While a still better view is given by Rev. Wm. Bliss, editor of the Encyclopedia of Social Reform.[[110]] He says:

“The mortgage indicates a hope of progress, but also a slavery to interest under which many sink.”

It is exactly the point of reality, for many propertied families borrow money with the hope of getting economically better off, but the |DECEITFUL HOPES OF VERY MANY.| hopes mostly deceive them, and they find themselves in the trap of slavery on account of paying too high rate of interest for the loans they obtain. And it is this slavery to interest that makes them absolutely propertyless, slaves to dividogenesure.

And it follows that the claim of Mr. Atkinson, that mortgages are profitable to both the mortgagor and the mortgagee is only true in the cases of paying the rates of interest not exceeding 3 per cent per annum, which, however, does not exist in America. And if this rate had been in existence, then, an effective application of all possible agencies of production could make the mortgages profitable to the mortgagors and the mortgagees. While under the present conditions they are only ruinous to the former and most profitable to the latter.

But let us see the other view on mortgages which must be understood too.

“The view that America is becoming a nation |SEMI-PESSIMISTIC VIEWS.| of tenants is well known,” says Mr. J. P. Dunn, Jr., writing in the Political Science Quarterly for March, 1890, after describing the situation as regards the Western States.[[111]]

“BURDEN OF DEBT.”

“The mortgage indebtedness of the Western States is a matter worthy the attention of economists |MOUNTAINOUS AND IMMOVABLE.| and statesmen, as well as of the people of those States. Whatever may be thought of its effects, it is a fact—mountainous and immovable. And more, the probabilities that loom far above the figures here presented make it very questionable whether the alarmists who have discussed the subject have in fact materially exaggerated the existing conditions. * * *

“If the people of the Western States may be considered thrifty and judicious, the people of Michigan may, and by the official records their condition appears to be as bad as that of their neighbors in Indiana. In 1887 an attempt was made by the bureau of statistics to ascertain the mortgage debt of the State through personal declarations of the owners of land. * * * The returns show (report of 1888) that the real estate mortgages of the State amount to $129,229,553, with an annual interest payment of $9,451,851 on |AN EXAMPLE OF FORECLOSURES.| a total realty valuation of $686,614,741. Of this amount $64,392,580 is on farms, and the annual interest charge is $4,636,265,” which the farms pay out of their produce. “The number of foreclosures made during the year was 1,667, and in only 131 cases were redemptions made, leaving a net loss of 1,536 pieces of property by foreclosure in one year. The situation apparently justifies the statement of Commissioner Heath that a very large per cent of the people seem to be in a financial rut, and are unable to extricate themselves.”

Here you are. Mr. Dunn’s view is not an argument based upon an inference from a guess, but on immovable facts of evidence which testify that the State of Michigan |LOSSES IN ADDITION TO LOSSES.| alone assists the prosperity of the few wealthy families by the yearly contributions of $9,451,851 worth of wealth produced by the labor energy of its debtors. And that in addition to this contribution, the same debtors make a net loss of 1,536 pieces of property by foreclosure in one year. That’s how this civilized nation regulates the system of money-lending for helping the people to live. And that’s how the civilized slavery is instituted. It is by becoming mortgagors that the families pass from a bad degree of slavery to a worse, until they lose all property, and become totally helpless slaves of dividogenesure.