ntury ago in attempting to
murder liberty on the Continents of Europe and America. Our war debt is
the most stupendous monument of human crime and folly in existence; and
worst of all, the 'butcher's bill' has already been paid by the unhappy
toilers thrice over in usury."[444] "The entire national liability has
been discharged to the moneylenders by the people once during the last
thirty-seven years. We repay public debts once every thirty-seven years
without wiping out a penny of the said debts. We pay away in blank
usury _20,000,000l._ per year on this one head, or enough to provide
old-age pensions for three-fourths of our aged poor in the United
Kingdom on the basis of _7s. 6d._ per head per week."[445] "236,514
blackmailers suck the udder of industry through the convenient teat of
what, with audacious cynicism, is called the 'National Debt.'"[446]

The largest part of the National Debt was not created by "murdering
liberty" but by fighting the armies of the French Revolution and of
Napoleon I. Besides, the defence against the French Revolution and
Napoleon was not a "crime," but a necessary duty. Furthermore, the
holders of the National Debt are not "blackmailers" but industrious,
useful, and thrifty citizens, or the children and descendants of
industrious, useful, and thrifty citizens.

About one-half of the National Debt is held by thrifty wage-earners,
as all the money deposited in the savings banks, and most of the
savings deposited with friendly societies, &c., is invested in
Consols, and as a very large part of the assets of the industrial and
other insurance societies consists of Government Stocks. Property
being theft, and thrift being akin to it, the thrifty workman whose
savings are invested in Consols has apparently no right to complain of
being robbed of his savings by the Socialists.

Some Socialist agitators have the audacity to tell the thrifty worker
that he will not suffer, but benefit, by the confiscation of his
savings. "Opponents try to scare this man against Socialism by the
fear of losing his interest. Granting for a moment he would do so,
would he not gain by the general abolition of interest, &c., which
would double his wage in common with that of all workers?"[447]--The
worker is to be indemnified for his positive and certain loss in
property through the confiscation of his savings, or at the least of
the interest paid on them, by a problematical rise in general wages
which would benefi