The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1875-05-27
SOCIAL SCIENCE.
The Wealth of the United States--The An
nual Incrense and the Increase of the Peo-
pIc-.Some Interesting Stntistics.

The Wealth of the United States--The An
nual Increase and the Increase of the Peo-
pIc--Some Interesting Statistics.
David A. Wells, of Connecticut, de-
hvered the annual address before the
American Social Science Convention.
In the course of his remarks lie said the
slowness with which capital increases
even under the most favorable circum-
stances was illustrated by figures drawn
from American experience. The wealth
of the United States in 1870 was estima-
ted ut $25, 900, 100000. This represents,
first, value of 1920 to each individual; /;
second, the surplus result of all the
labor, skill and thought exerted, and all
the capital earned and saved or brought
into the country since it became practi-
cally the home of civilized men. With
capital increasing thus slowly, we should
be careful lest by impairing its security
we also impair its rate of increase.
Though the idea of direct interference
with the rights of property meets with
little sympathy on this side of the At
lantic, many of the most intelligent peo-
pie interested in the cause of labor re-
form, reasoning from the large nominal
aggregate of the national wealth and
the large advance recently made in the
power of production, have adopted the
idea that the amount of the present an
nual product of labor and capital is
enough for all, and that all that is nee
essary to secure to the masses comfort
and abundance is for the State to in
tervene, either by fixing the hours of
labor or the rates of compensation for
service, or the use of capital, and SO
compel its more equitable distribution.
Admitting the desirability of more
equal division, it will be well to inquire
what we have really got to divide.
The maximum value of our annual
product does not exceed 81, 900, 900, 900,
of which the product of our agriculture
is returned by the last census with un-
doubted approximative accuracy at
less than one-half that sum, or 50, 400,
100000. Fully nine-tenths of this pro-
duct, probably larger portion, must be
Immediately consumed that we may live
and make good the loss and waste of
capital previously accumulated, leaving
not more than one-tenth to be applied in
the form of accumulation for effecting
a future increased production and de-
velopment. Stated in different but
not less striking form, after $50 years of
toiling and saving we have only man.
aged as nation to get about three and
half years ahead in the way of subsist-
ence. If now as whole people we
should stop working, producing, and re-
pairing, and devote ourselves exclusive
ly to amusement and idleness, four years
would be more than sufficient to starve
three-fourths of us out of existence, and
reduce the remaining one-fourth to the
condition of semi -barbarism; result
it is well to think of in connection with
the promulgation of certain new theories
that the best way of increasing abun-
dance and promoting comfort is to de-
crease the aggregate and opportunities
of production. Few things are more
transitory and perishable than capital.
AS embodied in the ordinary forms we
see about us, its duration is not on an
average in excess of the life of genera
ton. Of all the material wealth of the
great and rich nations of antiquity moth
ing whatever has come down to us ex-
cept, singularly enough, those things
which, like their tombs and public
monuments, could never have been pos
sessed of a money valuation.
If, again, we suppose our annual pro-
duct equally divided among our present
population, the average income of each
individual would be $175 per annum.
If this estimate be considered small it
should be remembered that it is based
on an estimate of national product great
er both in the aggregate and in proper
tion to numbers than is enjoyed by any
other nation our compeer in civilization,
and that this sum, $175, is not the sum
which all actually receive as income, but
the average each would receive were the
whole annual product divided equally.
We know it is not divided equally and
never will be while men are born with
different natural capacities. The aver
age annual earnings of laborers and un-
skilled workmen for the whole country
is not in excess of $400, which, placing
the family of each at four-two adults
and two children-the census of 1870
calls it five-gives 800 as the average
that each member of that class pro-
duces; to which, too, each such indi-
vidual must be restricted in consump-
tion. Clearly, then, the time has not
yet COME when society here Can com
mand such degree of absolute abun-
dance as will justify any class or indi-
vidual, especially those who depend on
each days labor to supply its wants. in
doing aught that tends to diminish
abundance. Let the working man,
therefore, strive for the largest possible
share of the joint products of labor and
capital, rs it is his natural right to do,
but if in SO doing he restricts produc-
ton and diminishes abundance, he does
it at his peril. Street professions will
never change the conditions of produc-
tion and compensation. Idleness pro-
duces nothing but weeds and rust-pro-
ducts not marketable anywhere, though
society often pays for them most
dearly.