“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 [SN: 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 [SN: 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. But do not flatter yourself by thinking that this is only the fate of Michigan. No, the people’s economic conditions are more or less similar in all the States and Territories, and some States are much worse off than Michigan, as the statistics show their situation. Mr. D. R. Goodloe, in the “Forum” for November, 1890 (not knowing yet the facts of the East), says: “The conclusion from this melancholy array of facts is irresistible. The virgin soil of the West is rapidly ceasing to be the home and [SN: A CURSE OF HUMANITY.] the possession of the sturdy American freeman. He is but a tenant at will, or a dependent upon the tender mercies of soulless corporations and of absentee landlords. We have abolished monarchy, and primogeniture, and church establishments supported by the State, yet the universal curse of humanity, the monopoly of the earth by the wealthy few, remains.” * * *