THE THEORY OF INTEREST

get near the bottom, are likely to remain there. Then-high rates of impatience manifested through generationshave brought many if not most of them to poverty. Alabor leader once said to me that few labor men haveany acquisitive instinct. They are a self-selected groupof those impatient by nature or habit or both. They tendto spend rather than to save. The great need and opportu-nity for education in thrift is manifest.

This is not the place to answer the many questionswhich arise in such an inquiry, such as, what is the effectof change in the rate of interest in stimulating or dis-couraging the accumulation or dissipation of capital? 11What is the effect on the poor of the luxurious habits ofthe rich? Nor are we concerned with the other factorswhich influence the distribution of wealth but which donot involve the rate of interest. We are at present contentmerely to prepare the way for their answer by indicatingthe nature of the problem and the relation of the theoryof interest to it.

“ See Gonner, Interest and Savings.

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