Morning journal and courier., 1880-06-25
Colossal Fortunes.
Individual Wealth in Ancient and Mod
 ern Times.

[From the San Francisco Chroniclel
 Doubtless the laboring classes of this day
 in all civilized communities are better housed
 fed, clad, and paid than the same class at any
 other time in the history of the human race;
 yet there never was time of greater dissat-
 isfaction among the workingmen. During
 the magnificent reign of Louis XIV. there
 was more extreme poverty in France than there is now in all Europe, Ireland included. The condition of the emancipated Russian serf is far better than that of the French or Ger man peasant of two centuries ago and with | in the historical era there is no record of a | time when fifty millions of the common peo- ] pie and poor were so comfortably situated as I the fifty millions who now inhabit the United States.
 But if the condition of the poor has inn proved, the private fortunes of the rich have so increased as to utterly confound all at | tempts at comparison with the rich men of l past ages. "As rich Croesus" has stood | for an adage these twenty-three centuries. l Yet Croesus was a king who devoted his whole
 energies to the acquisition of gold, and there is good reason to believe that we have not 1 less than half a dozen men and women in this state who are richer in gold and it's equiva- Tents than this Lydian monarch. The richest
 man in Rome at the time of Caesar was Cree ] sus. His fortune has been carefully estima- | ted by several historians, but never above $8, | 300, 900 of our money This is not much | h. I come, and 1t is more than $1 ,OO0,000 below l the appraisement of the fortune of the late Wm s. O'Brien of San Francisco. The As tor estate valued ten years ago at $40,- 900, ,000. At moderate rate of accretion- say per cent.-it must now amount to $60- GOO, GOO. The yearly income at the same rate 1 is $3, 900, 900. This is third more than the entire income of the monarch of the British empire, and good deal more than the en- tire revenues of the English government 25O years ago. It asserted that there are eight or ten English peers whose incomes each ex- ceed the allowances of parliament to the queen, and yet the richest men in England are commoners. Half century ago the re-
 ported wealthiest man in America was old
 Stephen Girard, of Philadelphia His estate
 was appraised below $15, 100000. There are
 probably now one hundred private fortunes
 in the United States each greater than Cir
 ards, and half 8 dozen more than twice as
 great. In the purchasing power of money the ancients had the advantage. A dollar
 would buy more a thousand years ago than
 five will now. Forty years back 8 man who
 hwo had $100.O00 was rated quite rich,
 and one of $500, ,O00 phenomenal. The latter
 class were not as numerous in this country as
 those of $5, 900, 900 are now.
 Of course there is not gold and silver
 enough in the world to represent the aggre-
 gate of these little private fortunes, nor
 tithe of them. They are invested in lands,
 houses, government, railway bank mining
 and other stocks The national bonds of
 England, France, and the United States cover
 nearly ten thousand millions, and the railway
 securities of the United States alone cover
 nearly five thousand millions. The largest
 private landed estates are held in Spanish
 America, Mexico, Russia, England, and the
 United States, but the largest of all in the
 latter country, and by corporations. It is
 thought, and justly great hardship to the
 common people of England and Scotland that the Duke of Sutherland should own over l.
 POO, GOO acres, and many other prominent mo-
 bles more than LOG, ,000 each. But there is
 one corporation in this country that has been
 granted 49, COG, 900 acres, and then AS, ,060,-
 900, and two others, represented by less than
 ten men, 9, ,000, 900 acres. At the time that
 Henry VIII. confiscated the estates of the
 Roman Catholic church in his dom1nions they
 did not amount to tenth as many acres as the grant of congress to the Northern Pacific railroad, but they were enough to lay the foundations of the richest nobility in the world, and their revenues to-day can hardly be less than $120, 1000, 900. Reasoning from history and analogy, the most stupendous pri- vate foftunes in the United States during the next fifty years will be realized from the enormous land grants, now hardly worth | $2.50 an acre, but hereafter surely to be worth from $50 to $10O as dollar is worth one hundred cents. A corporation whose land grant covers, say 20, 100000 acres, and whose stock is to the extent of 90 per cent in
 the hands of say ten persons, if it can hold on
 to its lands for twenty or thirty years free
 from taxes, will have a property in land
 worth anywhere from $4O0, O0O 900 to 3D.
 900, 900, 900, or $36, ,oOO,OOO to $56O, ,O0o, 900
 for each of it's principal stockholders. These figures, though they at first thought seem to
 run into the region of fable, are not much
 more astounding than the exploits of the Vanderbilts, Astors, and Packards already realized. The great landed estates of Eng land are protected by laws of entail and pri- mogeniture, forbidden in the United States.