I was perplexed. I had never looked into the statistics of national economy. I had spent about twenty times $165. every year. I remembered having read in the papers of my time that the average yearly earnings of the working men, working women and children were over four hundred dollars, and I was inclined to estimate the average yearly income at about six hundred dollars. I stated this to Mr. Forest.
“You have left out of your calculation the women and children who were not earning anything, but who depended upon the income of their husbands, fathers and brothers”, Mr. Forest explained. “An income of two hundred and four dollars for every man, woman and child would, therefore, represent a large increase, if the figures were fairly given. But they are not correct. In order to make the income of the nation appear greater than it really is, the value of the various productions is quoted higher than in your days. Consequently the purchasing power of every dollar on our credit-cards is less than that of the dollar of your time. I have carefully compared the prices of all the necessities and commodities as they are now and as they were in your time, and I have found an increase of about 95 percent. The real average yearly income of all the people of our country is about one hundred and twelve dollars, so there is not an increase of about 24 percent, but a decrease of about 33 percent”.
“How do you account for this remarkable statement”? I inquired.
“That is a question easier asked than answered”, replied Mr. Forest.
“I am very curious to hear your explanation”, I remarked. “Dr. Leete has given me so many plausible reasons for the “poverty resulting from our extraordinary industrial system”[26] that I was quite convinced of the greater wealth of your people. He mentioned the frequent wrong speculations of the nineteenth century, the insane competition, the periodical overproductions and consequent crises, the waste from idle capital and labor[27], and he especially dwelt upon the point that four or five enterprises of the nineteenth century failed where one succeeded”[28].
[26] Page 42.
[27] Page 229 & 230.
[28] Page 230.
“Yes, I know Dr. Leete’s arguments from occasional speeches he has made, and from articles he has written for the administration organs”, Mr. Forest responded. “And he has undoubtedly mentioned many other causes that crippled the production of your days. He has, or he may have, pointed to the expenditures for your army and navy, to your custom and revenue officials, to the tax-assessors and collectors you employed, to the larger number of judges, sheriffs and other officers you needed, to the greater amount of labor made necessary by domestic washing and cooking, to the large number of middlemen needed in handling goods before the articles made their way from the factory to the retail store, the latter corresponding to our storehouses. And Dr. Leete has or may have, mentioned the lawyers, bankers and their clerks who were nominally engaged in work that was really not done, and which has all been done away with to-day”.
“Indeed”, I said, “Dr. Leete has enumerated most of these causes of the poverty of our days, and, since these evils have been abolished under your system of production, I think it would be simply a matter of course that the total yearly income of your people should have increased, and I wonder that the increase is not even greater than you have stated it to be”.