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and an increased impulse to industry is the premium paid for the attainment.
Thus the dormant faculties are exercised; activity take the place of sluggishness;
consumption is increased, and production is enlarged. They stimulate each
other, furnishing nourishment for growth, as food vitalizes the blood
and renews the life.
Industry Accumulates on Three per cent. per Annum!
After supporting life, statistics show that, usually, three per cent.
is the highest annual increase of material wealth, and whatever interest
capital receives above this sum tends to concentrate it to the prejudice
of industry. Every one per cent. unjustly taken from labor, to add to
capital, doubles the difference between them; that is, on per cent. goes
to strengthen capital, and on per cent. to weaken production.
The enormous increase of money, by additional percentage, is rarely appreciated.
One thousand dollars compounded for three hundred and sixty years, at
one per cent., is $37,574, while at six per cent. it is 1,073,741,824!
It is of historical record, that two hundred and fifty years ago, the
Dutch bought Manhattan Island of the Indians for $24. Had this small sum
been compounded at seven per cent. per annum, it would now aggregate more
than the value of the city and county of New York. The whole wealth of
the nation would be absorbed by the compounded accumulation of $100,000
at seven per cent. for three hundred and sixty years.
What patent of nobility does capital rightfully possess, that it should
be allowed to concentrate its gains more rapidly than labor? Without labor,
can it build, sow, reap, mine, or take any part in the world's work? It
is dead and valueless without labor; while labor, performing all these
offices, and vitalizing capital itself, is naturally its peer. Why then
should lifeless capital, in few hands, hold millions in bondage!
Labor must be Better Paid.
In order both to sell and to purchase with increased activity, human labor
must be better paid. It is the only way to create large and stable markets.
While human labor is better paid, automatic machine labor will cost less
and less, as it is perfected by discovery and invention.
A hundred horse-power engine, under the direction of five or six men,
with automatic machinery, may accomplish in one day the hand labor of
five or six thousand; and although the cost of