Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-12-24
American Wealth.

1t is stock remark that Americans
love the dollar. The saying, like most
stock sayings, misses the point; tue
real point is, not that Americans love
money more than other people, but
that they love comparatively few things
besides money. We have fewer objects
of serious pursuit than other Western
nations have; we do not as people,
pursue the fine arts, or literature, or
scholarship, or society, with the zeal or
the fruitfulness that we find in Euro
pean communities, and 30 We are re-
garded as being still somewhat deli
cient in our duties as q civilized nation.
We love these things less than the
Old World communities love them.
We do not love money more than they
probably, indeed not so much as
they. 1t is the exclusiveness, not the
zeal, of our pursuit of money that is
the thing to be regretted. Some day,
perhaps, We shall try to do better than
this; meanwhile, most of US pursue the
dollar, without thinking OF stopping
much for rest until We take rest where
no work is. No community thinks
so little about rest from work as ours.
We seek money and We find it; yet
do We love it either we'll or intelligently
enough to use it fruitfully, to keep it
safely, or to bequeath it wisely? First,
let us glance at the wealth we possess
AS a nation. Let US see what place a
century of money making has given us.
We call ourselves rich people: how
rich people are We? A very little
comparison Of figures will show. And
first, where do we stand as to the
total valuation of the national wealth :?
We stand near the head of the list
third on the list of all the Western ma
tons. The United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland heads the list with
capital valuation of A 400 millions of
dollars; then comes France with 36, 700
millions, the United States with 30 900
millions, Germany with % 600 millions,
Russia with 10 GOO millions, and the Low
Countries with IL, $50 million dollars Of
&c pital collectively. These are the valu
atoms made by those countries OF their
entire resources. What is the average
annual income per inhabitant in vari-
Gus countries? We come to the front
in this comparison. The average an
nual income in the United Kingdom is
S1G5; in the United States, Sl65 also;
in the Low Countries, $50; in France,
Sl25; in the British Colonies, $50; in
Germany, and also in Scandinavia, $50.
In this reckoning, Russia, with her
ninety millions of people, is out of
sight as yet; she will not be very
long.
Once more; taking the question
from another point of view, let us ask:
What is our annual accumulation of
wealth, as compared with the annual
accumulation of other nations And
here we step far in advance OF any
community which gives us full esti-
mates; it should be borne in mind,
however, that the rate Of interest for
agricultural capital, with us, is double
the average rate for Europe.
The annual accumulation of wealth,
then, ia Germany, is 200 millions of
dollars; it is 1875 millions in the United
Kingdom, 375 millions in France; in
the Uuited States 1t is S25 millions |!
Our increase of national wealth since
1850, says good English authority,
would be enough to purchase "the
whole German Empire, with its farms,
cities, banks, shipping. manufactures,
etc. The annual accumulation has
been 1875 millions of dollars. and there.
fore each decade adds more to the
wealth of the United States than the
capital value of Italy or Spain. Every
day that the sun rises upon the Ameri-
can people it sees an addition of ST.
800, 900 to the wealth of the republic"
These are figures to make poor man
expect wealth; but let US hasten to say
that they do not prove US any happier,
or wiser, or more estimable in the
sight OF the world, than many another
poorer nation is. What these figures
do prove is different thing; they
prove the bounty of nature toward an
energetic race; they do not prove what
We sometimes take for granted on the
strength of them, that onr nation ia
great or admirable in the greatest and
most admirable things. No; We have
been busted with necessary things; in
great and admirable things our record
is still, for the most part, to be made.
II. M. CoAN, in Harper's Magazine.