Daily globe., 1880-06-06
COLOSSAL FORTUNES.
Indirtduat KeaIth sn 4ncient md Modern
T3HseS.
San Francisco Chronicle. ]

lSau Francisco Chronicle.
Doubtless the ltboring classes at this day IN
all civilized communities are better housed,
fed, clad and paid t,an the same class at any
other time in the history of the human race.
Yet there never was u time of greater dissatis-
faction among workjngmen. During the mag
nificent reign of Louis NV. there was, more
extreme poverty IN France than there is now IN
all Europe, Ireland included. rhe condition
of the emancipated Russian ,sert Is lar better
than that of the Freuch or German peasant
two centuries ago; and within the historical
era there is no record of time when 90,UUU,UUO
of the common people and poor were SO COM
fOrtably situated as the 5O,UUO,UUU VINO no" iu-
habit the Uuited States.
But if the condition OF the poor has lmproV-
ed, the priv8te fortunes of the rich have so IN
creased as TO utterly confound all attempts at
comparison with the rich men OF past ages
''As rich as Cr@sUs" has stood for an adaSe
these twenty-three centuries. Yet Or@sus was
a king who devoted his whole energies to the
ACQUISITION Of GOLD and there is good reason to
believe that we have not less than half dozen
men aud women in this State who are richer
in gold and its equivalents than this Lydlan
monarch The richest man IN Rome AT tue
time OF Cesar was Crassus. His fortune mas
boen carefully estimated by several historians.
but never above S8,5OO0OO OF cur money.
This is not much more tnan
William L. Vauderbilt's yearly iu-
come, and it is more than $l,C00,000
below the appraisement of the fortune of the
late William 8. O'Brien, Of this CITY, The
Astor estate was valued ten years ego at S4O,-
00O,0 600. At moderate rate OF accretion-say
five per cent.-it must now amount 70 O,OOO,-
coo. The yearly income at the same rate Is
So 600 600. This third more than
the entire income Of the monarch of the British
Empire and good deal more than the entire
revenue of the English government 25O years
ago. 1t is asserted that there are eight or
ten English peers whose incomes each eX-
ceed the allowances OF Parliament to the
queen, and vet the richest men III England are
commoner. Half century ago the repUted
weallhiest man II America was old Stephen
Girard II Philadelphia. His estate was APP
praised below 9I5, coo, ,00O. There are probably
nOw 100 private fortunes n the United States
each greater than Girard's. and half dozen
more than twice as great. In the purchasing
power of money the arcients had the advan-
tage. dollar would buy more thousand
years ago than five will now. Forty years back
a man who had $l00, 900 was rated as quite rich,
aud one of $500, 000 phenomenal. The latter
class were not as numerous IN this country as
those Of So, 100000 are now.
Of course, there IS not gold and silver enough
in the world to represent the aggregate of these
little private fortunes, nor a tlthe OF them.
They are invested In lands, houses, Govern
ment, railway. bank, mining, and other stocks.
Tue 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 i've thousand
millions. The largest private landed estates
are held in spanish America, Mexico, Russia,
England, and the United States Dnt the largest
of all in the latter country, and by corporations.
Il flry hprG GchT 70
the common people of England and Scotland
that the Duke of Sutherland should own over
I,200,0 600 acres, and many other prominent
mobiles more than 100 coo each. But there is one
corporation in this country that has been grant
ed 40 600 600 acres, and then 4S 000, ,O00,and two
others, represented by less than ten men, 25,-
OOO. 600 acres At the time that Henry VIII.
oonfscated the estates Of the Roman Catholic
church in his domiuions they did not amount
to a tenth as many acres as the grant of
Congress to the Northern Pacific rail
road: but they we're enough to lay the
foundations OF the richest nobility in the
world, and their revenues to-day can hardly be
less than $1,000 900. Reasoning from history
and analogy. the most stupendous private for
tunes in the Unite d States during the next fifty
years will be realized from the enormous land
grants, now hardly worth $3.50 an acre, but
hereafter as surely to be warth from $50 to Sl00
as a dollar is worth 100 cents. corporation
whose land grant covers, say 10000, 600 acres.
and whose stock Is to the extent OF
ninety 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 la Ilud- worth anywhere
from 800, 900, 900, TO $1,000, 100000, or $780,
600, 900 to 9360OUC 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 Pack
ards already realized. The great landed es-
tates of England are protected by laws of en-
tail and primogeniture, forbidden in the
United States.