The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-12-10 00:00:00

,St.ourfreiby Obserint.

•', 'SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1887.

OUR LNCOMES.

Ma. GOSCREN is great at figures, and many
who are far from 1-eing in agreement with the
Chancellor of the Exchequer on questions of
imperial import, will listen with approving
pleoasure to any utteriunce of his as regards
'finances. It is only comparatively of late,
inched, that he has stepped out of the
serener atmosphei e of philosophic politics
into the boisterous arena of party wrangling,
loc.l one is glad to see such an expert in
national arithmetic, so academic a handler of
economic themes, forgetting for a moment
the ail-absorbing and cFsfiressingly distract-,
ilog Irish question, and speaking' in a
.rnasterly manner about highly important
matters of general interest. If Mr. Goschen
delivers an acldre;s on Home Rule it will )e
eloonent and scholarly, and next morning
will read ;veil in the newspapers, whether
the reader endorse its sentiments or not ; but
if the right hon. representative of St.
lieorge's, Hanover-square, favours an as-
:,-9ably with any exposition of his views on
any currency, finance, or other statistical
bjeet, what he says is certain to command
the close attention of all commercial men,
and everybody ,having interest in national
anirs. We need not necessarily be at one

in all points with Mr. Goschen, but he never
dilate S .pnblicly on these phases of our finan-
cial system on which he is so eminent an
°authority- without saying something well
worth oar remembering. As President of
the Statistical Society, Mr. Goschen, on
.Tnesday evening, delivered a most in-
structive address to the members, and,
through the press, to a far wider world, on
the subject of income, on taxes and duties
affecting income, and on various cognate
financial and statistical matters. Figures
are proverbially misleading, and wrested
from their relative numerals, may be made to
prove anything ; but on the other hand, a
case can never be made out without the
erection of an unassailable front of fact and
figure. What may be reckoned as one of
the most notable things to be gathered from .
Mr. Ggschen's elaborate speech— and the
Chancellor's .deductionwas irrefutably backed
up with statistics —was the statement as to
the recent rapid growth of the great middle
classes in Britain, and especially of the
lower middle-classes, reckoning for
classification: purposes the extern of in-
come enjoyed, fcir this is the standard by
which they always measure a man's status
at the Treasury, and, for the matter of that,
society in general estimates a person's im-
portance according to the money he may
have at command. In guaging the tax payer's
clase, Mr. Goschen relies on the incometax
assessments, and he finds that, while in the
last decade there has been a decrease of in-
comes taxed at a thousand and upwards,
there heen a marked increase in the incoines
taxable as under that amount, and further
that the increase is chiefly %mounted for by

tho incomes declared ITetween £l5O and
£5OO, those above the lattor amonnt and less
than doable as much having been scarcely
:no-re than stationary for ten years back.
. Those among us who are earning between
£lso,Aud £5OO a year are more in number

by over one-fifth than was the case in 1877.
We have here a clear intimation that the
wealth of the community is being more
widely diffused. Mr. Goschen showed in
noth-er direction that large fortunes be-
come. asyearsroll on, fewer in number ; hero
he gives us evidence that the backbone of
Britain, the middle class, composed in the
Inam of people who are considered
":ynnfortably off," is sensibly extending.
Should additional prof of this proportion
!,C .asked -for, the Chancellor of the Ex-
otlequer has it ready in an array of figures
ting forth a larfze addition of national in-
c)Ø arising from probate duty on small
estateS. On the other hand, the probate
p:tid on estates of the va,luo of £5OOO andup-
wards showed no appreciable fluctuation.
'Mr: Goschen travels beyond the region of in-
come and personalty and goes to an examin-
ation of reel property to obtain corroboration
of his contention that the wealth of the
nation is gradually and surely- setting into a
greater number of hands. As property in
laod and hnuses is liable to such var:ation in
marketible ‘vorth, rents especially being
of nucertain value, Mr. Goschen' s figures in
titis respect are not so conclusive ; but when
he notnos to consider savings bank statistics.
he shows plainly that the downward ten-
dency of the national wealth has reached a
strata even below the middle classes, and
f!,liat a share of it is now deposited in the
keeping of our artisan population. The!•
over two millions more owners of savings
banks books in Britain at present than there
were in 1875, and these thrifty folk have an
aggr+te a third greater atuount standing
their credit. This is a hopeful sign, for
t o
when we look broadly at the whole q estion
of ouc incomes, ftnd see the good things of
being ainioably distributed into the pos-
session of so many more of the community
than has in the post been the case, it is not,
we feel, too much to trust and believe that
iii the future the working of wise economic
laws will eventually, by a continuous level-
ling. down, ffo far to furnish a satisfactory
solution, wihont the aid of Socialist agit-
ators, of the prob:enis of poverty and distress
Mr. Goschen did not exactly put the matter
in that 14111, bat we think it may fairly on
consideration bear that reflection.

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