350 HISTORY OF THE GRANGE MOVEMENT; OR, 



out of debt than we have ever been in the history of 

 this country, since the high prices of the war enabled us 

 to pay off more mortgages and personal debts than 

 during any previous period of our existence. The 

 personal debt of the United States was $1,900,000,000. 

 Three-quarters of that, or about $1,500,000,000 was 

 borne by the agriculturists of the United States. When 

 you consider that this latter sum has to be carried at 

 an average rate of ten per cent, per annum, is it any 

 wonder that we are poor? Couple with this another 

 fact, that the annual increase of the wealth of the 

 United States for any decade during the very best 

 period of our existence has never exceeded three and a- 

 half per cent., that is, the agriculturists are actually 

 carrying $1,500,000,000 at ten per cent., while the 

 products of industry nowhere, taking it all through, 

 have exceeded three and a-half per cent. Is it then any 

 wonder you are poor, and that with each year the 

 whole agricultural population of the United States is 

 growing poorer and poorer, while those who handle the 

 products of our labor are growing richer and richer ? 



"Take Commodore Vanderbilt, for example, and 

 suppose that twenty years ago he was worth $5,000,000, 

 and that to-day he is worth $65,000/)00, how has he 

 accumulated $60,000,000 in twenty years? Mark it, 

 he never earned a dollar in his life, and yet he has 

 gotten into his hands $60,000,000 in twenty years. I 

 might stop right here and not say another word on the 

 subject, for here is sufficient proof that there is some- 

 thing wrong in this business, owing to which this man 

 has accumulated so much. How did he do it ? Has 

 he rendered an equivalent in the service he has per- 

 formed for us in transporting our productions to market, 



