New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-04-16
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WEALTH IND YEARS.

Mon who work for living are apt to COM
nlain that where ono hundred give their laDor
for the amassing of riches, ninety-nine OF thehl
rece;vo n meager support while ono obtains
comfort and luxury and wealth for his Children
Society during the last century has not 1or q
wear been free from the threat that some day
the ninety-nine men will rise ana dlseiipu,o
the capital of the one man equally among all
The promise has never been fulfilled party
because most of the men who have made IL
have found better employment in trying 10
win their own wealth, and partly because So
cietv advances in direct ratio with the average
intelligence and purposes of its members. lie
who diving leaves enough to take ten people
ont of the market for tho lowest classes OF Ia
Dor and to put them into new branches OF IN
dustry, is social benefactOr His wealth. Is
constantly going back to society In wages
in improvements to property and 10
vast neighborhoOds, and in donations.
The mistake that critics Of society make is IN
surprising that in these generations wealth ID
perpetual family possession. Most OF the
rich men of our day were born poor. Inc
rich men of two generations ago have lett
few rich heirs. The tendency of society Is
not to make, as Wendell Phillips has said,
few vastly wealthy men, like Thomas A. Scott
and Cornelius Vanderbilt, but to distribute
more equally what is created. Whore one
man builds palace, hundred men build
homes. The law that rules all alike is Change.
Every generation must create most OF It's own
wealth. The statistics Of wealth recently
issued by Gen. Walker, Superintendent OF the
Census of 1870, will illustrate our meaning.
In 1850 the value of tho real and personal
estates of the Union was about OOOOO,OOo. by
1860 it ,had increased to over S1G,OOO,OOO,oOo.
In 1870, it was over s3O,0OO,OO0,OOO This is
more than quadrupling in two-thirds of
generation. The wealth of Now-YOrk State
alone is five times as much az it was ten years
ago. and that of Pennsylvania twice as much ];
and this has not fallen alone upon the already
wealthy Nor is it all natural increase. Labor
alone has developed the West; for the ra'i-
roads which have increased the values of sDec-
uiatiye lands Along their lines cost labor III
the construction, and The greatest ia1ucement
fer the approach of tie railroads has been
carving of the produce of labor and of labor
agents.
During the next ten years tho values of real
and personal estates in tho Unicn vi prob
ably increase to about fifty bi)lo,1. Tie ey-
ira Tenty billions are not yet Great d. The rlc'
and women who will create and sayc and distri'''
ute them are living, and it would not be sac
to sa7 th9; one-quarter of those who viii in
Is,J hald 10 largest fortunes are now at IL
IA wealth. circ, instances. 1t is probable that
ho 70 :. saving most now will possess mo7s
then. Blt it is desirable that the wealth
should be distributed over wider surface
Tho South aud the West should gain more
than they now do. BY thorough system OF
cooperation individuals may become richer
from their own labor, and make their sayir So
increase at better rate than that allowed az
interest On bonds and by savings banks.