Page:Coin's Financial School.djvu/137

COIN'S FINANCIAL SCHOOL. 119 money at a like cut in values, but he cannot get the same favor shown him on his debts.

"The property of the money lender — notes, bonds and mortgages — does not shrink. The mortgage will eat the property owner up.

"'Ah!' you may say, 'everybody is not in debt; one-half of the people may be, but let them liquidate and start over, then times will be good.'

"But everybody, except the money lender, is in debt. Your city is in debt twenty million, and you owe your part of it. Your county is in debt. Your state is in debt. Your general government is in debt.

"You are paying your part of the interest on all that; and your taxes in this city at the rate of 8 per cent on the assessed valuation is evidence that you are all in debt.

"Those who are personally in debt will only become bankrupt the sooner.

"The total debts in the United States, national, municipal, state, county, corporate and private, is now estimated to be about 40,000 million of dollars.

"The railroad bonded debt is 5,000 million, or about one-eighth of the whole amount.

"The interest on 40,000 million, at an average rate of 6 per cent per annum, is 2,400 million. Now, when you consider that the total money supply of the country is only about 1,600 million, and that interest money is going principally to the East, you can see what a great sponge this debt is, to come West twice a year and soak up your money and take it away.

"When your neighbor has sent all of his money off he has none left to spend with you.

"There are two ways ordinarily of getting this money back that goes East. One is to sell something to