Regarded as the Logical Premises of the life of the nation, this extremely unequal distribution of wealth cannot be other than extremely dangerous for the existence |THE SITUATION IS DANGEROUS FOR THE FUTURE.| of the nation as it is, for the logic is inexorable: Whatever you have sown, that shall you also reap, is a saying that cannot be mistaken either by the wealthy or the poor. The situation indicates that this apparently polished nation presents only an enormous working mechanism, made not of steel and iron, but a mechanism of wood, which may be broken into pieces at any future time, in consequence of any insignificant occasion, if it continues to work heedlessly on with a wrong speed against itself. A rational regulation of its speed is absolutely necessary, in order to save it from an otherwise unavoidable destruction. A civilized nation cannot live long without a highly intelligent regulation of all its working principles. For, to live a national life is not to play a childish game.

Yes, we have examined the above conclusions, but we have not realized the entire truth of the situation. For we were told that, |THE SITUATION IS WORSE THAN INDICATED.| “Less than half the families in America are propertyless,”[[26]] which clearly means that the distribution of wealth among the people is much worse than we have a right to suppose upon the basis of the stated conclusions of 1890. As these conclusions differ from each other in contents, we have the moral right to re-examine the varying statistical tables that testify of the same distribution of wealth. And we have a right to find the naked truth in the mass of materials we have, and to look it straight in the face, if we can.

But before proceeding to compare the main tables of statistics, it will be well to show what the wealth of the nation in 1890 consisted of. Accordingly, the table on the next page represents eight items into which the wealth was classified. And it represents the summary of all kinds of wealth that was found existing in the United States in the year of the 11th census. While the next table, following it, represents the history of the accumulation of wealth, by application of the labor energy of the people upon various resources of land.

STATISTICS OF WEALTH.

“The census valuation of real and personal property in the United States (Alaska excluded) in 1890[[27]] was prepared by J. K. Upton,” as follows:

Table of Wealth.
Real estate with improvements thereon1$39,544,544,333
Live stock of farms, farm implements and machinery2 2,703,015,040
Mines and quarries, including product on hand31,291,291,579
Gold and silver coin and bullion41,158,774,948
Machinery of mills and product on hand, raw and manufactured53,058,593,441
Railroads and equipments, including street railroads68,685,407,323
Telegraphs, telephones, shipping and canals7701,755,712
Miscellaneous87,893,708,821
Total (United States)$65,037,091,197
Years.Aggregates of wealth.Per capita wealth.
1850$ 7,135,780,228$ 308
186016,159,616,068514
187030,068,518,507780
188043,642,000,000870
189065,037,091,1971,036[[28]]

The last historic table shows that the accumulation of wealth by the nation has been phenomenal, and equal to the expense of labor |INCREASE OF WEALTH PHENOMENAL.| energy which was embodied by the people into that wealth. And if the amount of wealth existing in 1890 had been equally distributed among the people, every man, woman and child, would have had more than $1,000 of it, or exactly $1,036 as the nominal per capita distribution of it by Mr. Carroll D. Wright indicates.

Let us, however, see the actual distribution of wealth, as it was in 1890:

ESTATES.[[30]]Number (of families).Aggregates of wealth per class in dollars.Average wealth per family.
The wealthy classes, $50,000 and over125,00033,000,000,000264,000
The well-to-do classes, $50,000 to $5,0001,375,00023,000,000,00016,000
The middle classes, $5,000 to $5005,500,0008,200,000,0001,500
The poorer classes, under $5005,500,000800,000,000150
Totals12,500,00065,000,000,0005,200