Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1889-11-01
Who Owns the United States?


try than in England. Mr.. Thomas &. !
Sherman, the well-known New York !
statistician, has been engaged for some
time in collecting facts to show as
possibly the proportion OF the wealth
III the country held by few rich men
and families and he finds greater con-
ccntration of wealth here than in any
other country. The results OF his in
vestigation will appear in The Forum
Tor November, from advance sheets OF
which the leading facts are taken.
Mr.. Sherman makes the following
enumeration of owners of more than
$20OOO,0O0 each:
$11O,COO,OOO: J. J. Astor, Trinity
Church.
$1OO,WO,OOO: c. Vanderbilt, W. Il.
Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Leland STAN
ford, J. d. Rockefeller.
$7O,COO,OOO: Estate of A. Packer.
$G0,OOO,OOO: John l. Blair, Estate of
Charles Croker.
$5OOOO,OOO: VIM. Astor, w. w. AS
tor. Russell Sage, +. A. Stevens, Estate
of Moses Taylor, Estate of Brown &
Ives.
! $4O,OOO,OOO: P. d. Armour, F. l..
Ames, VIM. Rockefeller, II. NJ. Flager,
Powers & Weightman, Estate of P.
P. Goelet.
$50 100000: C. P. Huntington, d.
y. Mills, Estates of +. A. Scott, j. w,
Garrett.
$3O,OOO,OOO: G. B. Roberts, Charles
Pratt, Ross Winans, E. b. Coke, Claus
Spreckels, A. Belmont, r. J. Livings-
ton, Fred Weyerhauser, Mrs. Mark
Hopkins, Mrs. Hetty Green, Estates
OF S. V. Hardness, r. w. Coleman, 1.
NJ. Singer.
$25,OOO,OOO: A. J. Drexel, J. S. Nor
gan, J. P. Morgan, Marshall Field,
David Dows, J. G. Fair, E. T. Gerry.
Estates of Gov. Fairbanks, A. T. Stew
art, A. Schermerhorn.
$22,OOO,OOO; o. H. Payne, Estates of
+. A. Drexel, l. V. Williamson, w.
Weld.
$2O,OOO,OOO: +. w. Vanderbilt, Theo.
Havemeyer, II. o. Havemeyer, w. G.
Warden, w. P. Thompson, Mrs.
Schenley, J. B. Haggin, H. A. Hutch
ms, Estates of w. Sloane, E. S. Hig-
gins, c. Tower, VIM. Thaw, DIR. Hos
letter, VIM. Sharon, Peter Donohue.
These 70 names represent an ag-
grcgatc wealth of $2,7OOOOo,OOO, an
average of more than $37 100000
each. Although Mr.. Shearman, in
making this estimate, did not look for
less than twenty millionaires, he dis
covered incidentally fifty others worth
more than $1O,OOO,COO each; and he
says that list of ten persons can be
made whose wealth averages 500, OOO,-
600 each, and another list of one
hundred persons whose wealth aver
ages va, 100000. No such list can be
made up in any other country. "The
richest dukes of England" he says,
fall below the average wealth of q
dozen American citizens; while the
greatest bankers, merchants, and rail-
way magnates of England cannot COM
pare in wealth with many Americans"
The average annual income of the
richest hundred Englishmen is about
$4,000, but the average annual in
come of the richest hundred Ameri.
cans cannot be less than $780, 600,
and probably exceeds 81 100000. The
richest of the Rothschilds, and the
world-renowned banker, Baron Over
stone, each left about $l7,OOO,OOO.
Earl Dudley, the owner OF the richest
iron mines, left $2O,OOO,OOO. The
Duke of Buccleuch (and the Duke of
Buccleuch carries half of Scotland in
his pocket) left about $50, 100000. The
Marquis of Butte was worth, in 1872,
about $2S, O00, 600 in land; and he may
now be worth $4O,O0O,OOO, and the
Duke of Westminster perhaps $780,
100000.
Mr.. Shearman's conclusion is that
twenty-five thousand persons own one
half the wealth of the United States
and that the whole wealth of the
country is practically owned by two
hundred and fifty thousand persons, or
one in sixty of the adult male popula-
ton; and he predicts, from the rapid
recent concentration of wealth, that
under present conditions fifty thous-
and persons will practically own all the
wealth of the country in thirty years
or less than one in five hundred of
the adult male population.