238 
Annual Report of the 
or other property, that it should draw to itself the whole of the 
joint earnings of labor and capital, except a hare subsistence to the 
former, and that the possessors of the latter should be enabled to 
u dress in purple and fine linen and fare sumptuously every day,” 
enjoying the fruits of the labor of the past and present too? By 
no manner of means. While it is true that capital—the labor of 
others—accumulated in the hands of the few, has absorbed an un¬ 
just proportion of the profits of the varied industries of a people in 
all ages and in all countries, it has not been by any natural or di¬ 
vine right, but by unwise, unjust and wicked laws, instituted by 
governments at the will of capital. The true value of rnonej 7 , 
which is the annual interest it accumulates, and the relations which 
it bears to the legitimate industries and work of the world, is not 
a matter of such profound nr^stery as many of the writers on po¬ 
litical economy would have us believe. These writers are teaching 
% 
our children in all our higher seminaries of learning, that money 
is a commodity and subject to change as the products of the farm 
or factory; that money should be regulated by “supply and de¬ 
mand;” that the party holding money should be allowed to obtain 
for its use, all he can. No greater fallacy could exist. Money, 
being the measure of value for all products, should have a fixed 
standard of value, and that can only be determined by the rate of 
interest, and if that rate is too high, more than the average of the 
profits of the productive industries of the people, labor suffers, and 
capital increases its gains unjustly. This is the practical result, 
whatever ma} 7 be the theory. 
Governor Randall, in his annual message to the legislature of 
this state, in 1859, truthfully says: “Interest is the rust that is rap¬ 
idly consuming our people. It not only eats away at our surplus 
profits, but in a majority of cases is eating deep into our capital. 
It is unaffected by poor crops and worse markets. It gathers 
strength, weight, and oppressive power continually, whether we sleep 
or wake, while we rest as well as while we labor. There must come 
a bitter end to such a policy. There is but one rule at all times 
safe, which alone can guard against ultimate prostration, and that 
is to limit the rate of interest at a point below the average, clear 
profit of productive industry.” High rates of interest have been 
the rule in this state under the pretence that it invited capital 
hither. Capital came, improvements were made, and now note the 
