The herald., 1896-01-01

$ aiistlcti ct .ud ponl IL makes no dffeT-
s.fice to whom the remuneration is paid, yet
II Is IA very practical question and enters
uito the very hear of the ethical question,
tnlt white the p wing of the retnunera n
10 the poor would b. an uidOuhted beneii-
cence, always tending t, the betterment OF
several lives, its p ,yment to the already
Over-posse-sor of wealth is a tremendous
bar TO social well-.eing for him who pays
il, and is entirely unnecessary to the we'll
being OF him to whom IL Is paid, aud there
fore it is ii-eotte because its getting
brings i'll. Most mischievous OF all social
conditions is the unequal distribution ot
wealth. and we find in The beginning OF an
inquiry into the eth cs of usury that this Is
the most potent factor at work tn produce,
continue and increase this inequality BY
what assumption does the capitalist justi-
fy interes,-taking? Is it becau-e wealsh
has in itself the power of increase? Moth.
ing is more natural and Fundamental than
what one creates is his own. This is the
only broad basis of property owne shlp.
Does interest-taking assert the right for
proper y? Can property alone and un-
aided create any thing? Can you put
dollar in b g and lay 1t away and after a
term find two?
Does any one assert that dollar without
any exerton on the part of its owner will
grow to two dollars and then four and hen
eight. But this is jus what usury does for
this dead and useless thing we call dollars,
unless the energizng fruitful thing we call
labor wakes i. from it, sleep of death, and
then it proceeds to devour its benefactor.
It's owner is relieved from all responsibility
in regard to it. II works for him just the
same when he is absent in Europe. 1t de-
mands to be, doub ed in four cen years,
tripled in twsnty-four years, quadrtipled
in thirty-three years and SO on in
geometric ratio. If interest is right then
in ia / q
only a simple problem in compound in
terest to show you that there are one
hundred Americans living who could in
vest their surplus wealth at 8 per cent
in crest and in $50 years it would own the
plant with the moon thrown at a fair
valuation. 1t maintains large number of
people in idleness at the expense of hose
who labor. Take a family in which one
half live in idleness and spends large sums
of money. 1t is plain enough that the
other half are having a hard time OF it.
An idle luxurious woman who never pro-
duced dollar in her life and perhaps
never spent an hours time in any SER
vice to any one, will spend enough on one
gown to keep half dozen families for
year in what they would think comfort.
We will suppose that two individuals,
friends we Will say, start out in life under
exactly similar conditions and labor on
until each has accumulated $4,000. and
his 81 1000 and finds capital nerea-ary to
carry on his business, and SO he borrows
the ) 10.O0O of his friend. Now the loauer
can abandon his work and become an idler.
Ills friend must henceforth do the lab n
nece ssary to support both. He will pty
him his $4,000 in fourteen years and still
owe il to him. In twenty-'our years he
W Ii have paid him 100000 aad still owe it
to him; and this W he ther times are good or
bad, whether sick or we'll, In fact his
friend has become to him vertabei old
man of the sea and sits astride his neck
and seizes all the berries that this mod rn
Sinbad may attemIt TO convey to his own
mouth and gently but firmly appropriates
them to himself. and in the end his friend
rides him into pauper's grave. ftri. is a
M alter of statistics hat only 5 per cent es.
cape this fate who borrow money to do
business with Now the peculiar part of
this transaction is that the power of this
money to earn money again is far
more potential than the labor of
the original creator of this weslth
He gave some years OF his life
for it, and that ended tiff ne wants more
he must give more years for 3. In fact he
must create il to have it, and if he does not
create it must have it not, but this wealth
that he has created j. an entirely different
thing. II is dead 1t can create moth ng.
Indeed it is a perfectly helpless thing un-
less cared for by labor. The fires cons me
il, the winds destroy it, the fl 'ods sweep it
away. the moth corrup 8 it, the rust eats it,
decay ana death must be fought iuch by
iuch by some one if it is to be preserved,
and yet it is given the power to make men
its servants, and TO be p nd not once alone,
but over aud over again and again actually
drinking the life hl lmd of its victim. And
so it becomes one of the monstrosites of
the present civil Ziiion that ,he accuunula-
ton of capital is by wealth that should he
q han aftn Iln mi 1II1tI fad Ina
that labor is compelled to carry until heart
and flesh fail Under the present system
the more wealth there is in the world the
more burden labor as TO carry, aud the
po rer it mus be. 1t now become. plain
why. The rich own those who have sur
plus wealh, want lands, lands, lands.
Tney are the conduit pipes through which
flow the product of labor into the pockets
of the idle pre- latory rich. How ger shabe
are all forms of wealth without the
care of labor, is written in all the
rum that line the state. the twilight
that fits along the rune1 arches of tho
mighty wealth of mi .h y Rome that had a
world to tax and br 'lg 1T It's tribu TO the
idler NiDeveh, Baby lon, Palmyra, Garth
age, all clues of renown and pride and
power because of weaiih-their very ioca-
ton was in dispute for centuries. few
months of want. OF care nay, If we should
BIZ deserted by labor for few months the
felier would be wreck and Astor's real
estate become of no value If mankind
should desert its accu5torary haunts on
Manhattan island. Ihave been saying this
to lay the found alton for the remark that
the owner of property has received ample
compensation for its use 10 be relieved of
all care concerning it and have il pr estrveu
and returned to him intact at the ii ne of
agreement. | am entirely aware that this
str,k 6 at the Investment of many who are
unable to provide for themselves by other
means than the anuities they receive
tn, ough interest. Some old, some feeble,
some widows and orphans have heen bene-
ILLEGALLY provided for ny these investments s,
and as | said before, if the sums paid in
interest were paid to the poor by the we'll
to-do social we'll beng would be advanced
thereby, but this is only The incident of a
thoroughly vicious system having some
points that are not wicked.
Other means in comfort with a humane
sociology W II be found to provide for This
comparatively insignificant total of this
beniflcent opera ion of a vicious system.
"lf we could place over against the
really small number of poor people, who
are thus benefited, the great world of
labor-the great struggling mass of men
and women, whose burdens are never laid
aside; the tremend ,us procession of the
farmers of the country, tramping on to
their graves with their load of mortgages /;
the steady stream of men who essay bus-
ness with borrow ed capital, who take the
road TO the potter's field in spite of every
exer,ion; The great al my of laborers, who
work on and work on, when work is to be
found. when first out of the meager and