Year: 1860

INTEREST ON MoNRY.-Till one has carefully
calculated the which will accrue from interest
compounded or paid monthly, he can scarcely credit
the amount. At three per cent per month, COM
pounded, five thousand dollars would amount IN
twenty years to ten millions, and fifty thousand
dollars would grow to one hundred millions. Is
there any productive industry or effort Of genius
that can equal thats Any way by which man can
make hundred millions in twenty yearsS No one
man did make it in his life, far the world


is known. 1t is clearly seen, then, that few hum
dred thousand dollars at interest at such rates would
devour the whole productive industry OF the world
in very short time. Such rates are impossible IN
any well organized society In this State, in many
places STILL three per cent per month is the ruling
rate 1t was in this city few years ago, TILL all
went to ruin. Now all are awake enough to see the
ruin it involves. Yet on the street, money is said
to command two per cent per month now. A lesser
rate is only slower progress to ruin. One per
cent a month is sure to end in ruin to any COM
msrcia industrial people as two or three per cent
a month. The only difference is the greater the
per cent the quicker comes the ruin. Men trade,
manufacture, work, speculate, and in a number of
given instances do well. But finally all falls short
of the increasing demands Of interest. That cannot
be met. The community is bankrupt. All is lost,
except the capital itself and what labor has pro-
duced. These things remain. They have changed
forms, changed hands many times but real capital
is seldom lost out Of the world except by fire or
water, and ths proper products of industry are also
abiding. But the estimated value has suddenly
QlnlnlSneu. Every OOuV lncIe is great lOSsb
and there is, but it is the loss of that wherein the


interest account has increased above the productive
industry Of the country. The passion for interest
inflated every thing, and the vastness of its amount
finally prostrated every thing. Every month, al
most this interest account is found to have ruined
some one, and affected others. Still men go on
paying interest. The debtor wishes to borrow and
the moneyed man wishes to lend. Perhaps this
must be so. But one thing is certain, general APP
phcation in bankruptcy will be made. There could
be no hope without it. Bankruptcy will surely come
soner or later, to two-ffhs Of the men doing busi
ness in the country where interest is ten per cent
per annum, and the people borrow freely; or If men
avoid that they will have found that they have spent
nearly life Of toll and their labor is lost II is the
interest which pay that is steadily undermining
a community. If the productive industry of coun-
try is great then more interest can be paid but
always rates Of interest should be but at small per
cent. When there high rates Of interest and
trade is brisk the real point Of business among men
is to catch the money ahoat and throw the issue OF
bankruptcy to their neighbor's door If possible.
Trade then becomes a sort Of gambling process-a
smooth, souless, terrible rivalry and competition


school for sharpers, dcmoralizing in every sense.
IS +. Times.