But they who were engaged in this scheme over-reached themselves as the
South had done before them. They over-estimated the vitality and
endurance of the industries, already carrying a debt of $4,000,000,000
in railroad, State, county and municipal bonds, besides paying interest
on individual loans to a still larger amount. They could not bear the
added burden. With gold at par with which the interest was paid on this
enormous debt before the war, they managed to get along; but when the
war had raised the price of gold and had added $3,000,000,000 to the
debt, it was more than they could stand. On this $11,000,000,000 debt,
with the interest on some parts of it at 8, 9, 10 and even 12 and 15 per
cent. per annum, and allowing for the large discounts that were
frequently extorted, and adding to this the premiums paid for gold and
including the dividends on stocks, the industries of the country were,
and still are, taxed $1,300,000,000 every year to pay interest! Think of
it, you who take this interest! Think of the toiling millions who,
beneath the broiling sun, or in the murky mines, or dismal shops, or in
the frozen forests, give up their lives to toil! Think of it! Taxed
$1,300,000,000 annually for interest, part of which goes to enrich
European bankers, and the remainder to those who, in luxurious ease,
idle their lives away at home. Think of it, I repeat again, and then
wonder, if you can, that industry is prostrate beneath the heel of
capital! Say, if you can, whether the wonder is not rather, that there
is a wheel in motion in the country, or that there is a plough moving in
the soil.
The total products amount to but $5,000,000,000 annually. Out of this,
there is first to come the subsistence of the 44,000,000 population. On
an average it cannot be said that it costs less than $100 a year per
capita to support this mass. Some people spend more than that for cigars
in a single month, and others double for wines and other liquors, to say
nothing about establishments costing thousands upon thousands to
maintain; and yet there are so many who live upon less than $100 a year,
that the average cost of subsistence may be placed at that sum. This
would consume $4,400,000,000 of the $5,000,000,000 products, and leave
but $600,000,000 with which to pay the $1,300,000,000 interest. Hence it
is plainly to be seen that the productive interests of the country are
running into debt to the capitalists at the rate of $700,000,000 every
year; that their mortgages on the property of the country are increasing
yearly by that amount. This is a frightful showing, but it is a true
one; it is one that the labouring classes are beginning to understand;
it is one that you who are oppressing them should also understand, for,
by ignoring it, you are challenging swift destruction. The only question
is, how long can these things go on, with the wealth of the country
increasing at the rate of two and a half per cent. per annum; it is a
simple thing to calculate how long it will require for money, increasing
at the rate of 6, 8, 10, and even 15 and 20 per cent. per annum, to
consume the wealth.