Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-08-12
AMERICAS BILLIONS.
Income Only 40 Cents Day For Each In
diyidual.


Income Only 40 Cents Day For Each In
diyidual.
The total wealth of our country, now
the richest in the world, is reported at
$43,50O, 100000, in a population of 5O000,-
900, with total of 100000 producers,
says Rev. RI. Behrends. An enormous
sum in the aggregate, epresentating,
however, the accommodations Of $50 years,
much of it in land, buildings and
machinery.
An equal division would give to each
man, woman and child capital of only
1870, much of it relatively worthless to
the individual owner, or of $4,000 to each
producer. The latter sum represents the
limit of average wealth attainable. There
is no more to be had.
The same result is emphasized in an
alyzing the annual production. The most
careful estimates place this at $10,O00,-
100000, annually. From this must be
deducted $7OO,OO0,OOO paid in taxes,
$780, 100000 to make good the annual
wear and tear of the means of production,
leaving $8,0O0,0O0 to be divided among
50,000,O00 consumers without allowing
anything for interest or invested capital
or for its increase. Allowing 5 per cent.
for these the net production is reduced to
$5,725,0OO,0OO.
Throwing capital out of the account,
there is only $3.50 year for each inhabi-
tant, or of $115 if capitol is entitled to
a dividend-an average of from 81 to AZ
cents day.
Forty cents day must suffice, on the
average, to feed, clothe and shelter the
people of this country. Or, dividing the
actual workers, the average income will
be between 1897 and $475 year.
Three hundred and fifty dollars a year
must buy bread, raiment, pay house rent.
and provide a margin for saving in every
family of three persons, So a day is far
above the average income that the pro-
ductive energy of the country can pay.
He who secures it belongs to the priv
legged classes, with many more below him
and every man belongs to the bloated
plutocarcy, against whom socialism urges
its crusade, who owns $4,000 worth of
property, or who receives more than $500
a year for work.
The Fastest TrOtter in the World.
Rural World.
Orrin HickOk, the we'll known driver.
arrived, yesterday, from Cleveland, where
he has the California trotter Arab, Joint
ly owned by himself and r. Porter Ashe.
He ran up to see the runners, and will
return tonight. The trotters at Cleve-
land, be says, are all doing well, and are
going faster than any lot of horses he
ever saw together. Splan has great
stable, and Counselor Crawford has a
good one. There is no sickness among
the horses, and they all trot fast. Speak
ing about w. j. Gordon's six-year-
Guy, by Kentucky Prince, dam by Amer
lean Star, he said:
'There is the fastest horse I ever saw;
hitched to a common low-wheeled cart
weighing over a hundred pounds and
carrying Splan in it, and without shoe
on any foot, | saw him trot a mile in
2:1712. He is a bad actor in company,
something like st. Julien was, and they
can't trot him in races and win until they
get him steadied. Splan is working on
him just as l used to on my old horse,
and you may depend on it that whenever
he gets ready to start him he will beat
every trotter in the world. I knew that
he was as fast as a ghost two years ago,
and offered $4,000 for him without get.
ting him"