IN the table on the opposite page will be seen something of the vast increase of wealth from a national view-point. This of course has been the development to a great extent of the tremendous natural resources of the country and to the immense industrial establishments which have been organized in late years. It means much when the total wealth has increased in twenty-five years from $7.80 per capita to $12.36 per capita. That was in 1900; it would probably be far greater than that at the present time. The great country is rich, and over-rich. Still over this there could be little complaint if the wealth were equally distributed; there the sad thing comes. Instead of an equable distribution of wealth, this wealth is found in the hands of the few.
It was estimated some time ago by Thomas G. Shearman that $43,267,000,000 of the $56,200,000,000 total wealth of the country was owned by 182,000 families, or by only 1.4 per cent of the population; 9.2 per cent of the families own 12 per cent of the wealth; while the rest of the families, 89.4, own but 11 per cent of the total wealth. The United States of America is practically owned, Mr. Shearman says, by less than 250,000 persons, constituting less than one in 60 of the adult male population. Since this was given publicity in Waldron's "Handbook on Currency and Wealth" in 1891, private fortunes have piled up with a rapidity which is staggering.
For instance, Mr. Rockefeller is said to be worth one billion dollars. Other fortunes range from five hundred million down. A millionaire is no longer considered a rich man; he is merely well-to-do, and the multimillionaire is common in every large city.
The men who laid the foundations of these fortunes were generally frugal and prudent men, such as A. T. Stewart, Commodore Vanderbilt, and others; but the later generations have lived with an extravagance that parallels or exceeds the greatest excesses of royalty. Banquets are spread in palaces, which cost from $100 to $300 a plate or guest, while in the very shadow of these palaces men and women in the image of God famish. Ten thousand dollars apiece is paid for pet dogs, for whose benefit footmen and maids are employed, while little children die for want of proper food and housing.
These wealthy men connected with great syndicates and trusts control the commodities and necessaries of life and the very life-current of commerce—money—is almost absolutely controlled by them. Many times this is used in the wildest speculation, contrary to all law, and the men who thus risk the money of others which has been entrusted to them for safe keeping are not called to account for their crime. Even the very government itself is held up and made to pay tribute to their financial schemes. Their immense profits gathered from the public, from the millions, are used in the greatest extravagance.
For instance, Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan is able to give for a Christmas present a brown stone house to his son, worth $600,000, the costliest that was ever made on the island of Manhattan. A spoiled beauty demands a new automobile, and $16,000 is expended as a sum scarcely worthy of mention. Just recently $27,000 was paid for a special auto-car. For diamond tiaras as high as $100,000 has been paid, and the salesmen in the diamond houses tell us that such sales are not uncommon. A solitaire ring costing less than $5,000 is considered mean, and a cluster of diamonds at less than $6,500 or a vanity bag or mesh purse at $4,000 is cheap. A vanity bag with sapphires, said to be cheap by the clerk who sold it, went for $6,000. A $350 umbrella handle or a wrist bag worth $265 are considered mere trifles. A string of black pearls at $10,000, white pearls at $25,000, Australian or California pearls at $7,000 are considered cheap. From $15,000 to $50,000 is paid for a single piano. A cloak of sable and silver fox costs the mere sum of $18,000; a lace coat, $12,000; an emerald collar with diamond ornaments, $125,000; a cluster of turquoise, sapphires, pearls and diamonds, $20,000; a tiara of diamonds, $200,000; a little dressing case with hair brushes, combs, bottles of perfume, etc., $650. These items indicate in a small way how the millions are expended. Millions more, estimated at $150,000,000, are paid out in European travel, other millions in races and sports and various kinds of amusements.
In one of the large cities the other day a young woman was found who had tried to commit suicide. She had walked the streets day after day, as recorded in her diary, to find work, willing to do anything to keep soul and body together, except to sell herself to a life of shame, and came to the conclusion that she could do nothing else than to die.
What wonderful opportunity is placed before these rich men of doing worthy deeds of beneficence for their fellow men with the vast incomes which they receive from the public. If they feel justified in taking their vast profits, why should they not feel obliged to return them in a way that would benefit the public? The average income is sufficient to keep every soul in this country from want. The colossal extravagance is the reason why it does not. Much of this money is gotten in ways that are absolutely indefensible, by various schemes of finance which men who have given their whole lives to the study of the question know how to manipulate. Enabled so to do by large combinations of capital, whole commodities are controlled by them. The ordinary citizen and the extremely poor must purchase and pay the price.
Take, for instance, the coal situation the last year in the West and the Northwest: Coal abundant in the mines, close to railway and shipping, that mined at the same price as for years at $1.50 to $2.50 a ton, and yet the men who control this necessity of life charging from $14.00 to $20.00 a ton for bituminous coal. It is simply outrageous, and no wonder that it arouses the highest indignation on the part of the people in general, and yet, with absolute indifference seemingly, the great trusts give these utter needs of the people no thought save that which will increase their already colossal fortunes. There is no wonder that Socialism is growing, and following Socialism will come anarchy. Conditions in France of a little over a century ago will be repeated, even as the word of God has predicted.
We are not wishing it to come, we still plead just as far as our influence can extend to all to be law-abiding, it matters not how much they may suffer. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of humanity, and some time, in His own good time, will render to every man according to his works. Yet if we are faithful to Him we shall receive a due reward, while those who have been utterly regardless of their stewardship, and who in His providence have been permitted to amass great wealth will have to give an account before a court in which juries can not be bought or judges bribed.
