Better days; or, A Millionaire of To-morrow

by Thomas Fitch; Anna M. Fitch

“Inflation,” replied the gentleman, “whether of metallic or paper currency that is accepted by the world or by a great commercial nation as a legal tender, can do no harm except to those who loan money. A dollar is a mere term. You pay now five dimes, or fifty cents, or five hundred mills, for your dinner. Suppose by large continued increase in the production of gold and silver, the money of all countries shall be inflated so that you must pay fifty dollars instead of fifty cents, or five hundred dimes in place of five hundred mills, for your dinner. What of it? You could carry as much paper money as now. It would need only to increase the denomination of the bills. All property and services would advance proportionately. Only the loaners of money would be left, and they would soon find it to their interest to put their money into property, which would necessarily advance in value, rather than in loans, which would, in their relation to property, necessarily decrease in value. Under such conditions interest would not compensate the money owner for the depreciation of his principal, and the loaning of money, except for brief periods, would cease, while property of all kinds would always be saleable for cash, because always sure to increase in value, while idle money would not so increase.”

“What will be the effect of your project on the other railroads, Mr. Morning?”

“My hope and expectation is that the successful working of my project will induce large aggregations of capital to acquire and conduct all the railroads in the country under one management, which should itself be under the direction and control of the Federal Government. Four thousand millions of dollars would purchase and free from bonded indebtedness all the interstate railroad and telegraph lines in the United States, and $1,000,000,000 more would improve such property to the highest point of efficiency. A company with a capital of $5,000,000,000, having no bonded debt and economically and honestly managed, could pay dividends of five per cent per annum on its stock, which stock might be increased in amount as other values increased. Present railroad bondholders would be transformed into railroad stockholders, and the stock of the United States Consolidated Railroad Company, guaranteed by the United States Government to pay five per cent per annum, and so conducted as to earn that dividend, above cost of repairs and construction of new lines, would be a favorite investment. Such stock might be made the basis of currency issued thereon to national banks. It could be held by benevolent and educational institutions, and trust funds could be invested in it. It would take the place of the present United States bonds as a lazy fund, and it would not be a lazy fund, for it would be an investment in earning property. It would substitute the earned increment of labor for the unearned increment of interest. Interest on money at best belongs to conditions which are passing away. It is an attribute of a former civilization, and I predict that during the next century it will come to an end altogether.”

“How would the United States Consolidated Railroad Company affect railway patrons and railroad employes?”

“By adjusting freight and passenger charges, and wages of employes, so as to produce an income of five per cent on the investment, and by discontinuing non-paying lines, building new ones, and developing profitable connections—in brief, by running all the railroads in the land as one company under one management, in such manner as to produce from earnings a net income of five per cent, on a capitalization of all existing stocks and bonds at their market value to-day—the prices of freight and passage would be reduced, and the wages of railroad workers increased.”

“I think,” continued the Arizona Gold King, “that the entire system should be under government supervision, or even under government direction, and, depend upon it, nobody would be harmed, except about forty thousand people, who now own sixty per cent of all the real property in America, and even the damage to them would be slight, for they could purchase stock in the Consolidated Company, and learn to be satisfied with five per cent and no stealings.”

“You spoke of a provision being made in your company for the future of railroad employes. How would that be done?”

“In the company which I propose each employe will be required to agree that not less than fifteen per cent of his wages shall be withheld from him and annually invested in the stock of the company, which stock shall be non-transferable. It will be delivered with its dividends, likewise invested, at his death to whomsoever he may designate, or, if he live to the age of sixty, it will be paid to him.”

“Do you think that the worker needs this sort of compulsory guardianship, Mr. Morning?”

“I certainly do. For one of them who lays up for a rainy day, nine are possessed by the very genius of unthrift. I have known miners to work for months, and mining is the hardest work in the world, and then draw their wages and expend hundreds of dollars in one spree. Where the worker uses liquor—as most of them do—he lives from hand to mouth, and even among the temperate, it will be the rare exception to find one who has enough savings to support his family for six months.”