It is here where the
banks are of service - the man with money takes it to a place - the bank
- where the man who wishes to hire it knows where to look for it. Good
sense will not deny a market to a man with potatoes; neither will it
deny him a market for any other product of his labor, be it capital or
what not. Interest is wrong only when it is being drawn by a
millionaire, who, of course, did not earn the principal. Those millions
is where the danger lies, when found with an individual owner, whether
they are in bank vaults or on the shelves of the millionaire merchant.
Besides, it is a slow process, this breaking up the millionaire owner of
some thing by stopping his interest. This earth should be ours while we
are alive to enjoy it, and there is no hope of getting it by applying
the graduated tax idea to either land or capital. When a curse like
poverty can be removed the quicker it is done the better.
Interest is wrong (we are not justifying extortion) when it is drawn by
the millionaire, not only because his labor did not earn the principal,
but because he has the power to take it out of the country where it was
earned. And he does take it out thereby impoverishing the country of the
capital that is needed to carry on developments that should never be
allowed to stop.
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