you can beat the Shylocks.
We are a nation of borrowers.
Our law makers have made us
such.
Every law that has been passed
within the last twenty years, touch
ing finance, has been dictated by
the bankers and money-lords.
They demonetized silver.
They planned the present system
of banking.
They are demanding bonds-and
they are getting them.
They have patent-right on leg
isiation of this kind.