The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-05-03

previous decade. Ih1S is the most favorable
result to be deduced from the figures sub
mitted by the Census Bureau.
There are some other results of interest to
be derived from these statistics. The ASSESS
ments separate real estate from all other kinds
of property. Heretofore the increase in the
wealth of the country has been far largest in
the kind of property called personal, which
includes railroads, bank and insurance
stocks, merchandise, machinery furniture,
cattle, crops, agricultural implements, every
thing, in short, except the land aud the
buildings on it; everything that contributes
most largely to the produ ction of wealth, is
the best evidence of wealth, and constitutes
the truest measure of our civilization. In
personal property, the increase during the
last decade was ninety-hve per cent. During
the present decade there has been posi-
tive decrease But if, remembering that
the slaves were formerly counted as personal
property, and that it is on this kind of pro
perty, too, that the destruction of war gene
rally falls, we compare the position of the non
slaveholding States with that of ten years
ago, we find that here personal property in
these has increased about forty-seven per
cent, against corresponding increase of
ninety-fve per cent, or almost double, for
the previous ten years. The increase in the
amount and value of everything that contri-
butes to the comfort, the we'll being, the
amenities and the progress of life has been
Just one-half as rapid as during the previous
decade. But when we remember that
real estate now contributes nothing
whatever directly to the expenses of the
General Government, or 20 the payment of
interest and principal of the public debt, that,
On the contrary, all United States taxes are
borne by the consumers or employers of
personal property, chiefly in proportion to
the personal property so employed, and that
the total assessed value of the entire personal
property of the country is not equal to twice
the amount of the national debt, it must be
apparent that the increase in the personal
property is not sufficient to affect the ma
tional debt.
The real estate valuation of the ten years
preceding 1860 increased sixty four per cent.
at the time when the country was truly pros
porous, and when personal property increased
ninety five per cent. During the ten years
following 1860, when war has destroyed a
large amount of wealth, and when personal
property has increased only forty-seven per
cent, we yet find that real estate has increased
seventy five per cent, or actually eleven per
cent. more than during the previous decade.
That there cannot be any true foundation for
this advance in the value of real estate in a
country where territory is unlimited, in time
when large section of the country has been
sunk for years in ruin, and when the true
wealth OF country, its personal property, is
increasing SO slowly, if at all, must be evil
dent to every one who attentively examines
the subject. The value of real estate is mea-
sured almost exclusively by the prosperity of
the community, all theories to the contrary
notwithstanding, and for real estate to ad-
vance largely while general prosperity is
nearly stationary is possible only as result
of gigantic speculation based upon widespread
deluson.
The true condition of the country, as
shown by the assessment statistics just pub
lished by the Census Bureau, is simply this:--
The progress in wealth Of the entire country
is not equal to the increase in the national
debt, without counting the enormously in
creased debts of States, counties, and towns.
The former slaveholding States have very
materially declined in wealth. The rest of
the country has advanced in wealth beyond
the accumulation Of the debt, about one-third
as much as in the previous decade; but even
this advsnce is chiefly due to the fictitious
rise in the prices of real estate due to specu-
lation.