It is certainly not difficult to misrepresent the whole situation even without intending to do any wrong to the nation. For the right or the wrong representation of realities |COULD BE MADE UNINTENTIONALLY.| depends very greatly upon the handling of the averages in the distribution of wealth among the people. The census facts or the assessors’ returns may be right, as well as the classifications of these facts or returns. And yet the final representations of them may be twisted, either according to the desire of the statisticians or according to the abstract rules of arithmetic. So that these rules and desires may be satisfied, but the realities may easily be obscured, and even the greatest national dangers may be concealed under an improper use of the averages.
Thus, we have seen the average of Mr. Shearman, which, including some of the well-to-do families among millions of the poor, makes these poor appear as if every |OR WITH A BIAS OF WILL.| one of them possessed $209, because Mr. Shearman’s average covered nearly 56-millions of individuals.[[36]] While Mr. Carroll D. Wright,[[37]] describing the problem: “Are the rich growing richer and the poor poorer?” makes a single average on the basis of the entire population. His sweeping average actually and correctly makes, not only the 56-millions of the poor of Mr. Shearman, but every pauper, every tramp, and everyone in hundreds of the lunatic and other asylums, worth $1,036 of wealth. Whereas, in reality, 1 per cent of the population held more wealth than the remaining 99, as Dr. Chas. Spahr has proved.[[38]]
Now, something similar has taken place in the 3d group of the 2d table, where more than 3-million families are represented as the “owners of free farms and |A DEGREE OF MODERATION.| homes worth less than $5,000.” And, consequently, the difference between the 1st table and the 2d table in the wealthy groups appeared. The 2d table contradicts nearly all statistical authorities and has been spoken of as based upon extremely moderate conclusions. It is, therefore, necessary to show the degree of moderation implied in its distribution of wealth.
The fact that all families in the United States |FIRM BASIS OF CLASSIFICATION.| were classified according to their economic worth, as families worth $5,000 and over and $5,000 and under, gives us the best basis for a comparison of the two contradictory tables of the great authorities.
Let us first see the inconsistency in the groups of families which represent the middle classes in the two tables.
| Families worth $5,000 and under. | Number | The wealth of | Averages. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Difference from the number below | $2,424,075,352 | ||
| Middle classes of the 1st R. table[[39]] | 5,584,576 | 8,522,541,600 | 1,526 |
| Free owners of the 2d orig. table[[40]]. | 3,078,077 | 10,946,616,952 | 3,556 |
| Difference from the number above | 2,506,499 |
Now, the restored group of the middle classes of the first R. table should be absolutely in favor of diminishing the differences in the worth of the identical families and in |INCONSISTENCY POINTS TO TRUTH.| their number. Yet the two groups reciprocally exclude each other by their opposite terms. So that, the comparison shows that the greater number of families has much smaller amount of the aggregate wealth; and the lesser number of families has much larger amount of the aggregate wealth; and that the difference in family-numbers is greater than 2½-millions in favor of the group of the 1st table; and the difference in the wealth, nearly 2½-billion dollars worth is in favor of the group of the 2d table. Hence, the opposite terms of the two economically similar groups can in no way coincide with one another.
This being so, it is not difficult to find out the true situation as to the actual distribution of wealth which ought to have been represented by the 2d table. The alleged moderation of this table has |AVERAGES ARE THE CAUSES.| been brought about by the same influence of averages which we have seen in the conclusions of Mr. Shearman.[[41]] One average of this gentleman has covered 89.4 per cent of the population, and thus made the wealth of the richest of them to be distributed among the millions of the very poor. The 89.4 per cent includes nearly 56-millions of individuals, whose aggregate wealth amounts to 18 per cent of the national wealth, and apportions $209 worth of it to every individual. But if you exclude only 20 per cent out of the 89.4 per cent of this great mass of people, selecting the wealthiest of all for the exclusion, you will thus have 69.4 per cent of the people left with less than 9 per cent of the national wealth. Your average then will be altogether different; it will cover masses of the poorest people, and every one of them will have less than $99 worth of wealth.
It is by a similar inclusion of a number of the well-to-do families among the group of “owners of free farms and homes” that the more equal distribution of wealth |SOME OF THE RICH AVERAGED WITH THE POOR.| has been obtained in the 2d table. Otherwise, this table could represent a more melancholy array of facts than the presentation of these facts which appeared in the first table. But, however bitter the truth may be, it is always better to taste it than to be ignorant of its existence, because one falsehood must create thousands of other falsehoods, and, accumulated and multiplied into a tremendous mass, these falsehoods may lead the nation to self-destruction even as many other nations were led to it.
Dividing again all families of the nation into the families worth less than $5,000, and families worth |THE SAME ECONOMIC BASES OF THE AUTHORS.| over $5,000, we shall now compare these two classes of families in both tables upon their common basis. And, as this basis presents the very bottom of statistics, the comparison therefore cannot fail to show us the very naked truth as to the actual distribution of wealth which has partly been obscured by the 2d table.