38 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Feb. 



Bmming into Debt, and pajing Interest on Money. 



Our brief remarks on this important subject, 

 under the head "Laconics" have been greatly 

 misunderstood, and called forth the communica- 

 tions given below. We do not regard the pay- 

 ing or receiving of interest, whether the sum be 

 one or two per cent, as morally wrong, when 

 considered as a separate and independent ques- 

 tion. That is not the point at which our remarks 

 were aimed. Interest is only one link, but a 

 shining one, in a chain of causes and effects, 

 which operate to enrich the few at the expense 

 of the many, in all civilized communities. We 

 hold this truth to be self-evident, that Society 

 can not give one tenth of its members in annual 

 yents or interest for their consumption and ac- 

 cumulation, a sum equal to one half of the pro- 

 ducts of the labor of the other nine tenths, and 

 jK)t compel the latter to live on half allowances. 



If our esteemed friends McVean, and "La- 

 borer" can contrive any way by which they 

 will make a John Jacob Astor in every town, 

 taking from human muscle and intellect half a 

 jmillion a year, and leave nobody the poorer by 

 the operation, then we will acknowledge our er- 

 jTor, and admit that the "evil one" has nothing to 

 do with any " contrivance" by which a person 

 itwgins with nothing, produces nothing, and yet 

 a'liquires a million of dollars. We beg them 

 however, to bear in mind this important, this 

 alarming fact : In all civilized nations, paupers, 

 and especially those living from hand to mouth, 

 just above pauperism, increase faster than popu- 

 lation increases. Why 1 Because it takes all 

 the surplus earnings of many families, over and 

 above their necessary consumption, to make one 

 family rich, and support them in the style they 

 live in, without producing any thing. If our 

 friend McVean will permit us to speak the truth 

 pleiinly, we desire to say to him that we regard 

 the "principles of political economy" which he 

 supposes to be " so well settled," as very defec- 

 tive, inasmuch as they operate practically to 

 feed and clothe the few in idleness and extrava- 

 gance by the sweat of other men's faces instead 

 of their own. We have studied the economical 

 writings of Adam Smith, Say, Malthus, McCul- 

 loch, and other authorities with gi'eat care. But 

 we regard the Bible as better than all of them, 

 and feel constrained to judge their principles by 

 their fruits. And what have been the fruits of 

 the principles of the Political Economists of Eu- 

 rope for the last .50 years ? In Great Britain they 

 have made a few families exceedingly rich, and 

 four millions of public paupers ! In the city of 

 Paris there are 135,000 public paupers this day. 

 All now admit, had it not been for the restrain- 

 ing influence of the laws of entail and primo- 

 geniture, the landed estates of the Kingdom of 

 Great Britain would have fallen into fewer hands 

 than tkey now are, owing to the gambling, spec- 



ulating oi>erations of trade and comnnr^e, and 

 the almost universal love of games of chance. — 

 In this country, there are no checks whatever on 

 the centralization of property. Had we room, 

 it would be easy to demonstrate that such is our 

 morbid passion for the speedy acquisition of 

 wealth by trade in lands, or speculations of some 

 kind, that fortunes are acquired and lost at some- 

 body's expense, both easier and faster in this 

 country than in England. Will "Laborer" 

 contend that he can take a part of what A. has 

 and give it to B. and still have A. plus as well 

 asB? 



Kind friends do not deceive yourselves in this 

 great and weighty matter, and seek to muzzle a 

 free press. Is it a fault in us that we have some 

 slight appreciation of the evil consequences one 

 day to result from our present habits, customs 

 and ligislation, which operate continually ta 

 make the rich richer, and the poor poorer, and 

 more numerous as well as more dependent ? — 

 Rely upon it, this is a bad system, an unnatural 

 system, which cannot always last. Why then 

 are you unwilling that we shall show up the su- 

 preme folly of running into debt, and undertak- 

 ing to pay annual interest on " dead matter, 

 which can not add one particle to its own weight, 

 nor one cent to its own value"? 



In a late number of this journal, " Laborer" 

 said : " If you would be rich, you must produce 

 more than you consume." This we contend is 

 not enough, although it is good so far as it goes. 

 You must learn to keep your surplus, over and 

 above consumption as well as to produce more 

 than you consume, or you may work hard, fare 

 hard, live poor and die poor, to enrich others. — 

 This is really all the difference there is between 

 us : We would have others not only labor as he 

 labors, but keep as he keeps, what he earns. 



In our "Laconics" we say: "The elevatiwo. 

 of fallen man in morals, in knowledge, and in 

 physical comfort, is the work of 7Vme. Agrari- 

 anism, and all ideas of a division of property 

 are at best mere quack remedies, calculated ta 

 do infinite harm rather than good." We never 

 had a particle of confidence in Fourier's excess- 

 ively artificial system for reorganizing Society. 

 In His own time, a good Providence will work 

 out the highest happiness of our race on this plan- 

 et. This is our faith; and we labor only for 

 the obvious, attainable good, within our reach. — 

 The best are less than half-civilized, half-moral- 

 ized, half-christianized. We expect persecution 

 because we dare to say that man has still some 

 things to do, as well as some not to do, before 

 every one shall have his own, keep and enjoy his 

 own — no more, no less. The excellent farmei-s, 

 however, whose communications we now insert 

 are too liberal minded to censure any one for 

 mere opinions, no matter how mistaken, if hon- 

 estly entertained. We adopt the maxim of Solo- 

 mon: " The rich ruleth over the poor, and the 



