— 17 — 



also, the item of failures as legitimately connected with this phe- 

 phenomena ? 



Let us imagine a great balance sheet : — 



ON THE DEBIT SIDE WE WOULD 

 FIND : 



Idle Capital, 



Low Rates of Interest, 



No Interest, 



Partial Loss of Capital, 



Total Loss of Capital, 



Failures. 



ON THE CREDIT SIDE WE WOULD 

 FIND : 



High Rates of Interest, 

 Rapid Accumulation, 

 Immense Fortunes. 



In other words, if there were no failures, there could be no rapid 

 accumulation such as we see. For all capital that increased at the 

 rate of 5 per cent, there would have to be an equal amount that did 

 not increase at all; for all capital that increased at the rate of 10 per 

 cent there would have to be three times that amount that did not 

 increase at all ; for all capital that increased at the rate of 20 per cent 

 there would have to be seven times that amount that did not increase 

 at all; for all capital that increased at the rate of 50 per cent thera 

 would have to be 19 times as much that did not increase, and so on 

 in that proportion, otherwise the average would exceed 2 1-2 per 

 cent, which is noAhe case. Think then of the failures that must 

 occur when you Contemplate the vast accumulations of the Vander- 

 bilts, the Goulds, the MacKays and all the other millionaires you 

 have created within the last twenty years. 



If such desolation — such annihilation of human effort, and 

 slaughter of human hopes, is the result, is it not a matter of self- 

 interest to all concerned to put an end to such barbarism ? — invent a 

 system that has common sense as well as justice, or cease to associate 

 our generation with these terms — blot them out from the vocabulary, 

 and substitute in their place hypocrisy and fraud. 



Is further argument necessary ? Need we go any deeper into the 

 subject to show that a rate of interest, even equal to the average rate 

 of increase of wealth, is incompatible with a just distribution of the 

 same ? For \vj||k such a rate of interest money-lenders and capitalists, 

 will absorb allThe increase, and lahor, the only creator of wealth, 

 cannot participate in the enjoyment of its own offspring. 



Therefore, as the specie-basis system of banking, if readopted in 



