Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1880-11-03
AMERICAN WEALTH.

1t is a stock remark that Americans
love the dollar The saying, like most
stock sayings, misses the point the
real point is, not that Americans love
money more than any 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 liter
ature, or scholarship, or society, with
the zeal or the fruitfulness that we find
in European communities, and so We
are regarded as being still somewhat
deficient in our duties as a civilized ma
ton. 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 stop
ping 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 intelligent
ly enough to use it fruitfully, to keep
it safely, or to bequeath it wisely 2
First, let us glance at the wealth we
possess as nation. Let us see what
place a century of money-making has
given US. We call ourselves a 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 the Western ma
tions. The United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland heads the list with
a capital valuation of $4,000 millions
of dollars then come France with &c.
700 millions, the United States with
$4,000 millions, Germany with 22,-
900 millions, Russia with $4,000 mil
lions, and the Low Countries with H.
14O million dollars of capital collect
lively. These are the valuations made
by those countries of their entire re-
sources. What is the average annual
income per inhabitant in various coun-
tries We come to the front in this
comparison The average annual in
come in the United Kinkdom is $l65;
in the United States, Sl65 also; in the
Low Countries, $3.50; in France, $l25; !;
in the British Colonies, $50; in Ger
many, and also in Scandinavia, $S5.
In this reckoning, Rassia, with her
ninety millions of people, is out OF
sight as yet: she will not be very
long. s
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 estl-
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, in Germany, is 200 millions of
dollars; it is 1926 millions in the
United Kingdom, 375 millions in
France in the United States it is 825
millions, Our increase Of national
wealth since 1850, says a good English
authority, would be enough to pur-
Il Al
with its farms, cities, banks, shipping,
manufactures, etc. The annual accu-
mutation has been 825 millions of dol
lars. and therefore 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 American people it sees
an addition of 80, 300, 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 an
other 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 our ma
ton is great or admirable in the
greatest and most admirable things.
No: we have been busted with neces-
sary things; in great and admirable
tbinos our record is still. for the most
part, to be made.-T M. CoAN, in
Harper's IHa0dzine for Nouember.