The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-01-13

Tho &2aAA4dCSu11u& 6ass @o" AAe
Rioh at the Expense of the AgrI-
cultural Neutrality-suspicious. Drawn
from thief .Census Between Massa-
coussetts and Illinois.
Chicago Times.
II ia an often asserted, and 30 yekem>
entity denied. that protection 10 calculated
"a enrich the east Mt the expense OF the
west. that il is strange SO few efforts
have been made to take account OF stock
and proye whether the charge be well
founded or not, If the east has been
eating mp the west, as il In charged. the
accumulated fat ought to show in the
census Of wealth. To be sure. statistics
of wealth are vitiated by double and triple
counting, "a was shown in letter to me
Times to be the case with statistics OF
manufacturers. A farm Mill, or a
railroad. mortgaEsd Tor more tnan IL Is
worth. il counted at its full value. and the
mortgage is also counted nc Its face.
Thus the real estate of one person. or one
section, becomes the personal property OF
another, and In counted no. In this
double existence of piece of property. rs
substance and AZ shadow, the east ai1 sys
has the substance and the west the shadow.
The reverse Of this looks at FIRST sight to
be true, because the land or the building
is bodily in the west. But all tho same
the mortgage has the bottom title. Inc
mortgagor doesn't own the property &C all.
The terms of the mortage explicitly pro-
vide that the property shall not be his
until he earns 1t. The west Is in posses
session of q vast amount Of property which
it supposes that it OWNS, but which Is
actually owned in the east. The west Is
using il, and out Of its use is gradually
earning il, and coming to own it, But
though this double counting vitiates the
census, aud makes it impossible TO esti-
mate the relative wealth of the east and
west at any one census, it does not so
much hinder the com parison OF one census
with another, since both are likely TO be
vitiated in the same way and to something
near the same degree. We may compare
the financial growth Of the east and west
for two census decades, and il there is any
relative difference we ought to be
ABLE 10 SEE it.
Let US try it, and for the purpose Ct
this comparison / will take Illinois and
Esssashuseets-Illine becsusee L a1n
supposed 10 be addressing Iliinoisans
mainly, and Massachusetts, because q
striking comparison suggests itself at
once. In 1860 Illinois was the richer Of
the two by $50. 1922, $40. 10 1870. after
eight years OF high tariff Massachusetts,
was the richer of the two by $40 46S, l62.
This on the face OF the returns.
On the face of the returns then, Massa-
chusetts had gained sixty seven millions
on Illinois, lie 10 quite possible that this
sixty seven millions il more than balanced
BY the decreased Indebtedness of Illinois
TO the east, the census of Illinois wealth
being correspondingly less inflated IN
1880. But if Illinois held larger pro-
portion Of her own mortgages. stocks, etc,
in 1870 than in 1860, these mortgages
being personal property. ought to appear
in the proportion of personal to real estate
in the assessment of that year, A larger
proportion of the assessment ought TO be
personal property in 1870 than in 1860
This is not the case, however. The proper
ton OF personal property remsins nearly
the same, being in each case little more
than one fourth of the whole assessment.
The increase in the assessed value OF per-
sonal property WAS only about SIS, 900. Geo
in ten years In Massachusetts the
increase IN the same time was $3.50. 000.-
000-about twenty six times Is great as in
Illinois. In Massachusetts personality
had gained enormously in real estate; In
Illinois. 20 be accurate. it had Jagged
behind more than $4,000. 600. This indi
cates pretty clearly where the stocks,
bonds, and mortgages were. 1t indicates
that there was at least as great differ
ence between her true and apparent wealth
OF Illinois in 1870 al IN 1860. Consequent
ly. it indicates that Massachusetts had.
actually a. well As apparently, gained
SCI, 600, 900 on Illinois in the race for
wealth in ten years. The question remains
Nv as this, or was il not, suit OF protec-
toni"
Is is when we turn our attention to this
question that We make the most startling
discoveries. We look, for instance. to see
which state grew most in population dur
ing the period in question, We zee at a
glance that in this respect Illinois far
oatstripped Massachusetts, the actual
increase being nearly four times as great,
and the rate per cent of increase more
than two and 9 half times az great. Il the
per capita wealth had remained the same
in each state. Illinois ought not only to
have remained ahead of Massachusetts in
wealth. instead of falling behind her as
she did, but che should have gained many
long strides in the race. It is evident
that. individually and personally, the PEG
pie of Illinois did not get rich anything
like as rapidly as the people of Massachu
sets. Before
PROCEEDING TO PROVE THIS,
let Us ask why it should be So Which of
the Two states has the richest resources?
Which has the newest soiI2 Which has
the most coal? Which has the widest
territory? When the newspapers advise
young men to 60 west, and grow up with
the country, what do they mean? To ask
these questions Is tn answer them. Lat
US ask one more, Under natural, proper
conditions, where will per capita wealth
grow most rapiGly-on q good soil or Z |
poor one. To ask this question. also. is |
20 answer il. But we do not propose 10 |
depend upon that answer alone. We
can prove it by induction as we'll IS a |
prlorl. Let us compare the financial |
growth OF Illinois from 1850 to 1860 with /
that of Massachusetts for the same period |
Let us remember while the tariff is stead |
lily going down during this period. THE |
manufactures of Massachusetts we're /
steadily going up; that in the ten years |
their capital increased so per cent. and |
their products &C per cent: that business |
which thus attracts capital must be in no
very deplorabls condition; and that more |