The amount of capital
depends on the wealth of the community. As society advances, wealth
increases; from savagism to civilization, from early civilization to
the present time. This wealth, this capital comes from the reserved
products of labor; "dried labor," it has been called, for labor is its
only source of production. This wealth belongs to the community that
has earned it, saved it and inherited it. It is the grand moving power
of society as it now stands, and without it we would return to the
savage state. Society can never be too wealthy, any more than it can be
too powerful, and the one is the synonym, to a great extent, of the
other.
But capital with interest, as the agent and assistant of competition,
is destructive. Capital joined with labor builds manufactories,
railroads, towns, and is the great moving power of civilization; but in
the growth of civilization vast amounts of it have accumulated, and
being unevenly distributed, there are those who are constantly seeking
its use to help them to business and to elevation, and have been ready
to pay a royalty, which we call interest, for the use of it. This has
made capital a commodity.
The progress of arts and inventions has been, in modern days, in such
increased ratio to the increase of capital that it has created so great
a demand that a monopoly has been made of it; more is paid for the use
of it than its real worth, so that wealth, even in this democratic
country, is piling up in colossal fortunes by being drawn from the
great body of society.
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