WHO OWNS THE UNITED STATES? by St. Louis Christian Advocate

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 2, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 46.

WHO OWNS THE UNITED STATES?

By St. Louis Christian Advocate

In spite of the rapid increase in the number of millionaires in the United States in recent years, the popular notion is, that wealth is yet very much more evenly distributed in this country than in England. Mr. Thos. G. Shearman, the well-known New York statistician, has been engaged for some time in collecting facts to show as precisely as possible the proportion of the wealth of the country held by a few rich men and families; and he finds a greater concentration of wealth here than in any other country. The results of his investigation will appear in the Forum for November, from advance sheets of which the following facts are taken. Mr. Shearman makes the following enumeration of owners of more than $20,000,000 each:—

$150,000,000: J. J. Astor, Trinity Church. $100,000,000: C. Vanderbilt, W. K. Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Leland Stanford, J. D. Rockefeller. $70,000,000: Estate of A. Packer. $60,000,000: John I. Blair, Estate of Charles Crocker. $50,000,000: Wm. Astor, W. W. Astor, Russell Sage, E. A. Stevens, Estate of Moses Taylor, Estate of Brown & Ives. $40,000,000: P. D. Armour, F. A. Ames, Wm. Rockefeller, H. M. Flagler, Power & Weightman, Estate of P. Goelet. $35,000,000: C. P. Huntington, D. O. Mills, Estates of T. A. Scott, J. W. Garrett. $30,000,000: G. B. Roberts, Charles Pratt, Ross Winans, E. B. Coxe, Claus Spreckels, A. Belmont, R. J. Livingston, Fred Weyerhauser, Mrs. Mark Hopkins, Mrs. Hetty Green, Estates of S. V. Harkness, R. W. Coleman, I. M. Singer. $25,000,000: A. J. Drexel, J. S. Morgan, J. P. Morgan, Marshall Field, David Dows, J. G. Fair, E. T. Gerry, Estates of Governor Fairbanks, A. T. Stewart, A. Schermerhorn. $22,500,000: O. H. Payne, Estates of F. A. Drexel, I. V. Williamson, W. F. Weld. $20,000,000: F. W. Vanderbilt, Theo. Havemeyer, H. O. Havemeyer, W. G. Warden, W. P. Thompson, Mrs. Schenley, J. B. Haggin, H. A. Hutchins, Estates of W. Sloan, E. S. Higgins, C. Tower, Wm. Thaw, Dr. Hostetter, Wm. Sharon, Peter Donohue.

These 70 names represent an aggregate wealth of $2,700,000,000, an average of more than $37,500,000 each. Although Mr. Shearman, in making this estimate, did not look for less than 20-millionaires, he discovered incidentally 50 others worth more than $10,000,000 each; and he says that a list of 10 persons can be made whose wealth averages $100,000,000 each, and another list of 100 persons whose wealth averages $25,000,000. No such lists can be made up in any other country. "The richest dukes of England," he says, "fall below the average wealth of a dozen American citizens; while the greatest bankers, merchants, and railway magnates of England cannot compare in wealth with many Americans."

The average annual income of the richest 100 Englishmen is about $450,000, but the average annual income of the richest 100 Americans cannot be less than $1,200,000, and probably exceeds $1,500,000. The richest of the Rothschilds, and the world-renowned banker, Baron Overstone, each left about $17,000,000. Earl Dudley, the owner of the richest iron mines, left $20,000,000. The duke of Buccleuch (and the duke of Buccleuch carries half of Scotland in his pocket) left about $30,000,000. The marquis of Bute was worth, in 1872, about $28,000,000 in land; and he may now be worth $40,000,000 in all. The duke of Norfolk may be worth $40,000,000, and the duke of Westminster perhaps $50,000,000.

Mr. Shearman's conclusion is that 25,000 persons own one-half the wealth of the United States, and that the whole wealth of the country is practically owned by 250,000 persons, or 1 in 60 of the adult male population; and he predicts, from the rapid recent concentration of wealth, that under present conditions 50,000 persons will practically own all the wealth of the country in thirty years—or less than 1 in 500 of the adult male population. —St. Louis Christian Advocate.