While the thirty millions of British people have on the average $16 worth of wealth, the American people of the same class have somewhat more of this kind of wealth than the British, as the last table, individually regarded, shows the average property of every person of the families. It is as follows.
| Holders of Wealth. | Individuals. | The wealth of | Average. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tenants of farms and homes | 33,908,277 | $ 2,837,049,500 | $ 83 |
| Owners of mortgaged farms and homes worth less than $5,000 | 7,319,697 | 2,614,955,764 | 357 |
| Owners of free farms and homes worth less than $5,000 | 13,888,979 | 3,908,222,736 | 287 |
| Owners of farms and homes worth $5,000 to $50,000 | 6,879,935 | 22,676,863,197 | 3,296 |
| Owners of farms and homes worth $50,000 and over | 625,362 | 33,000,000,000 | 52,769 |
| The totals. | 62,622,250 | 65,037,091,197 | 1,036 |
The average of $83 worth of personal property in the 1st group of individuals here is a little too large, because, subtracting the surplus million families from this group,[[46]] we have left the wealth |THE POOREST CLASSES, 1890.| of it untouched. In any way, this group contains 27,117,000 individuals having on the average $30 worth of property each, according to the last group of families in the table of Dr. Spahr.[[47]] It does not, however, make a great difference on the whole, because the group of tenants, since 1890, has undoubtedly increased up to 38,837,849 without having been able to add anything more to its aggregate wealth.
The increase of the propertyless accrues from the natural increase of the population, and from the loss of the mortgaged properties |CAUSES OF THE INCREASE OF THE PROPERTYLESS| by foreclosure of the mortgages in the 2d group, and from the immigration of the propertyless foreigners[[48]] without special means; while the people of the 3d group have sunk by thousands into debt from having mortgaged their properties; and only about a million families of the last two groups have been exceedingly prosperous, as we shall understand the situation later on.
CHAPTER III.
PROPERTIED AND PROPERTYLESS PEOPLE.
The statistical authorities told us that “Less than half the families in the United States are propertyless,”[[49]] and we desire to know the chances for, and resources of, their living; and what it means to be a propertied person or to be a propertyless person upon earth.
Let us see the clear distinction between the |CONDITIONS OF LIFE OF THE PROPERTIED AND PROPERTYLESS.| state of a property owner and the state of a propertyless person; between the conditions of life of the former, and the conditions of life of the latter, and how both are affected by and related to these conditions.
First of all an owner of property and a propertyless person, are, on an average, perfectly equal in that they have physical strength, and in that they have equal rights to use or to apply that strength somewhere |EQUAL IN PHYSICAL STRENGTH.| upon the wealth of an owner of wealth. And here we meet the first difference between them: An owner of property has a chance to apply, and to spend his strength upon his own property; if, for instance, this property is land that gives him any kind of returns in exchange for his |THE ONE HAS, THE OTHER HAS NO CHANCE.| labor and toil. The propertyless person has neither this chance nor this right to toil anywhere, unless he pays for the opportunity of using his strength, by dividing the results of his labor between himself and the owner of wealth who permits him to draw some income from the resources of his own property or wealth. So far, the advantage of the propertied person is such that he has twice as much right in his strength, and twice as much chance to profitably use his personal strength.
Now, every one knows that whatever the wealth of a nation may be, it is primarily derived from land which is the only inexhaustible source of riches, or, of derived wealth. And when a person gets |LAND PRIME ORIGIN OF WEALTH.| into his possession a portion of land, whether it will be in a city, town, or in the country, he then obtains a number of resources for his life; he becomes a propertied man, and he can apply his strength, his skill or his intellect upon his own property and thus reap the fruits of his labor. The land then is the first store of wealth; but it almost never yields anything to man, unless he labors, works upon it, with a hoe, a plough, a scythe or some other implement that aids him to draw greater returns from his land. Again, if iron, for instance, is primarily derived from land, then |LAND MAIN FACTOR OF WEALTH.| when it comes to the forge, where the hammer, the anvil and the other tools aid the blacksmith to make an ax out of the rough iron, the ax will be of a greater value than the material he used for it. But what really made the ax is his personal strength and the skill that were aided by the tools he used. These tools with the blacksmith, and those implements with the farmer are economically called |SKILL SECOND FACTOR OF WEALTH.| “capital,” because they aid to draw more wealth by the labor of man. It follows, that land is the main factor of wealth; that human energy or labor is the next factor of wealth; and that capital, as aiding labor and land to produce more wealth than they can yield without it, is the third factor of wealth. Money is not regarded as direct capital here.
As capital is a very important source of income to a propertied man, and as it is perhaps not clearly understood by all, let me illustrate this factor of wealth by introducing more examples of it.