Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1880-10-25
AMERICAN WEALTH.

love the dollar. The saying. like most
stock sayings, misses the point; the
real point is, not that Americans love
money more than other people, but that
they love comparatively few things be-
sides 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 OF
the fruitfulness that we find in Euro
pean communities, and SO we are re-
garded as being still somewhat deficient
in our duties as civilized nation. We
love these things less than the Old
World communities love them. We do
not love money more than they-pro-
badly, 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 intelligent
ly enough to use it fruitfully, to keep it
safely, or to bequeath it wisely? 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 COM
parison of figures will show. And first,
where do we stand as to the total valua-
tion Of the national wealth :?
We stand near the head of the list
third on the list of all the Western ma
tions. The United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland heads the list with
capital valuation Of 44,40O millions
of dollars; then comes France with &c.
700 millions, the United States with
$4,000 millions, Germany with $4,000
millions, Russia with $4,000 millions,
and the Low Countries with 11,15O
million dollars of capital collectively.
These are the valuations made by those
countries of their entire resources.
What is the average annual income per
, inhabitant in various countries I? We
come to the front in this comparison.
The average annual income in the Unit
ed Kingdom is Sl65 IN the United
States, Sl65 also; in the Low CouD-
tries, $3.50; in France, 1925; in the
British Colonies, $50; in Germany, and
also in Scandinavia, S85. In this reck-
oning 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
f another point of view, let US ask, What
; is our annual accumulation of other ma
: tions? And here We step far IN ad-
r vance of any community which gives US
full estimates it should be borne in
mind, however, that the rate of interest
o for agricultural capital, with us, is dou-
/ BILE the average rate for Europe.
t The annual accumulation of wealth,
, then, in Germany, is 200 millions of
Y dollars; it is 325 millions in the Unit
Y ed Kingdom, 375 millions in France :;
J, in the United States it is 925 millions
Our increase of national wealth since
: 1850, says a good English authority,
would be enough to purchase '.the
i, whole German Empire. with its farms,
. cities, banks, shipping, manufactures.
etc. The annual accumulation has been
y S25 millions of dollars, and therefore
t each decade adds more to the wealth of
e the United States than the capital value
o of Italy eg Spain. Every day that the
e sun rises upon the American people it
q sees an addition of s2.3oO,OoO to the
Il wealth of the republic
n These are figures to make poor man
o expect wealth; but let us hasten to say
s. 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
e is different thing; they prove the
d bounty of nature toward an energetic
d race; they do not prove what we some
times take for granted on the strength
e of them, that our nation is great or ad-
j. mirable in the greatest and most admi-
r. rable things. No; we have been busi-
e ed with necessary things; in great and
e admirable things our record is still, for
the most part, to be made.-Harper S
Magaztne.
, You would mt take mans last cent
e for cigar, would you?'' "Certainly |
would" remarked the proprietor "Well
:: here it is. then" passing over cent,
d "give me the cigar
e A French paper has it that Gen. But
u ler is running for the presidency of this