e is true of his clothes; a first tribute must be paid to
property by the raw cotton or wool, then the transportation and the
factory and the merchant, in addition to the compensation for their
services, must meet also the interest upon their loans, and the whole
is summed up in the price the poor man must pay. He has no option in
the matter; he has no alternative, no method by which he can escape.
The same is true with regard to his fuel and his light.

The same is true with regard to car fares. In every ride he pays an
enormous tribute to invested wealth. The writer made a careful
estimate of the accounts of a car line in a small city where the
number of riders bore small comparison with the crowded cars of any
metropolis. When the cost of maintenance of the plant, including the
wear and tear and all repairs, and the cost of operation, covering all
current expenses, including taxes, were compared with the receipts
from the patrons of the road, it was found that less than two cents
per passenger was necessary to pay these charges and that three cents
had gone to pay the interest on the enormous bonded indebtedness and
dividends on the inflated stock.

The wage-earner, the pensioner and every person living upon an annuity
or fixed income from any source, must thus pay usury or interest on
obligations they never incurred. A large portion of their living is
thus taken from them, and under a system of general usury they have no
way of avoiding it. They must pay an enormous tribute to property in
providing the common necessaries of life.

Usury lowers the poor man's wages. The owners of property forbid its
use until such a concession is made by the laborer as they may demand
for the material and tools of production. Those who will use them and
give the owner the highest return for their use secure the work,
_i.e._, those who will bid the labor the lowest, who will use the
tools and work up the material the cheapest.

The demand of capital has come to absorb a large portion of the
produce of labor. In 1890 the wage-earners created a value of
$3,579,168,172 and received out of it wages amounting to
$1,981,228,321, leaving in the hands of the employers $1,687,939,851.
Labor thus received a little less than 53 per cent. of its product. In
1900 the wage-earners created a value of $4,640,784,931 and received
out of it wages amounting to $2,323,407,257, leaving in the hands of
employers $2,317,377,674. The employers and employ