The Wealth of the Nation Cornered by a Handful of Men — The Consequent Impoverishing of Others — What Does It All Mean?
By Walter A. Nelson
NEVER before was there such hoarding of wealth as now. The millionaire is no longer considered a wonder; there are many multimillionaires in the United States; and it is estimated that one man's fortune totals a billion. In 1845 there were only nineteen millionaires in this country; in 1892 there were 4,047; and to-day the number reaches 6,000.
Last year's returns of the income tax show that forty-four persons in the United States receive each an annual income of one million dollars or over. The Washington Herald of November 15, 1914, gave a list of one hundred who probably receive this amount each year. In 1845 only one person received this enormous income.
COUNTRY'S WEALTH CONTROLLED BY FEW
While the number of rich men has greatly increased since 1845, yet to-day the wealth of the country is pouring into the coffers of the comparatively few. It has been estimated that “one per cent of our population owns practically ninety-nine per cent of the entire wealth of the nation.” A United States senator has said, “This concentration of wealth is the most terrible commentary that was ever recorded in the book of time.”
The aggregate wealth of the eight richest men in America totals the sum of $2,800,000,000. John D. Rockefeller, with an estimated fortune of $1,000,000,000, heads this list. If Adam had lived till the present time, and had banked $450 every day of his life, the amount to his credit would still fall $15,000,000 short of this colossal fortune. It has been figured out that if John D. Rockefeller possessed his fortune in silver dollars, “they would make a pile, stacked as coins are ordinarily stacked, 248 miles high. Set edge to edge, these dollars would form a glittering ribbon stretching from New York to Salt Lake City.” Astounding figures, but true!
The financial condition is further seen by the revelations made by the Pujo Investigating Committee in 1912. The Washington Times, reporting the results of the committee's search, said: “Domination of $25,325,000,000 of the nation's wealth by eighteen leading financial firms was the stupendous evidence purporting to show actual, real existence of a money trust before the Pujo Investigating Committee to-day. . . . The data represented the efforts of thirty expert accountants of the committee,—the most complete and amazing collection of financial statistics ever collected.”
THE MASSES OPPRESSED
Such control and hoarding of the nation's wealth by the few cannot but have a disastrous effect upon the great multitudes. All know too well the struggle of the masses for a livelihood. Instances are not rare where children five and six years of age work by the day to help meet the family expense.
The United States census of 1910 shows that there were 1,990,225 children of both sexes from ten to sixteen years of age engaged in gainful occupation, or 18.4 per cent of the total number of children of that age. All this and untold volumes more is the result of the unequal distribution of the country's wealth. But it is not without its significance.
GREAT WEALTH AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE
The apostle James, speaking of the last days, says: “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered. . . . Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. . . . Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” James 5: 1-3, 8.
“John D. Rockefeller, with an estimated fortune of $1,000,000,000, heads this list.”
The vast sum of money rusting and cankering in the vaults of the rich is one of the many signs that proclaim our time to be the last days. Those who are oppressed by this condition must be patient, waiting for the appearing of their Lord to end their afflictions and to recompense their oppressors.
THROWN TO THE BATS
When the Lord comes, these cankered treasures of the rich will be a witness against them. They will realize, when too late, the good that might have been done by their wealth, and feeling their condemnation, they will seek to part with it.
Isaiah says: “In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth.” Isa. 2: 20, 21. “But the Lord will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel.” Joel 3: 16.
