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The combined capital of the Rothschilds, mostly accumulated in the present century, is estimated at $3,400,000,000, or nearly equal to the funded debt of England. Law allows this thrifty family to invest its immense wealth at high usury, in its bargains and loans; but at only six per cent. per annum they double it in less than twelve years! What is to become of producers all over the world, if the accumulation of interest are not in some way legally legally lessened? Living men, by labor, by production, furnish the traffic for railroad dividends, for mortgage interest, for rents, and all the sources of revenue of capitalists, which is so rapidly compounded.

From the wisdom of a large experience in compounding money, Lord Bacon says: "Usury bringeth the treasure of a nation into a few hands; for the usurer being at certainties, and the other at uncertainties, at the end of the game most of the money will be in the box." "It beats down the price of land. It dulls and damps industries and new inventions. It is the canker and ruin of estates, which in time breed a public poverty."

Low Interest a Necessity.

The march of civilization demands that capital shall be afforded at a low cost to labor, so as to quicken industry in its largest production from the exhaustless bounty of the earth, for increasing civilization is dependent upon the activity of industry.

He who now invests, and reinvest, a moderate sum at 6 per cent. per anum interest, during the period of an ordinary life, generally aggregates larger and surer gains than the man who add his own industry to a like sum for a similar period, in the chances of business. This is too sadly the fruit of a general bitter experience to need proof. The deduction is that interest rules too high. Low interest quotations are now a farce to every ninety-nine thousand borrowers. A favored few rich pocket its advantages, to lend at higher to workers. It is discouraging to labor, that loans, in the large average, realize better profit than the combined force of brain, hand, and capital. It is an encouragement to prey on labor, instead of practicing it, and counts against production and civilization. High interest and usury lessen production, and absorb the bread of industry.

Low interest fosters and widens industries. With their growth they are more and more interchanged. Active markets are created in new directions. The simple requirements of the rustic cabin change to aspirations for the refinements of civilization,