Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1880-06-17
COLOSSAL FORTUNES.
Individual Wealth In Ancient
and Modern Times.

-'uN8A WOoitu III AnCtout
and Modern Times.
San fancisco Chronicle.
Doubtless the laboring classes ut this
day In all civilized communities are bet
ter housed, led, clad, and paid than the
same class at any other tune In the his
tory OF the human race. Yet there never
was time oi greater dissatisfaction
among workingmen. During the mag
niticent reign OF Louis XIV. there was
more extreme poverty In France than
there Is now In all Europe, Ireland In.
cluded. The condition OF the emanoi-
paled Russian seri Is lar better than that
oil the French or German peasant two
centuries ago; and within the historical
era there IL no record Of tune when
ttfty millions oi the common people and
poor were 40 comfortably situated IN the
fifty millions who now inhabit the Uni.
ted States.
But if.the condition OF the. poor has
Improved, the private fortunes Of the
rich have so increased rs 10 utterly con-
found all attempts ut comparison with
the rich men Of past ages. "As rich as
CJwsus" has stood for an adago these
twenty.three centuries. Yet Crmsus
Was King who devoted his whole en-.
ergies 10 the acquisition II gold, and
there Is good reason to believe that we
have not less than half dozen men and
women In this State who ara richer IN
gold aud its equivalents than this Lydi'
All monarch. The richest man In Rome
at the time oi Caesar was Crassus. His
fortune has been carefully estimated 10y
seral historians, but never above sS,bOO,-
900 at our money. This Is not much
more than William III. Vanderbilts
yearly income, and 1t is more than ST..
100000 below the appralsement at the
fortune OF the late William y. d Brien,Ol
this city. The AstOr estate was valued
ten years ago at $40 0O0,0O0 Al u mod
crate rate Oi acCreliOG-say per cent
u must now amount tn NOOOO,OOO.
The yearly income at the same rate II
S3OOn OOO. This IL u third more than
the entire income III the monarch al the
British Empire, aud good deal more
than the entire revenues al the English
Government 2JO years ago. u IL assert
ell that there are eight or ten English
Peers whose incomes each exceed the
allowances OF Parliament to the Queen,
aud yet the richest men In England are
cOmmoners. Half century ago
the rcputed wealihiest man IN
America was old Stephen Girard,
Of Philadelphia. His estate Mas APP
praised below $4,000, 600 There are
probably now 100 private fortunes IN the
United States each greater than Glrard's
and half dozen more twice ~ great
la the purchasing power Oi money the
ancicnts had the advantage. A dollar
would buy more u thousand years ago
than five will now. Forty years back
a man who had 100000 was rated as
quite rich, and one Oi $500 OW phenom-
email. tho latter class were not ~ mum
eruus in this country as those OF tb,OOO,'
OOO are now.
OF course, there il not gold and silver
enough ia the world To represent tie
aggregate ul these little private FORTUNES,
nor "a 1.-THE Of them. They are invested
~ lands, houses, government, railway,
bank, mining, aud other stocks, The
national bonds OF England, France aud
the United States cover nearly ten
thousand millions, aud the railway 80.
curilies al the United States alone cover
nearly five thousand millions The
largest private landed estates are held
in Spanish America, Mexico, Russia,
England aud the United States, but the
largest of all in the latter country, and
by corporations II IL thought, and
Justly, great hardship tn the common
people III England aud Scotland that the
Duke at Sutherland should own over
200 ON acres, aud many other proml'
nent mobiles more than 100000 each,
Hut there IL one corporation IN this
country that has been granted l0WO,-
600 acres, and then 100000 aud two
others. represented hy less than ten
men, ~ OOO, 900 acres. NJ the time that
Henry VIII coniiscated the estates at
the Roman Catholic Church IN his do
miuions they It'd not amount toa tent %
many acres ~ the grant Of Congress Ia
the Northern Pacific railroad; but they
we're enough Ia lay the foundations IT
the richest nobility Ia the Norld,and Tia II
revenues to-day can hardly bu less than
SI2O,OuO OW Reasoning from history
aud analogy. the most stupondnus pll'
waite fortunes IN the United States dur.
my the next lilty years will be realized
from the enormous land grants, now
hardly worth 81 40 an acre, hut hereafter
az surely to he worth FROM $40 To 500
~ dollar II worth 100 cents. cor.
poraiion whose land grant covcrs, say
% 900 OOO acres, and whose stock ~ lorN.
tent Of 40 per cent in the hands oi, say
ten persons, II It can hold ON tn It's lands
for twenty or thirty wears tree from
taxes, will have u property IN land
worth anywhere from 800 WOO Ia
a. OOO OOO,OOO, or Si6,OOO UO To $50
600 600 Tor each oi its principal stock
holders. These figures, though they at
first thought seem tn run into the re-
ginn of fable, are not much more as
tnunding than the exploits III the Van
derbilts, Astors, aud rackards already
realized The great landed estates oi
England are protected 10y laws oi entail
aud primogeniture, forbidden in tho
nitel StaIps