[144] New York, 1907.
[145] "Principles of Economics," II, 42.
[146] Cf. Hobson, "The Economics of Distribution," pp. 259-265.
[147] Cf. Fisher, "Elementary Principles of Economics," pp. 396, 397. However, he does not discuss in this passage the possibility of suppressing interest on productive capital by a direct method.
[148] Cf. Lehmkuhl, "Theologia Moralis," I, nos. 917, 965, 1035.
[149] Vol. 3, pp. 617-629; 2d ed.
[150] Ballerini-Palmieri, loc. cit.; cf. Van Roey, op. cit., pp. 73-75.
[151] Cf. American Economic Review, March, 1916; p. 46.
[152] "Contra Gentiles," lib. 3, c. 123.
[153] Professor Scott Nearing estimates the annual income derived from the ownership of property in the United States; that is, land and all forms of capital, at from six to nine billion dollars. Professor W. I. King gives the combined shares of the national income received by the landowners and the capitalists at more than six and three-quarter billions in 1910. According to the Census Bulletin on the "Estimated Valuation of National Wealth," the capital goods of the country were in 1912 approximately $175,000,000,000.00. At four per cent. this would mean an annual income of seven billion dollars. The lowest of the three estimates, six billion dollars, is equivalent to more than sixty dollars a year for every man, woman, and child in the United States. If that sum were equally distributed among the whole population, it would mean an increase of between forty and sixty per cent. in the income of the majority of workingmen's families! Nor do present tendencies hold out any hope of an automatic reduction of the interest-burden in the future. In the opinion of Professor Scott Nearing, "the present economic tendencies will greatly increase the amount of property income paid with each passing decade." "Income," p. 199; New York, 1915. See especially ch. vii. According to Professor Taussig, "the absolute amount of income going to this [the capitalist] class tends to increase, and its share of the total income tends also to increase; whereas for the labourers, though their total income may increase, their share of income of society as a whole tends to decline." "Principles of Economics," II, 205.