“While mortgage debtors must admit that they have done better to obtain real estate on credit [SN: PINCHING EFFECTS.] than not to obtain as much of it as they have done, or not to obtain it at all, they are nevertheless in a situation where they feel the pinching effects of a reduction or loss of income more than real-estate owners do who are not debtors. This is owing to the interest that is wanted by the mortgagee.” 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 [SN: 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 [SN: 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 [SN: 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. * * *