Civilization and Decay 365 



knows that nowadays laws are passed much more 

 often with a view to benefiting the debtors than the 

 creditors; always excepting that very large portion 

 of the creditor class which includes the wage-earners. 

 " Producers' ' whoever they may be are not the 

 subjects of "hoarded wealth," nor of any one nor 

 anything else. Capital is not absolute; arid it is 

 idle to compare the position of the capitalist nowa- 

 days with his position when his workmen were 

 slaves and the law-makers were his creatures. The 

 money-lender, by whom I suppose Mr. Adams means 

 the banker, is not an aristocrat as compared to other 

 capitalists, at any rate in the United States. The 

 merchant, the manufacturer, the railroad man, stand 

 just as the banker does ; and bankers vary among 

 themselves just as any other business men do. They 

 do not form a "class" at all ; any one who wishes to 

 can go into the business ; men fail and succeed in it 

 just as in other businesses. As for the debtors being 

 powerless, if Mr. Adams knows any persons who 

 have lent money in Kansas or similar States they 

 will speedily enlighten him on this subject, and will 

 give him an exact idea of the extent to which the 

 debtor is the servant of the creditor. In those States 

 the creditor and especially the Eastern money- 

 lender or "gold-bug" is the man who has lost all 

 his money. Mr. Adams can readily find this out by 

 the simple endeavor to persuade some "money- 

 lender," or other "Wall Street shark" to go into the 

 business of lending money on Far- Western farm 

 property. The money-lender in the most civilized 



