Another item of similar earnings, we have seen on pp. [125], [126], consists of the annual interest charge, equal to $539,352,898, from the results of labor of the mortgagor |PROFITS OF MORTGAGEE MONOPOLIES.| families, who are compelled to lose this amount of their substance yearly in consequence of the abnormal distribution of wealth in general. And, as there is no reason to suppose that mortgages were not increasing in their numbers, and the mortgagor families were not losing their properties by foreclosure, so there is no reason whatever to suppose that the above annual interest charge against mortgages, on the whole, had diminished up to 1897. Hence, we consider that the above annual interest charge continued to be paid at least as it was paid in 1890. For, in order to diminish it or to stop its ruinous effects, some important reform must be accomplished, which, however, has not been done.
The annual interest charge of $539,352,898, against the private family-mortgages, in seven years amounts to $3,775,470,286 worth of wealth or of the products of the mortgagor families, lost during the period in favor of group 4 of the 2d table (p. [45] or [47]). This amount is in addition to “the net earnings of $3,945,825,331, which accrued to the same group of families in the table.
Further, we have seen in the lower table, p. [116], that there were 4,999,396 families that hire their homes, because being homeless. |MONOPOLIZERS OF RENTABLE HOMES.| And this number of the homeless must be augmented by 246,938 families, found in the group of the “tenants of farms and homes,” which are represented by the author of the same 2d table to be so many more than the lower and upper tables, p. [116], contain of the tenant families. We have therefore to deal with 5,246,334 families that hire their homes[[122]] mainly in the 448 cities and towns we have spoken about on pp. [81], [114]-[15], [132]. For it is they that find shelter in the rentable houses of these cities, towns, etc., by paying rents. And our problem is to find the amount of rent they paid to the owners of these houses.
An example of average monthly rentals may here be presented for Boston, as follows:
| Monthly rentals under $5 | average | $4 |
| From $5 to $10 | average | 8 |
| From $10 to $15 | average | 12½ |
| From $15 to $20 | average | 16⅔ |
| From $20 to $25 | average | 22[[123]] |
These averages may be too small for many cities and too large for the whole United States. But if we take the general average for all |PER FAMILY HOUSE RENT.| families at $9.50 a month, it will probably be little below,[[124]] but cannot be above the true one. In fact, if every family of 4.93 members paid an average of $9.50 of monthly rent, it would indicate only the net income in favor of the owners of the rentable houses, and absolute losses on the side of the homeless.
Now then, by paying $9.50 a month each, the 5,246,334 homeless families paid $598,082,076 rent in one year. And by paying the same amount seven years, without regarding the increase of families, they paid $4,186,574,532 worth of their energy, as an unavoidable tribute to those that speculate in their comfortable beds, while performing every action by the hired labor of agents and building new houses by hired laborers.
Furthermore, we have seen in the upper table, p. [116], that there were other 1,624,765 families that hire their farms, because being landless.
If we regard the average tenements of these families at 136 acres of land per family,[[125]] we shall |MONOPOLIES OF RENTABLE LANDS.| find that the 1,624,765 tenant families held about 220,968,040 acres of land every year. Although this general average for all farmers in the United States may be a little too small for the tenant families, because their acreage increases much more rapidly than that of the families owning their farms, as we shall soon see, yet we shall consider this average as it is given.
As to the average rent per acre of the farming land for the United States, the general average was $2.81 for wheat and $3.03 for corn raising lands.[[126]]